On Sunday night men dressed in turbans allegedly drove a truck into a mosque in the nation's capital and shredded 4 Qurans. Shortly after, protests broke out surrounding the capital where hundreds of Mauritanians threw rocks and shouted anti-government phrases. A young man was killed during the protests after being hit by an exploding tear gas canister. Being an Islamic Republic, blasphemy is a capital offense punishable by the death penalty; however, Mauritania has not used the death penalty as punishment for blasphemy since the 1980s. One young Muslim man, might face the death penalty after being arrested in January for criticizing the Prophet Muhammad. President Aziz, current chairmperson of the AU, and anti-Al Qaeda ally of the west is up for re-election in June. While Mauritania has been slowly re-stabilizing, the Sahel nation still faces great political security.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/03/protests-mauritania-over-quran-desecration-20143474732393880.html
This was in interesting read because Mauritania is not heard about in the news often, and we have discussed religious tensions in the country. Specifically, the north-south divide. I am sure there is potential for more wide spread violence because of the sever economic divide.
ReplyDelete