Morocco: Pope Francis to visit imam training institute to boost moderate Islam
When is the Pope going to boost Christianity? I guess he feels no need to do so, as he is already a moderate Christian.
And if this school to train moderate imams is so successful, why do so many Islamic State jihadis come from Morocco? The Associated Press reported on February 10 that despite the existence of this institute to train moderate imams, “Moroccans have made up an unusually large number of Islamic State fighters.”
Pope Francis last year met in the Vatican with Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), a group that has been linked to the financing of jihad terror.
During the meeting, al-Issa thanked the Pope for his “fair positions” on what he called the “false claims that link extremism and violence to Islam.” In other words, he thanked the Pope for dissembling about the motivating ideology of jihad terror, which his group has been accused of financing, and for defaming other religions in an effort to whitewash Islam.
Also, Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, thanked the Pope for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”
Has any other Pope of Rome in the history of Christianity ever been heralded as a “defender of Islam”? Shouldn’t he instead be defending the Christians who are being persecuted in Muslim countries?
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Pope hopes to boost Morocco’s moderate Islam vision,” Reuters, March 31, 2019:
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis makes a lightning trip to Morocco this weekend to promote inter-religious dialogue and support efforts by the North African country’s King Mohammed VI to spread a moderate form of Islam….Morocco, which is nearly 100 percent Muslim, has marketed itself as an oasis of religious tolerance in a region torn by militancy – and has offered training to Muslim preachers from Africa and Europe on what it describes as moderate Islam.Shortly after he arrives on Saturday, Francis and the king will visit an institute the monarch founded in 2015 for the training of imams and male and female preachers of Islam. The Vatican said it will be the first time a pope visits such a school.The king founded the school, which is named after him, and it is attended by students from Africa and Europe.“The king is very committed to containing fundamentalist tendencies and this is a very significant place, not only for Morocco, but for all of the Maghreb,” Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti told reporters at a briefing on the trip on Thursday….In a video message to Moroccans, Francis said he was making the trip as a “a pilgrim of peace and of fraternity, in a world which has great need of both”. He said Christians and Muslims had to respect each other’s diversity and help each other….“Even if some people practice their faith, there are may be some frustrations,” said Bonkoulou Loubaki Daria Thiphaine, a social worker from Congo Brazzaville who has been living in Morocco for 14 years.“Yes, they go to churches but they ask themselves what is really the proof that Morocco accepts us as Christians? I think that with the pope’s visit, everyone will understand that even if Morocco is a Muslim country, Christians are welcome here”, she said.“Foreign Christians” such as Thiphaine and Moroccan Jews, who are recognised by the constitution, are allowed to worship openly. But the authorities do not recognise Moroccan converts to Christianity and many of those worship secretly in homes.Conversion from Islam to Christianity is banned – as it is in many Muslim countries – and proselytising is punishable by up to three years in prison….
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