ISLAM-SUMMIT: Fundamentalism Weighs Heavily on Delegates' Minds

• by IPS Correspondents (paris)
• Sunday, December 18, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PARIS, Dic 18 (IPS) - Whether openly debated or not, the issue of militant fundamentalism weighed heavily on many minds at the two-day summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Casablanca, Morocco this week.

Habib Defouad, political counselor at Morocco's embassy in Paris, noted that major concerns at the summit included "the crisis in Algeria, the ramifications of Iran's exportation of revolution and the dangers of urban guerrillas trained in Afghanistan.

"There was also a confrontation between moderate and radical Islam," he said. The moderates include Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia head the list of radicals, he noted.

"We saw the respective weight of the two blocs and of the fundamentalism in the final resolutions," Defouad said, adding that Morocco is "a window open on the West" for Muslims.

"In my opinion, in sub-Saharan Africa, black fundamentalism cannot prosper except by manoeuvres of external countries," he said. "Libya, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Scratch Sudan, they have no money. Saudi Arabia is the greatest danger."

A Western diplomat specialising in sub-Saharan Africa, who asked not to be identified, said Islam in that region is tolerant and in harmony with other beliefs even where it is a major faith.

"Islam is not new in black Africa. In Senegal it is nearly a thousand years old, there are different strains," the diplomat said. "But Christians don't suffer for being Christians."

Although Muslims are a substantial portion of the population in most West African countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, its fundamentalist version has burst on the political scene only in the northern tier of states.

"Muslims in West Africa are quite moderate, not politicised," he said. "Porto Novo, Benin, is an example. Half the town is Muslim and half traditional religions. People blend them together."

The diplomat noted that it is difficult to tell whether rumours of fundamentalist inroads in chaotic Somalia are accurate.

Kenya has many problems but fundamentalism among its east coast Muslims is not among them, he said. Likewise Chad, for all its internal conflicts and for greater "Islamicisation" in the north, is not racked by religious conflict.

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