Mr Abdellah Boussouf, Secretary General of the Council of the Moroccan Community Living Abroad (CCME) gave a conference on the religious issue of islam in Europe, which took place on Friday 12 May 2017 at the university of Governance and Economics and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (FGSES-UM6P). The meeting was moderated by Mr. Mohammed Tozy, Dean of the Faculty.
In his speech, Mr Boussouf, said how the issue of Islam was important in political and social debates in European societies, refering in particular to the recent French elections where two tyes of Islam in France were discussed : Islam was either considered as a component of the French society, given the number of Muslims in France or percieved as a religion of fear and suspicion in the French society – esentially by the extreme right-.
The election of the liberal Mr Emmanuel Macron in the presidential elections in France on may 7 2017, widely elected against the candidate of the extreme right Mrs Marine le Pen showed that the values of the Republic (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) remained universal values and have beaten the reacism, tha ani-migration and anti-Muslim discourses.
The Secretary General of the CCME reiterated that the Council gave strategic importance to the religious question for the Moroccan community living aboad. He insisted on the fact that the legal status of Islam in Europe is not « unsuitable » with the constitutions and laws of European countries, because it is a matter of freedom of belief. And when this raises “problems”, it is only due to political, cultural or ideological reasons.
“It is true that without the political will, elected representatives of several European cities impose conditions on Muslims who can’t practice their religion,” he said . He added that “Muslims do not make the necessary efforts to advocate into official institutions in order to make of the muslim issue a public debate “. He also called for the establishment of intellectual and religious precedent to adapt the Muslim-religious practice in the Western context.
The need to link the religious intrinsic to the human sciences in European societies.
Mr Boussouf said that the studies made by the Council, as well as the meetings organized in this context, showed that Islam had no problems in living with the communities of non-Muslims and is not in conflict with democracy and the values of modernity. However, the European context raises new questions about the Islamic religion, whereas throughout history Muslims have often lived in the « land of Islam ».
He also raised the question of Imams in Europe by saying that « most of them do not have a religious background and only use their own reasoning and even their understanding of islam witch did not take in account the sociological dimension of the culture and civilization of European societies. He added that the lack of knowledge of European languages constituted an obstacle which did not allow them to answer to the questions of young European Muslim who try to find answers on the Internet and other media : this often leads them to religious discourses that reject the other and to extremism.
Mr Boussouf believes that the academic training of Muslim religious leaders in Europe should be based on openness to other religions, humanities, social sciences, the desire for dialogue with the « Other » ,a participatory approach and accept their fellow citizens without exclusion: “we must establish a dialogue to communicate, and to know ourselves and not to defend our religion endlessely defend against the other -religions-“.
The Moroccan model, an answer to the current issues
The CCME official highlighted the importance of the Moroccan religious model based on the Malékite doctrine, as a model of openness and dialogue with the other. He said “the Moroccan model has always been in favor of coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews in the same society and throughout history “. The Malékite school « is able to provide answers to the current questions asked about Islam » he said .
Mr Boussouf spoke about Averroes who made fought for the dialogue and prevention among human beikngs, regardless of their religion and even for non-believers. Then gave the example of El Andalous society, where coexistence
Ant last but not least he gave te example of Ibn Khaldun, who considered knowledge and critical sense should frame religious thought.
CCME
