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Why Morocco Wants To Become A Major Islamic Training Hub | Forbes
Morocco is expanding their comprehensive effort to counter violent extremism through religious training and regional leadership:
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI inaugurated last Friday a huge education center for foreign Imams in the capital city, Rabat. This $20 million facility is primarily intended to Muslim scholars and imams from all over the world, including Mali, France , the UK, and China.
However, for some, its aim goes way beyond religious objectives. It also has geostrategic goals. Indeed, one can only wonder why a middle-income country like Morocco – with approximately $110 billion of annual GDP- is ready to spend that much money on such a center?
In fairness, the initiative taken by Morocco to train foreign imams is not new. Since the early 60’s, the Kingdom has been providing training to foreign scholars and imams in order to disseminate its “Islam of the middle path doctrine,” a vision of religion based on tolerance, intercultural dialogue and respect of other faiths…[Full Story]