Members of the Tijaniyya Brotherhood pray as they take part in a remembrance for Sheikh Sidi Ahmed al-Tijani who lived during the eighteenth century on May 14, 2014 in the Moroccan city of Fez. Photo: AFP/Fadel Senna
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* Morocco’s model of moderate Islam is attracting regional interest, with Saharan-Sahelian countries touched by jihadist violence now soliciting the Kingdom’s help. Already 190 imams from Mali are being trained in Rabat, with Tunisia, Libya and Nigeria among other countries requesting Morocco’s help in training its preachers. *
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Well-timed initiative. Middle East Online
Middle East Online, by Simon Martelli (Rabat, Morocco, June 28, 2014) ― Morocco is promoting its moderate version of Islam as a counterweight to the widening jihadist threat in the Sahara, training hundreds of imams from affected countries, but analysts question its motives. The initiative is well-timed. Islamist violence is plaguing Libya and Nigeria, Mali is still recovering from an Islamist takeover of half the country, and Tunisia is increasingly nervous about the return of battled-hardened nationals fighting for Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria and Iraq.
Morocco has kept a tight grip on the religious sphere, which is closely tied up with the monarchy’s legitimacy. King Mohamed VI, who is believed to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), is accorded the title “Commander of the Faithful” and has a religious TV and radio station named after him, has been busily burnishing Morocco’s image as a model Muslim state. This month, he inaugurated a “religious support program” that will see 1,300 imams trained in Rabat since 2006 sent out to instruct preachers lacking formal training at some 50,000 mosques nationwide.
“Their task is to help and guide imams in mosques to preserve the fundamentals of Islam in Morocco, based on the Malikite rite, contrary to takfirism, which is constantly invading the minds of our young people,” Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Toufiq has said. The moderate Malikite school of Sunni Islam practiced in Morocco ― as in most of North Africa ― is often cited as a key aspect of its religious tolerance, contrasting starkly with radical “takfirist” ideology that brands non-practicing Muslims “infidels.” Other features of Morocco’s Muslim culture include the important social role played by the Sufi brotherhoods, which Toufiq has encouraged since the King appointed him in 2002, and hundreds of female religious instructors have been trained in recent years alongside the imams.
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Tunisia, which King Mohammed VI visited last month, has requested Rabat’s help in training its preachers, having suffered a wave of Islamist attacks since the 2011 revolution, with many mosques falling under the influence of extremists. Middle East Online, Photo: MAP
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