Promoting understanding between religious and secular currentsIstanbul, 18–19 March 2017Authors: Maati Monjib, Lakhdar Ghettas
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SUMMARY
The Cordoba Foundation of Geneva (CFG), in partnership with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), organised a workshop in Istanbul on 18 and 19 March 2017 on “Helping to reduce violence on Moroccan university campuses”. The project stems from the recommendations of the three meetings on the interaction of religion and politics in the public sphere held in February–March 2016 in Istanbul and in September 2016 in Doha. The aim of the workshop was to explore the possibilities of bringing the different factions closer together, to highlight points of convergence and common ground, and to establish a lasting constructive dialogue. Twenty-three participants took part, including fourteen Moroccan and two Tunisian students representing student movements of different ideological currents, notably so-called Islamist sympathisers as well as leftist activists. The workshop also benefited from the presence of two political leaders and five activists and experts.
The students explained that this meeting was the first of its kind in which students from different ideological camps could come together to address the question of violence. Proposals for practical initiatives can be summed up in the following recommendations:
- • Continue the process and extend it to other organisations that could not take part in this first workshop, notably the radical left, in order to deepen the discussions towards creating a national mediation body organised by a preparatory committee of former members of all factions. This body would propose a draft student charter against violence defining the constants, the framework and the red lines.
- • Build an early warning and rapid response mechanism and establish a simple mechanism to facilitate communication between the student factions.
Given the persistence of clashes between students, but also in the street with the security forces – as in Fez three weeks after this workshop – it is necessary for the CFG to continue its engagement on this question to help the parties involved reach a consensus that will enable the recommendations of this process to be put into practice.
1 See “Violents affrontements à Fès entre étudiants gauchistes et la police”, Huffington Post, 14 April 2017, HuffPost Maghreb (external website, opens in a new tab)
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