Ahmed Rayesouni, the former president of the Union of Muslim Scholars, has once again taken to social media to attack the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf, deeming it a “symbol of deep backwardness.” This isn’t the first time he has adopted a heated rhetoric against institutions in his country, nor the first time he has employed the title “scholar” to convey political messages aligned with the global Brotherhood organization, of which he has been a part for decades.
Rayesouni criticized the dismissal of Mohammed Benali from the presidency of the local scientific council in Figuig, denouncing what he called the “lack of explanation.” However, he conveniently overlooked that appointments and dismissals within the scientific council are a matter of sovereign administrative power, decided based on criteria and considerations that transcend partisan whims or organizational loyalties.
What’s more peculiar is Rayesouni’s comparison of an administrative ministerial decision to “Pharaonic” practices, employing a linguistic leap aimed solely at inciting public opinion, while neglecting that he himself was not elected as president of the Union of Scholars but rather appointed through ideological factionalism in Doha, where he spent considerable time defending all positions that serve the agenda of the “Brotherhood organization.”
This recurring aggressive rhetoric is merely an attempt to recycle the old role he played within the international Brotherhood, where he presented himself as a “guiding scholar,” while effectively acting as a soldier in a political battle against states and regimes that do not align with his funders’ inclinations.
Rayesouni’s message also reveals selective intellectuality. He does not object to dismissal decisions when they affect his adversaries, nor does he speak of the rule of law when dissenters are arrested in countries from which he derives his media and financial support.
