Rabat – Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) arrested around 80 people on Wednesday in a cafe on Boulevard Anfa in Casablanca for publicly eating during the holy month of Ramadan.
According to reports by local media, many of those arrested are teenagers from surrounding international schools.
The videos shared on social media showed dozens of young people, in front of the cameras with blurred faces, in police vehicles.
Residents interviewed by local media said that the cafe’s owner is a Chinese woman, and that they have already filed several complaints about the cafe for constant loud music and cigarette smells but nothing has been done.
“A person has the freedom to choose whether to practice fasting during Ramadan or not. This, however, should not be done publicly out of respect to all of us who are fasting,” one resident said to local media.
Publicly breaking the fast before the Maghrib (sunset) prayer in Morocco can result in penalties of up to six months in prison.
Article 222 of the Penal Code punishes people “who are identifiably Muslim who ostensibly break the fast in a public place during Ramadan, without benefiting from one of the exceptions that Islam permits.”
This incident is not a first in Morocco. Every Ramadan comes with reports of police arresting public fast-breakers across the country.
Public eating and drinking in the daylight hours of Ramadan has long been a recurring debate in the country.
Many believe that the prohibition of eating in public during Ramadan is a hindrance to personal freedoms guaranteed by Article 3 of the Moroccan Constitution.
According to Article 3 “Islam is the religion of the State, which guarantees to all the free exercise of beliefs.”
Others, strongly disagree with the action as it offends the public, arguing that it is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Muslim societies that go against their sacred beliefs.
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