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Africa North
Algeria seeks unified Maghreb religious authority to fight extremism
2010-04-07
[Maghrebia] Maghreb religious leaders and scholars will meet in Algeria later this month to discuss the need for a unified religious authority to counter extremism.
I think they should elect a pope. That'd settle things down some.
Keep it simple and start with bishops. The pope was originally only primus inter pares among the bishops; it was only after the schism from Orthodoxy that he was considered head of the Church as vicar of Christ.
Maybe they could appoint an arch-druid ...
The Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments will host the event under the banner "Intellectual Security and Role of Arab Maghreb Institutions in Its Establishment".
Catchy, ain't it?
There's the university in Cairo for the Sunnis, and the two centers in Qom and Karbala (or is it Najaf?) for the Shiites. What intellectual centers do they have in North Africa of such renown that all the Ummah would pay heed? Beyond the king of Morocco being a direct descendant of Muhammed, but I'm not aware that he lays claim to intellectual preeminence.
Participants expect to discuss the emergence of a unified religious marji'ya derived from the Maliki school, and to tackle what officials called "imported" fatwas that promote takfirism and other extremist and terrorist ideologies.

The aim of the event is to examine "the dimensions of intellectual security, its consequences and the reasons that led to the appearance of negative ideas that had fatal consequences for many countries, including Algeria, which is enduring intellectual and religious aggression caused by groups that took advantage of these ideas to spread violence and extremism", Algeria's minister of religious affairs, Bouabdellah Ghlamallah, told Magharebia April 4th.

The discussion is also planned to touch on the role of imams and khatib in the face of extremism, and on training programmes that promote moderate religious leadership. Other proposed topics include the Maghreb's religious reality, characteristics of the marji'ya in the region, immunising society against the spread of takfir, foreign religious influences, and terrorist acts.
The Maghreb has always had its own ideas in terms of religion. They greatly resented the imposition of outside ideas when they were part of Christendom, too.
The Algerian government has already taken steps to curb the influence of religious extremists on its own soil, notably through efforts to bar imams from getting involved in politics.
OMG! They just invented the separation of Church and State!!
Authorities have also been monitoring and cracking down on certain religious practices deemed subversive or out of line with mainstream Islam and the law.

Algeria has actively convened religious experts on a regional level. Tunisians, Moroccans and Libyans have previously taken part in a meeting in Algeria to discuss the government's religious rites law.

"The Arab and Muslim world has been through difficult circumstances after the appearance of the seeds of extremism and terrorism and the appearance of khawarij ideology that wanted to overturn the political regimes in Arab countries based on a marji'ya imported from outside Algeria and outside the Maghreb region, which is known for its peaceful marji'ya that depends on the fiqh of Imam Malik and the Sufi marji'ya," Minister of Religious Affairs media advisor Adda Fellahi told Magharebia.

"These parties tried to exclude all the prevailing religious marji'ya and replace them with imported marji'ya, causing a lot of problems for the countries of the region, with the appearance of terrorist groups that derive their ideas from the takfirist approach," he said.

"The Arab Maghreb countries need to coordinate amongst themselves to enable the appearance of a Maghreb religious marji'ya to counter imported fatwas, given that the Maghreb region has its own religious, cultural and historical characteristics," Fellahi said.

Ali Bernaoui, an Islamic history specialist, told Magharebia that "the absence of, or ignoring of, Maghreb clerics in the last decade gave rise to some voices that took advantage of the Islamic awakening to issue fatwas inciting violence and hatred".

Some of these voices "had political goals of overturning the ruling regime, and they took advantage of religion to attract young people", Bernaoui said, adding that eliminating the roots of violence in the Greater Maghreb "will be made by opening the door for serious and constructive dialogue among preachers, imams and youth who embraced the takfirist ideology, so that they may be convinced by arguments and proof of the invalidity of fatwas and ideas they depend on".

Bernaoui cited Libya's interaction with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group as the best proof of the importance of opening channels of dialogue involving the religious community.
Posted by:Fred

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