Recently in Senegal Category

Thierno Mbeugne claimed the Jehovah's Witnesses were handing out not only literature, but crosses. One small problem: one prominent teaching of the religion is that Jesus died hanging from a vertical, pole-like structure, and not a cross in its common understanding as a lowercase "t" shape.

So, what were the Jehovah's Witnesses handing out to Senegalese Muslims, then? Dowels? No, rather, this appears to be a lie expressly made up to incite the rampage, whether the imam got it on hearsay, or made it up himself. An update on this story. "Protesters burn church, destroy bar in Senegal," from the Associated Press, June 26 (thanks to Opinionated for the story, and flagging the cross claim):

Hundreds of Muslim protesters descended on a Jehovah's Witness temple and a bar in a conservative Muslim neighbourhood of the Senegalese capital, setting the buildings on fire.

It was a rare instance of religious extremism in this normally moderate Islamic republic.

Thierno Mbeugne, spokesman for the local imam association, said the head imam in the conservative Yoff district of Dakar had asked the youth to march on Sunday against what they considered as "acts of aggression against their faith".

Copy of The Watchtower = "act of aggression."

They were targeting the temple because they claim its members were proselytising, and the bar because it was selling alcohol.

He said the Islamic religious leaders did not endorse the violence, "but they do think that the youth were right" to destroy the church and the bar.

One of the rioters Mame Faye, 24, explained that the mob set upon the temple while churchgoers were praying inside before setting upon the bar.

Other witnesses, however, said that the hundreds of protesters burst into the establishment and began drinking the cans of beer. They then stripped the building, making off with the refrigerator, the air conditioners and the furniture. Then they set it on fire.

A doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said his clinic had treated 37 people, including several wounded police officers. One had a stab wound. The police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Mbeugne claimed that the head of the temple had been actively trying to convert locals. He said that under the cover of teaching English, she had started handing out crosses and Jehovah's Witness literature.

"Security among many risks for Dakar rally racers," from Reuters, with thanks to Kemaste:

DAKAR, Senegal - Ronn Bailey is a computer security expert but he will be worrying more about low-tech threats when he takes part in the 5,000-mile Dakar rally, considered the world's premier off-road race.

Like all the participants, the American millionaire adventurer is well aware that two stages of the 2004 rally were canceled because of a planned attack by Islamic militants.

This month authorities in Mauritania said they had arrested a man with links to al Qaeda who was planning to attack Americans taking part in the 2005 rally, which begins this New Year's Eve in Barcelona and ends in Dakar on Jan. 16.

Wire taps revealed the suspect was in touch with people connected to Osama Bin Laden's network in Saudi Arabia, according to officials in the Muslim West African country which is due to host six stages of the ultimate off-road rally.

The U.S. Embassy has issued a note telling all Americans involved in the rally to exercise "special caution."

Bailey and his team, Vanguard Racing, have also been advised not to display any American flags or symbols on their custom-built vehicle.

"So we're not doing anything of that nature - we're not painting any bullseyes on our car," Bailey joked in a telephone interview from his staging base in Paris last week.

But the first-time Dakar participant knows the risks he runs could be serious. The final document he signed before leaving the United States was his last will and testament.

"There's a possibility that something could happen and I just considered it to be proper to put the right things in place so that it wouldn't be such a burden on my family and on my employees if something should happen," he explained.

Mamour Fall and family (Photo thanks to LGF)

"I know bin Laden. People want me to insult him and I will not do it. He is a great man, a great strategist, a great Muslim, and that is what interests us and not the fact that he is accused of killing people." These are statements of Imam Mamour Fall, a Senegalese imam who was deported from Italy last month. (The report is from Reuters, with thanks to nicolei.)

Says Fall: "Me, I am a Muslim who wants to apply all that Allah outlined in the Koran, like the Jihad (holy war), solidarity between the Muslims. What we can do today is defensive Jihad. If an Islamic territory is attacked as America and its allies are doing today, every Muslim has the duty to attack these invaders."

Fall's explanation of defensive jihad closely follows precisely delineated elements of Islamic law, as I explain in Onward Muslim Soldiers. They are echoed by radical Muslims around the world, who are exploiting them today to justify their actions and recruit terrorists.

But Reuters, ever on the job, assures us that most Senegalese Muslims reject Fall's radical Islam: "He's a minority voice in Senegal, but Imam Mamour Fall is not afraid to speak out for Osama bin Laden. Fall's support for America's No. 1 enemy strikes an especially jarring note in Senegal, a relaxed mainly Muslim country on West Africa's coast where religion is confined to mosques and churches and doesn't stray into politics."

How does Reuters know that that Fall's views are only held by a minority in Senegal? Did they take a poll?

Or maybe they just asked "Muslim preacher" Alioune Sall, who is quoted thusly: "Islam has never called on the faithful to devote oneself to violence. Islam is a religion of peace par excellence. . . . There are Muslims who commit terrorist acts, but this should never be blamed on Islam. Islam rejects all forms of violence. . . . If bin Laden is the author of the attacks he is accused of, he will answer to God. Because this religion that is a religion of peace does not allow anyone to take another person's life."

This is, Reuters tells us, a "widespread view." Great. But I do wonder what Sall would say to fellow Muslims like Maulana Masood Azhar, a radical Muslim leader who has said that in Islam the only legitimate meaning of jihad is killing.

Meanwhile, Reuters says that "the head of a U.N.-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone has said he had proof al Qaeda operatives were working in Liberia -- but their activities seemed limited to diamond trading and money laundering rather than recruiting among battle-hardened youths."

Oh. Just laundering money, eh? Well, that's ok, then.

And: "In neighboring Mauritania, fears of extremism run deeper as pro-Western President Maaouya Ould Sid-Ahmed Taya fears foreign-backed zealots are trying to turn his country into a hotbed of Islamic extremism. Taya has won the backing of the United States, which regards Mauritania as a possible breeding ground for Islamic militants. But even here, Islam is traditionally tolerant and there are few signs that more radical preachers are making serious inroads."

Well, that's reassuring. Thanks, Reuters! Here's hoping our luck holds. But until all these anti-terrorist Muslims start convincing radicals on a large scale that their form of Islam is defective, it would be worthwhile to stay alert.