Morocco Counters Iran’s Shiite Expansion in West Africa

"Morocco’s awareness of the Shiite threat is not new, in fact, it dates back to the 1980s. In a speech he gave before the Supreme Council of Ulema in 1984, King Hassan II [father and predecessor of Mohammed VI] had explicitly warned against the dangers and threats related to the expansion of Shiism in West Africa, weighing on the security and stability of the Maghreb countries," explains Salim Hmimnat, professor and researcher specializing in African affairs at Mohammed V University in Rabat, to Raseef22. According to the late king, these dangers and threats "are part of a broader political and religious conflict, in which many Sunni Islamic countries have united to confront the Shiite ideology and the export of the revolution adopted by Iran in several regions of the Arab and Islamic world," he further explains.

Discussing the current context, the academic notes that "we are facing competition with completely different data and geopolitical stakes. The kingdom has thus adopted, over the past ten years, a structured and more intense religious strategy, aimed at perpetuating the Moroccan religious model. In other words, religion has become a major factor in carrying out Morocco’s African policy and strengthening its influence according to a vision, logic and tools different from the logic of conflicts or exclusion adopted by certain countries."

To revitalize its religious policy oriented towards Africa, continues Salim Hmimnat, Morocco is counting on two main religious institutions. These are the Mohammed VI Institute for the Training of Imams, in particular the training program dedicated to the teaching of foreign imams from sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulema, with its thirty-two branches spread across the continent.