The Moroccan British Society (MBS) was created on 23 February 2003. Its goal is ‘to provide means and allow Moroccans and British people to acquire a better mutual understanding of their civilizations, cultures and political, academic, scientific, economic, financial, and commercial institutions so as to promote and foster their friendly relations and their cooperative ties in every domain.’ Lalla Joumala is president of the MBS since its inception. Lalla Joumala called for greater dialogue between faiths. Speaking at a 2007 conference on the necessity for

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s to adopt democracy, she said that there was a ‘vital necessity’ to increase dialogue between the three religions ( Christianity, Judaism and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

); that ‘values shared by these religions transcend the theological differences of our spiritual pluralism’; and that a better understanding of ‘what we share can help us better accept and respect what separates us.’

Activities

In 2007, the MBS became the main sponsor of ‘Sacred: Discover what we share’, a British Library project that displayed the oldest surviving texts of the Abrahamic faiths side by side. Joumala described the project as ‘aiming to foster inter-religious dialogue in these times of prevalent political and religious tensions internationally’. She went on: ‘The Moroccan British Society, in contributing to this event, seeks to underline the Moroccan example, where interfaith respect is the norm.

in Morocco has always opposed extremism and enabled people to live in peace, harmony and good intelligence with all faiths and religious communities.

King Mohammed VI Fellowship

In 2004, the Middle East Centre (MEC) at St Antony’s College of Oxford University received a £1.5m donation from the Moroccan British Society (MBS) to establish ‘the King Mohammed VI Fellowship in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies’. In 2007, Eugene Rogan wrote that ‘The King Mohammed VI Fellowship in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies has served as the basis for extending cooperation between Moroccan academics and Great Britain, and has enabled the MEC to develop its work in North Africa significantly.’ This was criticised by Robin Simcox of the Centre for Social Cohesion (which later merged with the neoconservative think-tank, the

Henry Jackson Society The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...

References

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External links

Moroccan British Society
Islamic organizations based in Morocco Organizations established in 2003 2003 establishments in Morocco Morocco–United Kingdom relations