ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the second case study – the International Academic Center for Sufi and Aesthetic Studies (IACSAS) – headed by Dr. Aziz al-Kobaiti. After examining the spiritual and ethical orientations of its minhāj al-tarbiya, the chapter then deals with some of the public conferences hosted by the group to illustrate the ‘performance of pious dialogue,’ that is, as a manifestation of how to properly enact one’s piety in public spaces through reasoned discourse that is constrained by the conditions imposed by the conference. Such conferences are in part an extension of the state’s policy of sponsoring festivals to ‘tune the nation’ to proper religiosity, and the proliferation of religious conferences among Sufis and other Islamic groups is a notable addition to the religious field in Morocco. As a second refraction of iḥsān, this chapter focuses on the mastery of oneself through the implementation of a program of monitoring oneself and actions as a second dimension of Morocco’s pious subjectivity.
