Talk:Status of religious freedom in Mauritania

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I urge all members to be on the lookout for OneGuy who has slapped a VFD on all discrimination articles against Islam. Kindly refute this effort by cross voting on all other discrimination pages

1. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Pakistan
2. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Sudan
3. Islam and Mauritanian law
4. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Iran
5. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia
6. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Afghanistan
7. Discrimination against non-Muslims in Malaysia

We need your votes so this can remain wikiepedia and not become Meccapedia--Malbear 05:53, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Since the article explains that Mauritania doesn't discriminate, the original title seemed inappropriate, so I moved it. I won't argue if someone comes up with a better title. Vicki Rosenzweig 13:00, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Contents 1 Removed 2 Modified 3 To-Do 4 Re-write?

[edit] Removed

"While the Constitution decrees that Islam is the religion of its citizens and the state"

Since the article describes non-Muslim Mauritanians then this is ipso facto a wrong statement. the constitutional state religion is already mentioned in the first para (redundant)--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"modernized"

Encyclopedias should not contain information thats only true as one point. modernized today may be meaningless tomorrow--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

", but this practice does not impact negatively other religious groups"

unproven assertion, maywant to reinclude as "It has not been proven that such a practice carries a negative impact to other faiths."--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"Anti-slavery organizations allege that non-Muslims are still taken as slaves in Mauritania."

This has nothing to do witht he topic--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Modified

Changed "Non-Muslim resident expatriates and a few non-Muslim citizens practice their religion openly and freely. However, proselytizing and distribution of religious materials are prohibited. "

To

"Non-Muslim resident expatriates and a few non-Muslim citizens practice their religion openly with certain limitation on proselytization and transmission of religious materials."

You cannot say "frely" if there are prohibitons on practice. That like saying "you can go anywhere you want except to places outside this room"--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The word few was removed since it is already described in the demographics below.--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] To-Do

"Koranic schools"

Can we change this to madrassah or is there a Mauritanian word for it?--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"through the use of Article 11 of the Press Act, which bans the publication of any material that is against Islam or contradicts or otherwise threatens Islam."

Can someone please find article 11 and perhaps quote it or link to it?--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Koranic schools (actually written as "Quranic schools") is just fine. There is no need to change it to madrassah.

[edit] Re-write?

"Nonprofit organizations, including both religious groups and secular NGO's, generally are not subject to taxation."

Can someone please determine if ALL are not taxed or if a few are taxed. Would like to re-write this to exclude the term "generally" because thats not a terribly definitive word.--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"Shari'a provides the legal principles upon which the law and legal procedure are based. The manner in which Shari'a is implemented in the country leads to courts not treating women as the equals of men in all cases. For example, the testimony of two women is equivalent to that of one man. In addition, in awarding an indemnity to the family of a woman who has been killed, the courts grant only half the amount that they would award for a man's death. For commercial and other modern issues not addressed specifically by Shari'a, the law and courts treat women and men equally."

Someone needs to re-write this paragraph. I have a "gut feeling" that it's relevant here but not in this form. The present form does not discuss anything about religious freedom. In fact it speaks of sexual inequality.--Malbear 07:18, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This is not suggested wording but rather a subject that should be dealt with. The Wikipedia article on Muslim apostasy states that apostasy is punishable by death in Mauritania. This is either true or it is untrue and it should not be so hard for a specialist to determine the truth. This is the type of thing that westerners generally want to know about in an article on religious freedom. Of course, many Muslims feel that westerners want to persecute Muslims, and I'm sure some do.

- Secularist