The 4th edition of the African Peace Conference opened on January 9 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The aim of this Emirati initiative of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace is to promote a religious approach in the resolution of conflicts in the region, particularly in the Sahel and this year’s theme is traditional education and its role in the fight against extremism.
2 mins
with our correspondent in Nouakchott, Léa Breuil
The conference brings together for three days heads of state including the presidents of Mauritania and Gambia, guest country of honor this year, diplomats, researchers and important preachers from the Muslim world. It opened with the intervention of its president, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a cleric of Mauritanian origin very renowned in the Muslim world.
“ Original teaching in Africa: science and peace », this is the theme of this new edition of the conference. Among the main themes of the forum this year, traditional education to fight in particular against religious extremism on the continent, drawing inspiration in particular from ancestral Koranic schools, as Mohamed Mahjoub, coordinator of the organizing committee, explains to us. “ Our traditional schools have lost their aura, their role. The politicizing ideologies of Islam have taken over these schools. We wish to give them back the essential role they once played in the construction of a positive religious consciousness of a moderate, enlightened Islam, of an Islam of the 21st century. »
This conference is also an opportunity for Mauritania, a rare stable country in the Sahel, to set an example, according to Cheikh ould Zein, former member of the High Islamic Council of Mauritania. “ Mauritania is a country of science, a country of morality. It was the scholars of Mauritania who were the vectors of Islam throughout the region. The objective is how religion must be a model of pacifism, openness, respect for others. »
UNESCO recently registered the traditional Mauritanian teaching school known as the Mahadra on its list of Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The forum will be held until Thursday October 11 and this year the Gambian President, Adama Barrowguest of honor, was awarded the “peace” prize.