Algeria Sponsors Sufism to Fight Extremism | Reuters

Comment from the contributor:

From Reuters --

Forget guns.  Forget air raids. Forget bombs.  The latest, most cutting-edge weapon for fighting Islamic extremists?  Religion.  Specifically, Sufism, a sect of Islam that focus on peace and prayer, versus the more conservative and traditional Salafism that is espoused by many extremists.  Algeria, who struggles with attacks from terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, is officially sponsoring Sufism as the state religion in order to help fight Islamic extremism.

“ "We are doing a lot to encourage people to come back to our traditional Islam: a peaceful, tolerant and open-minded Islam. And thanks to God, people are much more attracted by our message than by the Salafi message," [Mohamed Idir Mechnane, an official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs] told Reuters. ”