Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Robert A. Fox Fellow Vish Sakthivel Cited by The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre
Robert A. Fox Fellow Vish Sakthivel Cited by The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre

Robert A. Fox Fellow Vish Sakthivel Cited by The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre

Robert A. Fox Fellow Vish Sakthivel Cited by The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre


Robert A. Fox Fellow Vish Sakthivel was recently cited in a policy brief written for the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre.

The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre 

The 2013 religious affairs agreement represents a more general orientation towards Morocco by the Malian government. In Morocco, where Islam is the state religion, the state exercises control over religious affairs. The Moroccan state requires ministry certification of all imams, regulates mosque hours, and seeks to screen sermons and exclude extremist messaging from them (Sakthivel, 2014). The accord with the Moroccan government also encompasses a partnership between the ministries of religious affairs of the two countries in order to “cooperate on Malikite jurisprudence and interpretation in order to promote moderation and fight hard-line ideologies” (Sakthivel, 2014). In March 2015 the king of Morocco opened a large educational centre in Rabat offering religious education to imams from abroad, and Morocco appears to be attempting to establish itself as “the African Muslim hub” for a “tolerance-based religious model” (Alaoui, 2015).

Read the full policy brief here.