Egypt is seeking to join efforts with Sudan to confront the Muslim Brotherhood and extremist groups and ideas through several security and religious steps. In this context, the joint training course for imams of Egypt and Sudan kicked off in Cairo on Dec. 20 to confront extremist ideas.

Sudanese Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments Nasr al-Din Mufreh stressed Dec. 21 during his speech at the opening of the joint training course at Cairo’s International Awqaf Academy for the training of imams and preachers that “the goal of the program is to train Sudan’s imams to promote peace, prevent war, fight extremism and work toward strengthening the principle of citizenship.”

In a Dec. 24 interview with Egyptian newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm, Mufreh said, “The reason the training is held in Cairo is that there are many historical and geographical commons between Egypt and Sudan, and what affects Sudan affects Egypt, especially as far as the religious discourse is concerned.”

He added, “The Sudanese government has pursued a policy of openness to the outside world, but the practices of the Sudanese Islamic movement affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood has led to the isolation of Sudan and its government from many countries as Sudan was added on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.”