UN Official Says Morocco Has 'Good Practices' in Teaching Religion, Moderate Islam

Teaching religion and moderate Islam is "extremely important" for fighting terrorism, particularly violent extremism, Laborde told MAP on the sidelines of a high-level meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee on "Countering Incitement to Commit Terrorist Acts Motivated by Extremism and Intolerance: the Kingdom of Morocco's Approach and Experiences of other African States".

He also stressed "the very strong commitment of Morocco, clearly driven by HM King Mohammed VI," to ensure the success of this teaching and export these "best practices" to other countries to "avoid that these countries leave the preaching of religion to people who are ready to preach violent extremism."

"That's why the Moroccan strategy to teach the solid foundations of an authentic religion is extremely important," he said.

The Counter-Terrorism Committee will hold an open briefing on "Countering Incitement to Commit Terrorist Acts Motivated by Extremism and Intolerance: the Kingdom of Morocco's Approach and Experiences of other African States" in the ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, on Tuesday.

Following the opening remarks by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufik, director of Morocco's external intelligence agency (DGED) Yassine Mansouri and Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Nasser Bourita will give lectures on this theme.