An influential organization of religious leaders in Mali on Tuesday March 7 called on the faithful to oppose the draft new Constitution presented by the ruling junta and the maintenance of the principle of secularism of the State. The Malian League of Imams and Scholars for Islamic Solidarity is launching this appeal a few days before the date initially scheduled for a referendum on this new Constitution.
Malians were supposed to be consulted on March 19. Everything indicates that the deadline will not be met, although the junta has never yet publicly admitted the postponement of what would constitute the first milestone validated by the vote on the way to elections in February 2024 and a return of the civilians in power.
This Constitution is a key element of the vast reform project invoked by the military to justify continuing to lead this country until 2024, faced with the spread of jihadism and a deep multifaceted crisis.
“Pure and simple withdrawal of the word” secularism
The version presented as final of the Constitution, delivered on February 27 to the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, affirms the “attachment to the republican form and the secularism of the State”. “Secularism is not opposed to religion and beliefs. Its objective is to promote and strengthen living together based on tolerance, dialogue and mutual understanding, “she says. The Malian population is overwhelmingly Muslim.
The Malian League of Imams, an organization enjoying strong credit, denounced on Tuesday the maintenance of the principle of secularism of the State in relation to the 1992 Constitution. It called for “the pure and simple withdrawal of the word” secularism from the project. constitutional and its replacement by “multi-confessional state”.
Secularism “is a trick that rulers use as they please to padlock the religion or religions,” said a statement read to the press in Bamako. The League “solemnly urges all patriotic Muslims to vote against the draft Constitution in its present form in the referendum”.
