African Oulema: Morocco Promotes Religious Tolerance and Cooperation

Rabat – King Mohammed VI favors religious tolerance and cooperation in Africa, Cheikhoul Aïma Ousmane Diakité, President of the Superior Council of Imams, Mosques, and Islamic Affairs of Ivory Coast (COSIM) has said.

Attending the International Colloquium on Interreligious Dialogue, Diakité praised King Mohammed VI’s efforts in promoting African cooperation and development, stating that the “Ivorian people can testify” to the positive impact of projects led by the “dutiful son of Africa.”

COSIM’s President thanked the Moroccan monarch for creating the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema, as well as its Ivorian section.

Founded in 2015 under Dahir No 1-15-75, the foundation, based on its website, coordinates the efforts of Muslim Oulema (scholars) across Africa. It promotes religious values of tolerance and Islamic heritage and establishes cooperation between Morocco and African states in religious, scientific, and cultural issues. The foundation has 34 sections across the continent including in Ghana, Niger, South Africa, and Cote d’Ivoire.

The Ivory Coast section co-organized the international event in partnership with COSIM. Taking place in Abidjan, the three-day international event is under the theme “the eternal message of religions.”

Over 600 African researchers and participants from Muslim and Christian faiths have come together in the event to review the situation of interreligious dialogue in the continent.

“As in most African countries, there already exists here an informal tradition of interreligious dialogue, through the peaceful coexistence of communities of different beliefs,” commented Diakité.

He added that “It is the dialogue of life where women and men, in their religious diversity, share their pains and their joys on a daily basis. In the street, at work, at school, everyone recognizes the other as his fellow man, despite the difference in belief.”

Yet the informal tradition of dialogue has shortcomings, he argued, noting that the participants will engage in refining national strategies to address them.

For his part, Sheikh Ndiaye Salehou, President of the Ivorian section of the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulema, highlighted the king’s advocacy for peace and unity in Africa, as well as Islamic values of peace and coexistence to counter hatred and extremism.

Salehou added that today’s Africa needs a constructive dialogue on coexistence and tolerance that requires a return to “pure sources of religion.”

“Only this culture of dialogue and exchange which is able to put an end to the excesses and extremisms which inevitably lead to resentment and violence, hence the real and current importance of the subject of our colloquium,” he stressed.