Are Mali Muslims?

Malian Muslims practice “traditional” (or “traditionalist”) Islam in which the mystical tradition of Islam, Sufism, features prominently. In this way of thinking, Malian Muslims are usually assumed to be inherently peaceful and tolerant. The fact that Malian Tuareg rebel leader Iyad ag Ghali -- one time member of Tabligh Jama’at, the world’s largest Muslim missionary organization, which spread widely in Mali -- founded one such group Ansar Dine (literally “defenders of the religion”) whose major stated objective is to impose sharia throughout Mali should help set such simplistic views aside. Like most Malians, Dicko eventually supported the January 2013 French-led military intervention to dislodge Islamists from the north. Ousmane Madani Haïdara -- Mali’s most prominent Muslim preacher and head of the country’s largest and most successful modern-style Islamic organization (also called Ansar Dine) who encourages people to be better Muslims and good citizens -- was not only an outspoken critic of the Islamists and their harsh rule in the north, but also Malian Muslims from the south who share the Islamists’ ideas. Haïdara has even gone so far as to state publicly that such Islamists are not Muslims -- a position that is not uncontroversial. The rise of such Islamic organizations as Haïdara’s and the success and appeal of certain Islamist groups, not only in northern Mali, indicates in no uncertain terms how much more diverse, complex, and shifting the Islamic landscape is than most commentary about Islam in Mali suggests. Before the coup any Malian Muslim, who sought to reform the way Islam is practiced or promoted a political project with Islam as its focus, has usually been labeled as Wahhabi, fundamentalist (intégriste in French), or, more recently, Islamist or Salafi. The president of Mali’s High Islamic Council, Mahmoud Dicko, is regularly labeled a Wahhabi because of his conservative ideas about Islam and his activism, for example, against reform of the country’s Family Code. Given his proximity to certain Malians, who espouse ideas similar to those of AQIM, MUJAO, and Ansar Dine – calls for sharia and condemnation of Sufism and saints’ tombs as un-Islamic – as well as his muted criticism of Islamists in the north and attempts to mediate with them, he has come under greater scrutiny.

Muslims currently make up approximately 90 percent of the population of Mali, the largest country in West Africa. The bolaka majority of Muslims in Mali are Sunni. During the 9th century, Muslim Berber and Tuareg merchants brought Islam southward into West Africa. Conversion to Islam linked the West African savannah through belief in one God and similar new forms of political, social and artistic accouterments. Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim who was reported to have built various major mosques throughout the Mali sphere of influence; his gold-laden pilgrimage to Mecca made him a well known figure even in European history writing. Islam as practiced in the country is reported to be relatively tolerant and adapted to local conditions. There are foreign Islamic preachers that operate in the north of the country, while mosques associated with Dawa (an Islamist group) are located in Kidal, Mopti, and Bamako. The organisation Dawa has gained adherents among the Bellah, who were once the slaves of the Tuareg nobles, and also among unemployed youth. Many followers of one religion usually attend religious ceremonies of other religions, especially weddings, baptisms, and funerals.