- RABAT, Morocco: Dozens of imams from mosques across Morocco have protested in the capital over tight controls on their preaching.
Morocco’s government keeps a close watch on the nation’s mosques as a hedge against extremist thought like that of Al-Qaeda.
Police attempted to disperse the protest Monday in front of the parliament, tussling with the imams and briefly detaining three of them.
The protest of around 50 imams dressed in traditional long robes and skull caps was eventually allowed to proceed away from the parliament on Rabat’s main boulevard.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI is the final arbiter on all matters of religion in the country.
His religious legitimacy is seen as a bulwark against the Islamic extremism found elsewhere in the region.
