Sunday, November 27, 2011

Moderate Islamists Win In Morocco; Promise No Religious State

As reported by Voice of America, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has apparently won the largest number of Parliamentary seats in Fridays elections in Morocco. Taking about one-fifth of the seats, it will be charged with forming a new government. The current prime minister's Istiqlal Party came in second and is ready to enter into coalition talks with the PJD. In an interview by Al Aribiya, Justice and Development Party leader Abdel Ilah Bin Kiran said that the party would not turn the country into a religious state:
[W]e are going to rule as a political and not a religious party. Religion belongs to mosques and we are not going to interfere in people’s personal lives..... If we want to fail we will impose the veil. We will not interfere in people’s choices and not one woman will be forced to wear the veil if we want to succeed.... The religious state has been gone a long time ago and will never come back.