Mali
In Mali, Sufi scholars for centuries taught an Islamic message of love, peace and tolerance, a message that was integrated into the local way of life. While Malians never succumbed to Islamic extremism, the country has become vulnerable due to the combination of famine, weak government and a Tuareg rebellion caused by regional instability, specifically in Libya.

 

 

In early 2013 Sunni Islamists took advantage of the Tuareg rebellion, overtook the Northern part of the country, created an alliance with the rebels, established Sharia law, and destroyed the rich heritage in Timbuktu and in other areas under their control. The ideology of intolerance was Wahhabi and al Qaeda inspired and linked to the usual suspect, Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda (AQIM) has claimed responsibilities for the most recent attack on Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, which killed 19 people. “The people of this country have been religious for over ten centuries,” said Imam Mahamoud Dicko, President of the Islamic High Council of Mali, “We have our Islamic system, we worship God. This is nonsense what they are doing in the North — cutting hands, stoning people.”  Another charismatic leader known as Sheikh Cherif Ousmane Madani Haidara, who represents the version of Islam most Malians identify with, says: “We don’t need their Sharia. We have been Muslims here for centuries. Mali is a secular country. We live with Christians, we live with Jews, and we live with animists. We are all Malians together here [and] Islamists in the north have destroyed historical structures, including centuries old shrines, mosques, schools and libraries, and have amputated limbs, instituted public floggings and beheadings.” 

New Sufi Islamic leaders have emerged determined to win over young Muslims, who are being relentlessly indoctrinated by a concerted and resourced efforts of preachers who, according to them, are funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Among them is Cherif Ousmane Madani Haïdara who states that “Groupement des Leaders Spirituels Musulmans du Mali (GLSM) is trying to eradicate the mentality that Wahhabi groups are implanting in the future generation…… seeks to persuade the youth that Islam is not this kind of extremism that they [Wahhabi proselytizers] are trying to disseminate”. Thierno Amadou Diallo, the minister for religious affairs, says “wealthy sponsors of the Wahhabi groups are behind their growing influence. For example, the Saudi Arabian-based World Assembly of Muslim oreign Policy Journal, January 4, 2013.

 Youth (WAMU) has built a huge Islamic education centre in Bamako to propagate the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.…… There has been no control of funding from religious organisations….. The state is weak, so religious non-governmental organisations play their part." Foreign Policy Journal says, “Every Wahhabi movement that has been competently investigated has been tied to the Saudis, in most cases to the almost 30,000 strong Saudi royal family and the Mali Wahhabis are no exception.”

A Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) report shows the Mali Army with captured documents proving wire transfers from Saudi Arabia to the Islamic terrorists in Mali. Another report states that, “Islamic militants associated with Ansar Dine, and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM] are “recruiting” young Tuareg boys with promises of food to eat (a luxury for some in Mali) and money, are teaching them to hate the West and use weapons in a network of madrassas or religious schools, funded by our friends in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.” 

During the invasion of Mali by the radical Islamists from the Northern part of the country, the UN chief Ban-ki Moon discussed the Malian crisis with leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.This is a rather blunt indication of the involvement of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the conflict in Mali. “There is plenty of evidence pointing to the fact that Saudi money is financing the various Salafist groups,” said Samir Amghar, author of “Le salafisme d’aujourd’hui. Mouvements sectaires en Occident” (Contemporary Salafism: Sectarian movements in the West) and according to Antoine Basbous, who heads the Paris-based Observatory of Arab Countries, “the Salafism we hear about in Mali and North Africa is in fact the exported version of Wahhabism.” The Saudis have been financing [Wahhabism] around the world to the tune of several million euros,” Basbous told FRANCE 24. 

Mali’s problem will not be solved by a rushed election that does not take into account the realities and threats of Radical Islam in the region. Mali faces an existentialist threat and this must be addressed not through cosmetic changes of government, but through a strategy that explores the fundamental sources of the problem and an interfaith dialogue to challenge the agenda of Saudi Arabia in Mali and elsewhere
in Africa.


Kenya
Radical Islam arrived in Kenya in two ways: the Northern part of Kenya with a sizable Somali population bordering Somalia, known during colonial times as the Northern Frontier District (NFD), and the Eastern coastal city of Mombasa. Since the 1990s, Muslims in Kenya have been exposed to religious radicalism from al Qaeda through its affiliate al-Jihad al-Islam (AIAI), which was fighting to establish a sharia state in Somalia, in the northern part of Kenya and the Ogaden in Eastern Ethiopia. During those times, Kenya  experienced sporadic attacks like the attack on the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, the attack on the Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in 2002, and the Islamist terrorists attempt to bring down an El Al plane with surface-to-air missiles in Mombasa the same year. . AIAI leaders, who later became part of the leadership of al Shabaab, started secretly building networks in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Reports indicate that “al Shabaab’s primary source of support in Kenya appears to resolve around the Pumwani Rivdha Mosque, located near Eastleigh in Nairobi. Until recently, individuals at the mosque distributed jihadist pamphlets and articles authored by Anwar al-Awlaqi, the Yemeni American member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was killed by a US drone in September 2011. The cleric and his followers delivered sermons that were considered extremist and inflammatory. The victims of this venomous propaganda were mainly the Somali people in the region. A UN report indicated that there are "extensive Kenyan networks linked to al Shabaab,”which not only recruit and raise funds for the organization, but also conduct orientation and training events. The recent terrorist act of al Shabaab at the West Gate Mall in Nairobi could not have been conducted without the cooperation of local jihadists linked to this network.

It was a terrible wakeup call to the Kenyan government, and indeed to the entire region, of the need to take a concerted coordinated regional approach to prevent such incidents from happening again and ensure that the external supporters of al Shabaab get their share of the blame and responsibilities for this atrocious crime. But it did happen again, via the terrorists attack on Garissa University in April 2015, and the killing of 147 students. The brutal handiwork of al Shabaab. There is growing extremism at the Kenyan Coast as well, particularly in Mombasa. The Kenyan coast has a large but minority Muslim population. , Due to its geographic proximity to the Arabian Peninsula, Islam there is easily influenced by 'Wahhabists' from across the Red Sea.

For years mainstream Muslim leaders have been warning of the rise of Islamist extremism and social tensions. Aboud Rogo Mohamed was on a US sanctions list for supporting Somalia’s al Shabaab militants and had allegedly encouraged local Muslims to engage in jihad. His assassination in 2012 resulted in rioting that left four people dead. In 2013 there was another riot, which resulted in the death of 4 people after Kenyan cleric Ibrahim Omar was killed.Reports from Kenya state that the killing of Ibrahim Omar “is similar to that of Aboud Rogo Mohammed the year before.” Kenya’s problem, like the other countries in the Horn, is intricately tied with the regional security problems and can be addressed only through regional coordination and policies.

Nigeria
In Nigeria, religious radicalism can be traced to Sir Ahmadu Bello, who preached the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria and worked very closely with the Saudis to become instrumental in the establishment of the Muslim World League (MWL). He was appointed as the first vice president of the league. Bello’s biographer John Praden notes, “Through this connection, Saudi money designated for religious purposes began to flow to Nigeria. Saudi gifts in 1963 and 1964 totaling $200,000 for the work of spreading Islam apart from “unofficial donations probably amounting to millions of pounds.”With Saudi funding, the MWL has expanded to 17 countries in Africa. 

Bello recruited a firebrand preacher, Abubakar Gumi, who, with the support of MWL, established the Society of Removal of Innovation and Reestablishment of the Sunna, (known as Izala or Yan Izala) in 1978. The Izala movement was established to fight Sufism and today is one of the largest Islamic movements, not only in Nigeria, but also in neighboring Niger and Chad. Izala is particularly active in D’awa and education. The terrorist organization Boko Haram and the radical Shia preacher Zakzaky who heads the Islamic Movement Nigeria (IMN - a Hezbollah type organization40) are the movement’s offspring. The Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) was founded during the OIC’s Islam in Africa Conference held in Abuja in 1989. The outcome of the conference, known as the Abuja Declaration insists on "reinstating a strong and united umma" (Islamic community) in Africa and on "restoring the use of Arabic script in the vernacular."

In addition: "The Conference notes the yearning of Moslems everywhere on the continent who have been deprived of their rights to be governed by the sharia and urges them to intensify efforts in the struggle to reinstate the application of the sharia (Islamic law)”. Islamic intolerance in Nigeria and more generally in Africa, became more aggressive and Saudi Arabia’s campaign to ‘Wahhabise’ Africa started in earnest after this conference and the establishment of the IAO. Boko Haram has many overt connections to Saudi Arabia and has a constant presence there. The group was originally led by Abubakah Lawan, who later left the country to study at the University of Medina in Saudi Arabia while the next leader, Muhammad Yusuf, found refuge in Saudi Arabia to escape a Nigerian security crackdown in 200441. Boko Haram’s spokesman, Abu Qaqa, has also claimed that their leaders “travelled to Saudi Arabia and met al-Qaida there” in August 201142. Although Ibrahim Zakzaky is now Shia, he began his political career as a Sunni fundamentalist student leader, and was first influenced by the works of Sayyd Qutb, the intellectual force behind Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, whose ideas form the basis of al Qaeda’s ideology today.
In 1999, the governor of Zamfara in Northern Nigeria declared his state to be governed by sharia law with a senior Saudi official standing by his side. Eleven other states, all of whose judges are sent to study Sharia law in Saudi Arabia, followed close. Because of its relationship to the Saudi state, the MWL does not receive the scrutiny that other aid organizations do. This is particularly disturbing in light of allegations that the MWL’s subsidiaries have been involved in terrorist financing.

In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported the discovery of links between the MWL and al Qaida during a raid in Bosnia, including a “handwritten account” of a meeting attended by “the Secretary General of the Muslim World League and bin Laden representatives.” MWLs record is replete with accounts of its relationship with terrorists and activities on the propagation
of the Wahhabi ideology. Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic
In Cameroon, Chad, Niger and the Central African Republic extremism and religious conflicts are on the rise. The International Crisis Group (ICG) reporting on the crisis in Cameroon writes: “the rise of Christian revivalist (born again) and Muslim fundamentalist movements is rapidly changing the religious landscape and paving the way for religious intolerance”. The government’s response has been military directed on Boko Haram, which has recently been operating in Cameroon with destructive effects. Niger is also plagued by cross border violence from Boko Haram and the Mali based movement for Oneness in West Africa (MUJAO) and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQUIM).

The incidents of violence have increased since Niger sent troops to the regional force to fight Boko Haram. Burkina Faso, which just emerged from a protracted internal crisis, has recently been struck by one of the affiliates of AQUIM (al-Murabiton), which is headed by the notorious extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar responsible for many terrorist attacks in the region. The group seized one of the big hotels in Ouagadougou killed 28 people, kidnapped a few mostly foreigners and injured many others. The violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) after the SELEKA rebels took power, has taken a religious dimension between the Muslim in the North and the Christian South. CAR had never a functioning government since independence but has been tolerated and exploited by France for many years. France contributed funds to the crowning of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a demented former French colonial army orderly, as Emperor in 1977, in the image of his idol Napoleon Bonaparte. CAR has been, besides France, the playground of man y countries in the region.

It has been the staging ground of coups and counter coups in Chad and Sudan. It can be said, CAR can only be what France and its neighbors, nine of them, want it to be. In this latest crisis a wedge is being driven in the religious divide and it is said that Sudan’s government, a Wahhabi funded and inspired government, has a hand in the emergence of radical groups in the country.

Tanzania
Zanzibar, part of the Republic of Tanzania, is composed of a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is a popular tourist destination because of its history, natural beauty and pristine beaches. Its people are extremely friendly and traditionally practice a moderate version of Islam. In the last decade this has changed, and there is growing concern that they, too, have become victims of radical Islam. An example is the al-Noor charity, set up a few years ago in Tanzania with money from Saudi Arabia. Every year, the organization pays for students and teachers to study in Sudan, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia.

It is estimated that Saudi Arabia alone spends $1m a year on Islamic institutions in Zanzibar. The preaching of this new ideology has created a fundamental shift in the practice of Islam in Zanzibar. People are increasingly intolerant of other forms of Islam, as well as Christians. In May 2012, a mob stormed a church and burned the 500 seats inside. There was a huge demonstration following this incident, and it left a mark of fear and suspicion on an island that has been practicing moderate Islam for years. The Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, better known as Uamsho, has threatened to behead all church pastors in Zanzibar.50 It has also stated that it is fighting to secede from Tanzania to establish its own state based on political Islam. These statements did create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty affecting tourism, which is the backbone of the Zanzibar economy. The rise of radicalism in Tanzania is very clear but the manner in which successive governments have handled the situation is very commendable. They have encouraged inter-faith dialogue and rarely used force. Tanzanians are highly integrated, cultured and tolerant people and this virtue will eventually triumph in containing extremism and interfaith conflicts.


Ethiopia
As many as one-third of Ethiopia’s 85 million people are Sunni Muslims and, for the most part, have lived peacefully with Christians. These groups have lived as one people in unprecedented harmony. However, in the last two decades, this peace and tolerance has been challenged by the arrival of new breeds of Muslim radicals and the policies of an ethnocentric government that rules by dividing the population along ethnic and religious lines. The Wahabists have seized upon this advantage and recruited and radicalized many young Ethiopian Muslims.
A WikiLeaks cable showed that the United States is aware of the Saudi strategy. In the cable, former US Ambassador to Ethiopia Yamamoto wrote, “Arab Wahhabi missionaries, mainly from Saudi Arabia, continue to make inroads into the Ethiopian Muslim community, but are meeting increasing resistance in doing so. …. As a result, Ethiopia's delicate Muslim/Christian balance and historic attitudes between the faith communities regarding tolerance and mutual respect are being challenged, thereby undermining US interest in the region. Sufi Muslim leaders want support from the US to counter this pressure.” 

Many exiles who left Ethiopia for political and economic reasons to neighboring countries have been inducted in madrassas and Islamic schools, in Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other places and sent back to Ethiopia. Of these, many have been influenced by the Wahhabi school of thought. The American Foreign Policy Council wrote in 2011 that those who supported the construction of mosques, schools and associations in Ethiopia were World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the Alawiyah School Mission Center, owned since 1993 by the Saudi controlled World Muslim Leagues. The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) is very active in Ethiopia and the US Treasury Department has formally designated IIRO as an institution facilitating terrorism.

 For now, the people endure. Alem Zelalem from Ethiopia writes; “We did not struggle against every conceivable colonialist and imperialist power in the past, and to come this far, only to succumb to Saudi Arabian Wahhabis. That would be an insult to our history and culture. The system that prevails in Saudi Arabia may be good for Saudi Arabia, but not for Ethiopia. We find it offensive to human freedom and dignity. It is absolutely unacceptable to our way of life. Wahhabism has no place in our society. The sooner the ruling circles in Saudi Arabia realize this fact and leave us alone, the better.”However, with a government that is determined to end religious and ethnic disputes by force, the future seems bleak. In many cases extremists and criminal gangs thrive in a climate of political crisis and instability. The experiences in other countries show that sleeping cells of extremists take advantage of the grievances of people and present them with a choice. They are fed, trained and brainwashed with an ideology of hate and intolerance and given arms to fight for that cause. To counter such a scenario the preferred alternative would be inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue that identifies the enemies, both domestic and foreign, and make people understand their real agenda.

The government must build on the commonalities and the factors that have united these people for centuries if it wishes to prevent a civil war (religious and ethnic) and the breakup of this historic nation that has remained united despite so many kinds of invasions and adversities. The wide spread unrest by the Oromo ethnic group on its own might not transform into a widespread religious and ethnic violence but beneath this surface there may be dark forces financed and encouraged by foreign elements who have a different agenda. While the struggle for genuine change goes on, all indications are that the destabilization process is also in the making. If the government is to cling on to power by all means could lead the country into civil war, producing the likehood of its ignominious end. In a civil strife the government will lose power but the people could lose their country. Looking beyond what the finger points is the responsibility of the leaders of this nation who need to use wisdom and common sense so that Ethiopia avoids the fate of falling under the yoke of religious extremists.