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Mauritania - Religion

The U.S. government estimates the total population at 3.6 million (July 2015 estimate). Nearly all are Sunni Muslims. There are very small numbers of non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews, almost all of whom are foreigners. The constitution defines the country as an Islamic republic and recognizes Islam as the sole religion of its citizens and the state. Only Muslims may be citizens. Persons who convert from Islam lose their citizenship.

Mauritanians remain wary of political Islam and foreign influences. Tawassoul is one Muslim party among many and one school of thought among others in this almost exclusively Islamic country. Tawassoul's support among religious and political leaders -- and even among the population -- remains limited. To an extent, the traditional ulema see Tawassoul as a potential contender for their leadership role. Even though the Tawassoul leadership presents itself as moderate -- indeed, they have worked well with the embassy -- many in politics and religious leadership fear an Algeria-like effort to put on a friendly face and use the democratic system for decidedly undemocratic purposes. Tawassoul is perceived as an exclusive group of people that politicizes Islam and that is seeking power.

Tawassoul introduces foreign currents that do not represent traditional Mauritanian Islam, which is Maliki, Suni and organized around brotherhoods. Comment: Brotherhoods are Islamic societies gathering the faithful around cheikhs who teach Islam according to the tradition of their spiritual leaders. The most influential brotherhoods in Mauritania are the Tidjani and the Khadria. This phenomenon is typical to West Africa where the brotherhoods have tremendous power and influence, including across borders.

The law prohibits apostasy. A Muslim convicted of apostasy who does not recant within three days may be sentenced to death and have his or her property confiscated, although the government has never applied capital punishment for this offense. The law and legal procedures derive from a combination of French civil law and sharia. The judiciary consists of a single system of courts that uses principles of sharia in matters concerning the family and secular legal principles in all other matters.

The law requires the interior ministry to authorize all group meetings, including non-Islamic religious gatherings, in advance, even those held in private homes, although officials do not always enforce this requirement.

According to law, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Traditional Education (MIATE) is responsible for enacting and disseminating fatwas, fighting “extremism,” promoting research in Islamic studies, organizing the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, and monitoring mosques. The government appoints the six imams of the High Council of Islam, who advise the government on conformity of legislation to Islamic precepts. The government also appoints the High Council for Fatwa and Administrative Appeals, which has sole authority to regulate fatwa issuance and resolve related disputes among citizens and between citizens and public agencies.

Although there is no specific legal prohibition against non-Muslims proselytizing, in practice the government prohibited such activity through the broad interpretation of the constitution stating Islam shall be the religion of the people and of the state. Authorized churches were able to conduct services within their premises, but could not proselytize publicly. No public expression of religion except Islam was allowed.

An unofficial government requirement restricted non-Muslims worship to the few recognized Christian churches. There were Roman Catholic and other Christian churches in Nouakchott, Kaedi, Atar, Zouerate, Nouadhibou, and Rosso. Mauritanian citizens were not allowed to attend non-Islamic religious services, which were restricted to foreigners.

The government continued to prohibit printing and distributing non-Islamic religious materials, but possession of these materials remained legal.

The government paid monthly salaries of 50,000 ougiya ($152) to 200 imams who passed an examination by a government-funded panel of imams and headed mosques and Islamic schools. It also paid monthly salaries of 25,000-100,000 ougiya ($76-$303) to 30 members of the National Union of Mauritanian Imams, an authority established to regulate the relationship between the religious community and the MIATE.

Islamic classes remained part of the educational curriculum, but the results in these classes did not count significantly in the national exams that determine further placement. Additionally, many students reportedly did not attend these religious classes for various ethnolinguistic, religious, and personal reasons. Students were able to advance in school and graduate with diplomas despite missing these classes, provided they performed otherwise satisfactorily in other mandatory subjects.

Mohammad Cheikh Ould Mohammad (better known as “MKheytir”) remained in prison under sentence of death following his December 2014 conviction for apostasy. An appeals court accepted his application for an appeal, but the court had not scheduled a hearing date as of the end of the year 2015. MKheytir had published an online article the government said criticized the Prophet Mohammad and implicitly blamed the nation’s religious establishment for the plight of the country’s forgeron (blacksmith) caste, which traditionally has suffered discrimination. MKheytir’s lawyer stated that the case has lacked due process, but also said that the delay in his appeal hearing was still within legal norms.

In March 2015 demonstrators in Nouadhibou and Nouakchott demanded the death penalty for MKheytir, the blogger convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death. Although Mkheytir was assigned court-appointed counsel for his trial in 2014, his lawyer refused to handle his appeal following protestors’ death threats and damages to his family investments. Protestors in Nouakchott attacked a phone store and burned Samsung phones because the storeowner, the representative of Samsung in the country, was the son of the lawyer. Protestors also burned thousands of milk cans from a company owned by the lawyer’s family. Protesters threatened another human rights defender who offered to take MKheytir’s appeal.

Protesters called for the death of the prominent human rights activist who defended MKheytir, Aminetou Mint El Moctar. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the protests, Yahdih Ould Dahi, but did not arrest him. In June 2015 the President of the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights announced she would defend MKheytir before the Appeal Court.

Article 306 states that “any Muslim guilty of the crime of apostasy, either by word or by action of apparent or obvious nature, will be invited to repent within three days. If the accused does not repent within this time, he is to be sentenced to death, and all of his property shall be confiscated by the government.” The same article provides that if the convicted person “repents” before his/her execution, the Mauritanian Supreme Court can commute the death sentence to a jail sentence of between three months and two years, and a fine of UM5,000–60,000 (approximately USD $14 – $170).

In April 2016, a court of appeal confirmed his sentence and referred his case to the Supreme Court, which has the power to reduce his death penalty to a jail sentence and a fine, if it rules that the defendant has “repented”. On 31 January 2017, Mauritania's supreme court is scheduled to issue a decision in the case of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir, who was sentenced to death in 2014.

On 01 February 2017 Mauritania’s Supreme Court failed to commute Ould Mkahitir's death sentence. The court referred his case back to the appeal court for procedural irregularities. The appeal court had previously confirmed the primary death sentence and convicted him of “apostasy”. In the first instance ruling, Ould Mkahitir was convicted of “hypocrisy”, indicating that his repentance for apostasy was ruled to be insincere.