Dozens arrested as security forces raid mosque

The Mauritanian security forces have arrested several dozen people for resisting their attempts to detain an Islamic preacher in the capital Nouakchott, who is considered by the government to be extremist, eye-witnesses said on Monday. Police first tried to arrest the preacher, El Hacen Ould Habiboula, at the Arafat mosque as he gave a sermon on July 18, but were prevented from doing so by a crowd of his supporters. The eyewitnesses said police again tried to arrest the iman at last Friday's prayers, but were again thwarted by his followers. Several dozen people were arrested in the melee on this occasion and on Monday many of them were still in custody, they added. Judicial sources said the four people arrested following the July 18 incident at the Arafat mosque appeared appeared before a state prosecutor last Thursday, charged with threatening public order and were remanded in custody. The government's attempts to detain the Muslim cleric are the latest sign that President Maaouiya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya is continuing his crackdown on Islamic radicals, who he has accused of masterminding an attempted coup against his government on June 8. The uprising led to two days of heavy fighting in Nouakchott before the pro-western Ould Taya managed to re-assert his authority. It was preceded by the arrest of more than 30 Islamic radicals and opposition activists, the closure of an opposition newspaper in May and a government attempt to exert tighter control over religious activities in mosques. In early June, days before the coup attempt, the government issued a decree which declared mosques to be "public institutions." It gave the government powers to appoint imams and regulate the content of speeches and sermons delivered inside these places of worship. Mosques had been hitherto been regarded as private charitable organizations over which the authorities had no powers of oversight. Ould Taya, a former army colonel, came to power in this desert nation of 2.5 million people in a military coup in 1984. He initially developed close ties with the Baathist governmement of Sadaam Hussein in Iraq. However, Ould Taya cut his links with Baghdad and cultivated ties with the United States and France following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. A year later he legalised opposition parties and began to hold regular elections. However, he has retained tight control over the reins of power in Mauritania, which is constiutionally defined as an Islamic Republic. Ould Taya, who has weathered several coup attempts during his 19 years in power, is widely expected to seek a fresh six-year term at presidential elections on 7 November.