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Rabat- Several Moroccan associations are coming together to organise a meeting in solidarity with the controversial Islamic scholar, Tariq Ramadan, who is being prosecuted and jailed by French authorities for sexual assault and rape.
The solidarity meeting is expected to take place on Saturday, February 17 at 5 p.m. at the Mohammed VI Theater in Casablanca, after it was greenlighted by the borough of Roches Noires, administered by Islamist PJD member Nourredine Qarbal.
Co-organized by a group of associations headed by Al Massar, the event will feature prominent figures such as Abdelali Hamiedddin, Abdelatif Hatimi, Jawad Iraqui, and Abderrahmane Lahlou.
However, Moroccan media outlets report that the meeting was originally scheduled unbeknownst to Hicham Abkari, the director of Mohammed VI theater.
“I was not privy to that. For almost a year, I’m no longer responsible of setting up the theater programming,” he told Le360.
Hamieddine, a member of PJD political bureau, said he only accepted the invitation to “talk about the ideas” of the controversial scholar.
The announcement of the event sparked an online backlash, as many argued that it’s not appropriate to hold such a meeting in light of the allegations of sexual violence against Ramadan, who remains in French custody.
“We expressed our solidarity with Saad Al-Majarrad…with Tariq Ramadan…The two may be innocent (pending judgment)…but what does it mean to be in solidarity with a person accused of rape and sexual violence?…Solidarity with what? With sexual violence? With sexual frustration? How can we simply accept normalising rape and sexual violence?” wrote the Moroccan sociologist Sanaa Elaji.
Ramadan, who is the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, was accused of rape by author and former Salafi Henda Ayari, who accused him of raping her in 2012 on the sidelines of a congress of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.
She was the first woman to attempt to bring Mr. Ramadan to justice, saying she was adamant to “carry this fight till the end, whatever the cost.” She was later joined by a woman named Christelle, who stepped forward claiming she was also raped by the Swiss scholar in a French hotel in 2009.
The 55-year-old theologian has firmly denied wrongdoing and accusations that he sexually assaulted the two women in 2009 and 2012, claiming that these allegations are part of a “campaign of lies launched by [his] adversaries.”
