The Ideology Problem in Timbuktu Is Not al-Qaeda’s Making — It Is Classical Islam

My wife grew up in Mali, in a small village in the south made up of Muslims, Christians and animists. Everyone got along fine. The north, then, was (as is true today) more dominated by Muslims…but there was never any threat or fear of violence. Tourists visited Timbuktu and toureg tribal areas freely. So, no, I don’t completely agree with this article. Yes Sharia and Islam go hand in hand theologically. But culturally it was not so until Al Quaida began to infiltrate.

Matt,  that was most likely before the Wahhabist brand of Islam became dominant, reinforced and supercharged with Saudi petrodollars.  The Saudis keep the scimitars off their chubby necks by funding the lunatic Wahhabi clerics, who in turn establish the mosques that preach this form of Islam.

Our administrations war on US energy causes us to have to depend on Arab oil and pumps money into the middle east to fund more and more evil in this world.  We need to cut off the supply of western and US money to those regimes, IMHO

Matt+, good point. 

Its also interesting to look at it from a long-term perspective - Islam as a whole is fearful, because it is losing ground to Christianity.  The islamic tide that swept down through Africa over the centuries is receding.  The front-line can be found in places like northern Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and now Mali (draw a line through them on the map).  Desperate islamists seek to turn back the Christian tide by violence, which is terrible for the victims of it, but unlikely to work in the long term.

Pray for the African Union states as they are considering the despatch of a UN-backed peace-keeping force to Mali.  Most of the troops are likely to come from Nigeria. 

This has a good precedent - troops from Uganda, Burundi, and Kenya formed the backone of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) starting in 2008, which has pushed back the islamist Al-Shabaab in Somalia.  The UN-backed AMISOM has enjoyed far more success than its predecessors in Somalia, including US and UN forces in the 1990s.

The religious background is never highlighted in the media, but difficult to ignore - the African troops that have pushed back islamist militias in recent years tend to be Christian, and also from countries that have strong Anglican churches.

About a decade ago at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, I was in the audience for a performance of traditional Iranian music by a woman from Iran. After her performance she took questions from the audience. One person asked her if she faced any restrictions from the Iranian government. She said she was only permitted to perform for all-female audiences and to teach female students. Otherwise, she faced no restrictions on performing and teaching traditional music.

Compare that with what was happening in the neighboring country of Afghanistan under the Taliban: If any musical instrument was discovered it was destroyed and its owner was punished - most likely by being murdered.

There are obviously different interpretations of Shariah. The interpretation that bans all music is a radical interpretation, NOT a classical interpretation.