Director General of Sahel’s Scholars Association Yossef Belmahdy said that a large number of countries demanded to benefit from the Algerian experience in the field of fight against terrorism, praising the efforts exerted by the Algerian Armed Forces to protect the country from the attempts of extremists to infiltrate to the country through the borders.
He added, in a statement to “Arabs Today”, that the association he leads aims to protect the societies of the Sahel region from the extremist ideas which dominated a number of Muslim communities during the recent years. He added that they work promote the moderate ideas. He added, on the sideline of the association’s meeting, that it includes a number of senior and experienced preachers who enjoy major experience in the preaching and educational career.
He added that the Islamic world needs a clear practical work program to refute the extremist ideas adopted by the terrorist groups, including ISIS, and to promote the moderate ideas to pave the way for improving the image of Islam before the world. He praised the Algerian experience to combat the extremist ideas, saying that this experience is recognized in different forums around the world.
He added that the members of the association are keen to organize rotating meetings to consider the objectives they drafted and to assess the progress that they managed to achieve in the different countries of the Sahel region, including Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.
He underlined the emergence of a number of uncommon religious communities in the Muslim societies, saying that these communities work to serve the interests of international and regional powers to threaten the original religious reference adopted by the countries of the region. He called the Algerian authorities to work together with the other countries to protect the identity and religious reference of their communities.