An African Vortex: Islamism in Sub-Saharan Africa

Riyadh’s program to spread the Wahhabi doctrine in Africa often functions through purportedly nongovernmental organizations.  Perhaps the most prominent of these is the Muslim World League (MWL) that, despite its purported nongovernmental status, was created and is maintained by the Saudi government.  MWL Secretary General Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki, for example, formerly served as the Kingdom’s Minister of Islamic Affairs, and it has been estimated that 99 percent of the League’s financing came from Saudi Arabia.[6]

Founded in 1962, the MWL advocates “the application of the rules of the Shareah either by individuals, groups or states” and develops “methods of the propagation of Islam in accord with the dictate of the Quran and the Sunnah.”  Toward these ends, the MWL and its various arms coordinate worldwide efforts of Muslim preachers, construct mosques, promote Islamic education and culture through the mass-media, and extend humanitarian relief to the misfortunate.[7]

MWL work in sub-Saharan Africawas initiated from the time of the organization’s founding, paving the way for an attempt at continent-wide Islamist coordination in 1976 with its sponsorship of the first All-Africa Conference held in Mauritania.  At the conference the MWL could already claim that it was providing in Africaimmense “moral and material support to Islamic organizations in accordance with the principles of our religion which ordains solidarity and brotherhood among Muslims throughout the world.”[8]  This would become the MWL’s leitmotif over the following decades.

Evidence of the MWL’s continued commitment to sub-Saharan Africa is found in its sixteen foreign offices located in the region (nearly half of the worldwide total), in addition to 36 (of 70 worldwide) offices of the International Islamic Relief Organization, a subsidiary body the MWL.[9]  Through these offices the MWL has done much to advance Islamism.  As the Islamist regime established its control of Sudan in the early 1980s, for example, the MWL gave Khartoum two million copies of the Quran for conversion work and assisted in the training of religious teachers.[10]

The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), established in 1972, is another Saudi maintained “independent” organization – its secretary general Sheikh Saleh bin Abdul Aziz Al Al-Sheikh doubles as the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs – actively promoting Islamism, funding at least 48 mosques in sub-Saharan Africa.[11]  Much of WAMY’s activity, however, is directed toward education.  In war torn Somalia, for instance, where youth are particularly susceptible to radical influences, the organization funded the Imam Nawawi educational complex serving 2,300 Somali students.[12]

Saudi Arabiaalso provides considerable official assistance to African communities.  An example of a channel for such assistance is the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) that commenced operations in 1974 – established to support development projects and programs primarily in Africaand Asia.  Between 1975 and 2002, the SFD granted loans to sub-Saharan countries totaling more than $1.9 billion.[13]  Additionally, over roughly the same period the SFD provided grants to African countries facing exceptionally difficult circumstances in the amount of nearly $750 million.[14]  This assistance, while not explicitly designated as propagation activity, is part of the Islamization process.

Riyadhis also involved in overt propagation of Islam south of the Sahara– according to several Saudi sources, more money is provided to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs than to Saudi ambassadors for activity in Africa.[15]  While it is difficult to quantify the Kingdom’s involvement in the region, some anecdotal evidence hints at the scope of its activity.  Saudi Arabia has fully or partially funded numerous mosques and Islamic centers – that some accounts suggest number in the thousands – throughout sub-Saharan Africa: examples include the King Faisal Mosque and Center in Guinea ($21.3 million), the King Faisal Mosque in Chad ($16 million), Bamaco Mosque in Mali ($6.7 million), and the Yaondi Mosque in Cameroon ($5.1 million).[16]  The funding of these, of course, is often implicitly contingent on the appointment of a Saudi approved imam.

The Kingdom has similarly participated, on a grand scale, in propagation through formal education.  A donation of $13.9 million, for instance, allowed the construction of the KingFahdCharityComplexPlazathat serves as an endowment for the Islamic University in Uganda.[17]  Similarly, the International University of Africa (formerly the Islamic African Center) in Sudan, established to, in the words of its first director, “fight against the hatred and rancour towards Arabs and Islam which European colonialism has implanted in the hearts of Africans,” has received considerable funding from Saudi Arabia.[18] Less conspicuous is Saudi support for innumerable madrassas that are, as explained by one Ethiopian journalist, “jihad factories nurturing potential bin Ladens.”[19]