Mauritania to resume dialogue with Islamists after previous success

Mauritanian will soon resume dialogue with Muslim jihadists after talks with jailed Islamists early in the year in a bid to persuade them to abandon extremism, according to the government.

"The dialogue that was being held in January between ulemas (Muslim scholars) and Mauritania's detained Muslim fundamentalists will resume in the near future," Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Ould Neini announced over the weekend.

"Discussion sessions will be held in a number of the country's wilayas (provinces)," he added.

On Jan. 15, Mauritanian authorities were engaged in dialogue with Islamists being detained at the Nouakchott maximum security prison.

This dialogue was conducted by the eminent ulemas in the country and led to repentance declarations by more than 70 percent of the 60 detainees, of whom some had been sentenced for involvement in terrorist acts carried out on the Mauritanian soil.

The ulemas have therefore proposed to the Mauritanian authorities to revive the dialogue which they consider the "most effective way of fighting against fanaticism and violence in which Mauritanian youths have been recruited by the North African wing of the Al Qaeda (AQMI)."

The minister said, "These youths do not understand at all the notion of jihad and they are therefore being led by their own instincts."


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