Mohammedia: An Abortive Attempt to a Public Breakfast in Ramadan

          According to Maghreb Arab press agency (MAP), an attempt to a public breakfast in Ramadan was aborted last Sunday by local authorities of the city of Mohammedia after dispersing a group of activists who were assembling to organize a symbolic lunch around the train station, during a time of fasting at the afternoon.

           According to the same source this activity was from an initiative by Zeinab Al Ghazawi, a journalist in the weekly magazine "Le Journal Hebdomadaire" and a member of an unknown organization known as (MALI) "The Alternative Movement for the Defense of Individual Liberties."

          "The objective of this field activity is a symbolic protest against the article 222 of the Moroccan Penal Code which criminalizes public breakfast in Ramadan," said Zeinab Al Ghazawi in a statement to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

          The abortive activity was supported by six Moroccans, some foreigners in addition to a number of national and international media platforms which were invited to cover the event, and the movement has been calling for this activity since the beginning of Ramadan, using online social networks, especially Facebook.

           Local authorities of Mohammedia told the MAP that the Moroccans who were taking part in this event, which aimed to stimulate a public breakfast in the holly month of Ramadan, will be pursued in accordance with the legal requirements in force.

          On the other hand, The Moroccan religious institution, "the Scientific Council", has strongly condemned this failed attempt to repeal the duty of fasting to demand the abolition of Article 222 of the Penal Code, saying: "Morocco, the country which builds components of its life in the areas of rights and freedoms in full conformity with the basic religious elements, with the guarantee of the Commander of the Faithful Mohammed VI, could not accept the manifest sin, because it is such an encouragement to sin, to profess and even incite them."