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MAURITANIA-POLITICS-EDUCATION-RELIGION-ISLAM
Mauritania closes ‘extremist’ Islamic school
NOUAKCHOTT, Sept 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The authorities in Mauritania have
closed a school of Islamic theology accused of promoting extremism and having
links with the Muslim Brotherhood, a security official told AFP on Tuesday.
The measure comes on the heels of a warning against politicised Islam
issued by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
“The centre for training ulemas (Islamic scholars) was closed last night
by the police on the orders of the government, which accuses it of
extremism,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Located in the capital Nouakchott, the school was set up several years
ago by Mohamed Elhacen Ould Dedaw, a prominent scholar reputed to be
Mauritania’s “main theologian” for the transnational Muslim Brotherhood.
The school trains high-level students, including nationals from West
African states.
On September 20, Aziz warned against any “single party using and
usurping Islam” and said “measures will be taken at the appropriate time.”
“Political Islam is dangerous,” he said, warning that its ideology had
“destroyed whole nations.”
The following day, Ould Dedaw replied indirectly during Friday prayers
when he said Arab countries “were destroyed by despotism and injustice, the
main causes for the destabilisation of nations” swept up in the Arab Spring.
BSS/AFP/RY/1935 hrs