Morocco agree to train imams, build mosque in Chad

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Thursday 11 Feb 2016 - 12:49 Makkah mean time-2-5-1437 Image from Morocco World News Rabat, (IINA) - Morocco and Chad signed here on Wednesday an agreement on Islamic cooperation and a protocol of understanding on training Chadian imams in Morocco, Morocco World News reported. A new round of collaboration between Morocco and Chad will lead to the construction of a cultural complex and a large mosque in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. The mosque will be built under the orders of King Mohammed, according to an announcement by the Moroccan minister of Endowment and Islamic Affairs (MMEIA). The announced projects represent the renewed friendship between the Kingdom and its fellow African countries, according to Ahmed Attawfeeq, The Moroccan minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs. The Chadian ministry will also be afforded a position in the King Mohammed institute for African Scholars, which encourages women to participate in religious studies and careers – a field generally reserved for men in Chad. The institute was recently created in order to emphasize and integrate the values of peaceful Islam in African Islamic Education. A total of 200 Chadian Imams will also complete three to four-month tours in Morocco under a new, special program under the King Mohammed Foundation for the Training of Imams. Set up in late 2014, the foundation was praised by US Secretary of State John Kerry and put Morocco in a leadership role to fight extremism in the MENA region. Over 50 French Imams began studying at the foundation’s training center in Rabat in September, according to earlier reports. Morocco began working with Chad to improve Islamic education in the country in 1997 when the two countries’ Ministers of Islamic Affairs met in Rabat to create the Protocol for Islamic Collaboration. Both countries renewed the Protocol in 2007 during another meeting in Rabat. SM/IINA