washingtonpost.com 
Radical Islam's Move on Africa 


By Paul Marshall

Thursday, October 16, 2003; Page A25 


Many students from Pakistan's madrassas, or radical Islamist schools, 
are leaving to avoid arrest in a government crackdown on Islamic 
extremism. Some are going to Saudi Arabia, but hundreds are heading to 
more surprising shores -- to Africa. Last month Mohammad Jamil, a 
spokesman for the Federation of Madrassas, said, "About 500 have 
already moved to South Africa. . . . Others are planning to pack their 
bags."

The United States has taken notice but has so far done little to 
address this developing threat, either by challenging those exporting 
radical Islam or by promoting democracy.

Islamic extremists in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania have turned to 
terrorism, and non-Islamic dictators, such as deposed Liberian 
strongman Charles Taylor, have developed economic links with al Qaeda. 
But more alarming is the spread of rigid forms of Islam, which are 
historically rare south of the Sahara and which are creating division, 
chaos and violence in both East and West Africa.

Islamists in Kenya are pushing to expand Islamic law, or sharia, to 
include sentences of amputation in certain crimes, as well as stoning 
in cases of adultery, practices already in place in Nigeria. The 
chairman of Kenya's Council of Imams and Preachers, Ali Shee, has 
warned that Muslims in the coastal and northeastern provinces will 
break away if sharia is not expanded.

Tanzania is experiencing a similar push for Islamic law. Saudi Arabia 
is funding new mosques there, and fundamentalists have bombed bars and 
beaten women they thought inadequately covered. Mohammed Madi, a 
fundamentalist activist, told Time magazine last month, "We get our 
funds from Yemen and Saudi Arabia. . . . Officially the money is used 
to buy medicine, but in reality the money is given to us to support 
our work and buy guns."

Before President Bush's visit this year to usually quiet Malawi, 
government security forces, assisted by Americans, arrested five 
suspected Muslim militants (two Turks, one Saudi, one Kenyan and a 
Sudanese) and flew them out of the country. In response, Muslim mobs 
rioted in Mangoci, burned six churches and attacked local priests. In 
Zambia this summer, police raided an Islamic school and found 280 
students confined in cages, where they were forced to study military 
tactics and Arabic.

Similar patterns are evident in West Africa. The civil war in Ivory 
Coast has complex roots, but like other conflicts spanning religious 
divides, such as in Serbia or Chechnya, it has taken on a fanatic 
coloration. Muslim rebels have been sporting T-shirts adorned with 
Osama bin Laden's face superimposed over a map of the country. Extreme 
Islamic law continues to spread and provoke violence in Nigeria, a 
country bin Laden has singled out as "ready for liberation." 
Meanwhile, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mauritania, Chad and even 
historically democratic Mali are also experiencing Islamist unrest, 
with riots and, in some cases, coup attempts.

This Islamization is being pushed by Sudan and Saudi Arabia, which are 
trying to replace local variants with their own restrictive systems. 
But as this newspaper has reported, Libya's Moammar Gaddafi is also a 
major player. While he has provided financial support to thugs of 
Christian background, such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Charles 
Taylor, his goal, announced before 15,000 people in Benin in 2000, is 
to "make Islam triumphant in Africa." 

The Bush administration is sending Special Forces personnel and 
upgrading anti-terrorism work in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, 
Tanzania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania. But it is also thawing 
relations with Gaddafi, complimenting Sudan for "good cooperation" on 
terrorism and treating Saudi Arabia as an ally. Instead, the United 
States should demand that Tripoli, Khartoum and Riyadh cease their 
export of radicalism to Africa. It should also encourage democratic 
development through the Millennium Challenge funds.

If, as President Bush has said, "America is committed to the success 
of Africa" and has a "long-term commitment" to developing democracy 
there, it needs to counter the threat to democracy posed by the spread 
of extremist forms of Islam.

The writer is senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious 
Freedom. 



© 2003 The Washington Post Company

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