The Ghanaian Minaret

Fez, Morocco : The Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema, a non-profit religious organisation has had Muslim scholars in 14 African countries join the foundation that had branches in 34 African countries.

The new 14 African countries included Burundi, Botswana, Congo Brazzaville, Cape Verde, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Sudan, Seychelles, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The new branches formally known as “sections” were officially announced at the fifth annual ordinary session of the Higher Council of the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema which was held in Fez of Morocco.

The two-day meeting which ended on Friday, December 8, 2023, was attended by about 300 heads and members of the various branches, including 50 female scholars.

Already, the Foundation had presence in countries such as Niger, Kenya, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Chad, Comoros, Benin, Gambia, Mali, Djibouti, Angola, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, and Madagascar.

The rest were Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Sao Tome, Liberia, Ghana, Guinea, Tanzania, Sudan, Uganda and Malawi.

Mohammed VI Foundation for African Oulema was established in Morocco on June 24, 2015, through a royal decree known as Sharifian Dahir.

It had a mission of preserving the unity of the Muslims, averting religious extremism, and providing the opportunity for exchanging intellectual viewpoints among African Muslim scholars.

The foundation also has the objective of among other things fostering the historic and cultural ties between Morocco and other African countries; encourage the creation of religious, scientific, and cultural centres and reviving and protecting the Islamic African cultural heritage on the continent.

It also sought coordinate and unify the efforts of Muslim religious scholars in Morocco and the rest of African states while activating the intellectual, scientific, and cultural growth of Islam on the continent.