Rabat – A researcher at the Thomas More Institute, Jean Sylvester Mongrenier, has said that Morocco remains the only “strategic partner for France” in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.
The researcher spoke about the terror challenges in the Sahel as part of his analysis on the implications of the G5 Summit held in Pau, France, on January 13 at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Quoted by Maghreb Arab Press (MAP), the researcher said that Morocco has an “intelligent policy in the region and on the confines of the Sahelo-Saharan arc.”
Mongrenier spoke also about the country’s religious approach to curb radicalization and extremism.
In 2006, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI founded the Mohammedia League of Scholars, an organization that seeks to promote the values of moderate Islam.
In 2014, Morocco also opened a new center for training imams to teach the moderate strain of the Moroccan Islam.
Morocco also has Qur’anic schools which teach and enforce the values of Moroccan moderate Islam.
Through Mongrenier’s analysis, the “Geopolitics of the Sahel and the fight against fanaticism: an overall vision,” the researcher said that King “Mohammed VI, Commander of the Believers, promotes the artistic, philosophical and strictly spiritual dimensions of Islam” to counter the “bellicose and fanatical literalism” of ISIS.
For the researcher, Morocco seeks to be a leader in countering terrorism through its moderate Islam, which can combat radical discourse.
France is among the countries that deployed forces into the Sahel region to combat terrorism. Over the past six years, 41 French soldiers have died in the field.
Morocco maintains strong regular cooperation with international powers in the fight against terrorism, including France, the US, and Spain.
Morocco’s security units have been warning the world about the situation in the region, calling for intensified security cooperation between countries to defeat terror organizations.
Last year, the head of Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), Abdelhak El Khiame, described the Sahel as a “fertile ground for terrorism.”
Khiame also spoke about the collaboration between terror groups and drug trafficking networks, stating that terrorists get financing from drug trafficking operations.
