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Morocco promotes moderate Islam
04/05/2006 09:16 - (SA)
Rabat - In an unprecedented move, 50 women graduated as religious preachers, part of a concerted effort by authorities to promote a moderate Islam in a country grappling with Muslim extremism.
Another 150 men graduated on Wednesday as imams, or prayer leaders. The female religious guides, or morchidat, would not be leading prayers in mosques, which was reserved for men, but would be dispatched around the country to teach women - and sometimes men - about Islam and its practice.
While some Moroccan officials said the appointment of female state preachers was a rare experiment in the Muslim world, others went as far as to say it was the first of its kind.
Violation of values, traditions
Ahmed Taoufiq, minister of Islamic affairs, said: "Your duty ... is to prevent intrusion by foreign agents trying to violate our values and traditions."
Taoufiq said: "You must be committed to the faith and politics of the state, which the people have chosen. This choice includes the policies of the amir al moumenin (Commander of the Faithful) who runs deep in our veins."
The training of the preachers was part of a campaign launched by the young king, a descendant of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, to strengthen state-controlled mosques while undermining radical clerics who preached Islamic extremism.
War against terror
He had vowed that no foreign religious doctrine would be tolerated in the North African kingdom, which was a close ally of the United States and a partner in its war against terror.
Moroccan officials said the May 16 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca were inspired by radical Muslim clerics who preached violence to poor and disillusioned youths in the big cities' slums.
More than 2 000 people were arrested in the aftermath of the bombings, including Mohammed Fazzazi, who was serving a 30-year-sentence for preaching violence.
Two other well-known hardline Islamic clerics, Abou Hafs and Hassan Kettani, were arrested prior to the bombings, and were convicted to respectively 30 and 20 years in prison for being the ideologists of the Salafia Jihadia militants.
September 11 hijackers 'heroes'
Six months before the Casablanca blasts, Abu Hafs bragged that his mosque had been packed every Friday since the September 11 2001 attacks on the US and that his taped sermons were widely sold.
He called the September 11 hijackers heroes.
Since the Casablanca blasts, Moroccan authorities had been monitoring the country's mosques closely to ensure that they did not recruit insurgents.
At least four mosques were shut down after the 9/11 attacks. Also, authorities tried to control - though without much success - the sale of inflammatory books and videotapes.
Friday prayer sermons now had to be first approved by authorities before being delivered. However, underground mosques were believed to continue to exist, though to a much lesser degree than before the blasts.
- AP
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