Abdelilah Benkirane, Secretary General of the PJD / DR ‹ › Abdelilah Benkirane, the Secretary-General of Morocco's Justice and Development Party (PJD), has issued a strong condemnation of the declaration of independence for Kabylie, announced in Paris on December 14 by the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK). «This is a grave mistake, a terrible evil, and marks the beginning of colonial conspiracies targeting Islamic countries,» he asserted during a speech to his party's general secretariat on Saturday, December 20. «We are already divided enough. This proclamation contradicts Islamic law. We are a united Ummah, even if fragmented, and there is no need to further deepen these divisions.» Abdelilah Benkirane Benkirane also criticized certain Moroccan media outlets for welcoming Kabylie's independence announcement, emphasizing that «this stance contradicts Islamic law and harms Algeria, Morocco, and the entire region.» He maintained that «the unity of Algeria is in the interest of Morocco and the whole region.» Benkirane's position is consistent with the PJD's political stance. His predecessor, Saad-Eddine El Othmani, who was then the head of government, also opposed the support expressed by Morocco's ambassador to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, for Kabyle independence claims. «This support does not reflect the official position of Moroccan state policy,» he declared in August 2021. This commitment to respecting territorial integrity by Moroccan Islamists stands in contrast to the positions of their «brothers» across the Maghreb. Algerian and Mauritanian Islamists openly support the Polisario, while Tunisia's Ennahda party, even when in power, has never backed Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara, citing Islamic law.
