Moroccan-French politician denies allegations of her conversion to Christianity

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA

Casablanca- France’s former Minister of Justice and current Mayor of the 7th arrondissementin Paris, Rachida Dati, has recently denied having converted to Christianity and indicated an intention to sue some of the media involved in spreading this rumor.

In an interview with Moroccan daily newspaper Annass, Rachida Dati who is Moroccan-French said that rumors of her conversion to Christianity are “false and simply intrusions into her private life.” 

The Mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris told Annass that her earlier meeting with Pope Francis was within the context of expressing her condolences and did not signify that she had converted to Christianity.

Confirming that she is still a Muslim, she explained that her association with people from different religions is part of her work as a politician and is by no means reflective of her adoption of a new faith.

The French magazine VSD was the first news sources that reported on Rachida Dati’s alleged conversion to Christianity. Entitled “The Last Crusade,”the French magazine’s article probed Dati’s recent movements and statements to suggest that she had converted to Christianity.

 “On December 15, she was at Sainte-Clotilde church, and a couple of weeks earlier at Saint-Jean and Saint-François-Xavier churches,”wrote VSD earlier, interpreting Dati’s visits to various Churches as a sign of her conversion to Christianity.

Dati’s flight with her daughter Zohra to the Vatican Palace, where she met with Pope Francis, was also interpreted as additional proof of her conversion.

Interviewed on her conversion by the Spanish version of Vanity Fair Magazine, Dati stated according to the same source, “I grew up at Chalon-sur-Saone and went to a Catholic school . . . and attended Mass every morning. Some of my friends think religion is painful. Not me,”

The French Magazine VSD had also probed Dati’s alleged conversion speculating as to whether she had really embraced Christianity or whether she was just using the same strategy she had used in 2008 to secure the mayorship of the 7th arrondissement in the upcoming elections.

Rachida Dati was born to a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother, and is the first politician born toimmigrants from the Maghrebto hold the position of a minister in the French government. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy appointed her Minister of Justice after he had won the presidential elections of 2007.

 Edited by Elisabeth Myers