Following the controversial blog post issued by Morocco’s Justice and Development Party (PJD), in which they linked the September 8 earthquake to “God’s wrath,” transgressions, and violations by Moroccans and political figures, sources within the party’s leadership told MoroccoLatestNews that the statement was not agreed upon by all members of the party’s General Secretariat.
According to the same sources, “the majority of the members of the General Secretariat were against making such a connection. The debate within the party leadership on this issue lasted for 15 days.”
The sources also expressed dissatisfaction with the attention given to this issue, underscoring that “there are more critical and pressing issues that media should focus on, such as the billions of dirhams that are looted daily and not dealt with, and the judicial matters involving several elected officials and politicians, and no one sheds light on them.”
They also expressed concerns about the manipulation of public opinion, describing it as “unreasonable.”
The sources blamed them for not focusing on the real and pressing issues included in the party’s statement and mentioned that “the campaign in which everyone participated prevented us from the right to criticize the statement and the mistakes that came in it.
Additionally, some members of the General Secretariat opted for a no-comment policy concerning this debatable issue to prevent political opponents from capitalizing on the controversy to attack the Secretary-General of the party, Abdelillah Benkirane, which suggests that the statement reflects Benkirane’s standpoint, which many people disagree with.
According to the same sources, the statement was not properly reviewed and scrutinized before its release, resulting in widespread controversy.
They emphasized that “A mistake occurred this time, and the statement was not reviewed by the individuals who usually oversee the process, resulting in the literal inclusion of Benkirane’s words, leading to this uproar.”
The sources also described this controversial debate as insignificant compared to the challenges that the party has been going through so far, and they expressed their confidence in overcoming it as quickly and without any complications.
The PJD, which adopts an Islamist stance, lamented and claimed the Al-Haouz quake incident was a divine expression of anger and punishment. The PJD’s secretariat added that the incident was not only attributed to individual wrongdoings but also encompassed a more general and political sense.
The sins don’t solely concern “individual acts, but a more general and political sense, not only about individual violations, but about sins, transgressions, and violations in the political sense, and those found in political life in general, elections, responsibilities, public management, and others,” PJD’s secretariat explained.
Less than 24 hours after the release of this controversial statement, Abdelkader Amara, a leading party figure and former minister, announced his resignation from the party and said “ With a heart filled with pain over what the experience of the Justice and Development Party has led to, I announce my resignation from the party and all its bodies, effective immediately.
Furthermore, several members of PJD reportedly disagreed with making such a connection between the seismic event and divine anger and punishment.