‘Bayt Dakira’, High Place to Teach Values of Tolerance and Coexistence – Obasanjo –
“Bayt Dikira” is a “high place for teaching the values of tolerance and coexistence”, which promotes the convergence between Islam and Judaism, said Tuesday in Essaouira, Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria and current chairman of the Brenthurst-Oppenheimer Foundation. “I have never visited a place that promotes the convergence of Islam and Judaism as I have seen firsthand in Essaouira. This should be a very good lesson for all men and women of good faith in the world,” he stressed in a statement to MAP, on the sidelines of a visit by members of the board of directors of the Brenthurst-Oppenheimer Foundation to “Bayt Dakira”, a spiritual and heritage space for the preservation and enhancement of the Jewish-Moroccan memory. In Bayt Dakira, “we live the brotherhood that unites humanity: we are equal regardless of our religion or race,” he said. Highlighting the farsighted leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, Obansajo emphasized “the roots of Morocco in a history several millennia old, embodied by Essaouira, a city emblematic of the exceptional diversity of our respective spiritualities”. Eminent personalities, members of the board of directors of the prestigious South African Brenthurst-Oppenheimer Foundation, paid a visit on Tuesday to “Bayt Dakira” in Essaouira. This visit, carried out in the presence of André Azoulay, Advisor to HM the King and president-founder of the Essaouira-Mogador Association, allowed the distinguished guests of the City of Alizés, including Jonathan Oppenheimer, the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, to discover this spiritual and patrimonial space of preservation and valorization of the Jewish-Moroccan memory.