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Mauritania: Fears of Rising Religious Extremism in Tolerant Democracy
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
1 February 2008
Posted to the web 1 February 2008
Nouakchott
An attack on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania on 1 February and two other high-profile attacks since December have thrown into question the country's future as a modernising, tolerant Islamic Republic.
Mauritanians say the attacks are symptoms of a steady radicalisation of society that has been evident since a succession of highly repressive governments was ended with the installation of reformers in a 2005 coup.
"Religious sentiment in Mauritania has become much stronger [since the coup], similar now to many Arab countries," said Professor Yahya Ould Al-Bara, an anthropologist at the University of Nouakchott.
In the latest attack, the façade of the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott - the site of frequent protests against Israel's policies in the Middle East - was sprayed with a machine gun in the early hours of the morning. Three people leaving a nearby nightclub were wounded.
In December, four French tourists and three Mauritanian soldiers were shot dead by men accused of belonging to the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb terrorist group.
Mauritanians are traditionally tolerant Sunni Moslems, who from 1984 to 2005 under the rule of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya were forced by the state to adhere to an official government-condoned form of Islam.
Then, Islamists were viewed as a political threat and suspected militants were dealt with harshly, and the state made pains to be seen as welcoming to Arab but also American money, in 1999 becoming the only country in the Maghreb region to host an Israeli Embassy.
But in 2005 Ould Taya was ousted in a military coup, and following a period of military rule, in March 2007 the country held its first democratic election in 47 years, bringing in Ould Sidi Mohamed Cheikh Abadallahi as president.
Abdallahi is credited with introducing a more religiously tolerant, open form of government. Associations were allowed to form once again and an Islamist political party, the Rally for National Reform and Development (RNRD), was authorised.
Tuning in
Until the recent attacks, observers in Mauritania had measured the steady shift in their country's national character by the skyrocketing budget of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which reached $US12 million in 2008, and even the number of mosques in Nouakchott, which increased from 58 in 1989 to over 900 today, according to research by Al-Bara.
"I remember 20 years ago during [the Muslim holy month] Ramadan no-one fasted but today everyone does, or they are met with disapproval," a government official told IRIN. "There are also more veiled women and more bearded men. We've let this develop without realising [it]."
Increasingly, people are using satellite television - ubiquitous all around the vast, Saharan country and especially in the vast slums that ring Nouakchott's sandy centre - to tune in to Arab channels with debates on Jihad [Holy War] and analyses on the whereabouts of fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Mauritanians say.
Islamists in the country regularly launch Internet campaigns to denounce secularism in society, and in 2006 they convinced the government to cancel the 'Miss Mauritania' beauty contest, on the grounds that it contravened Shari'a Law.
Ahmed Ould Sabar, Vice-Imam of the Mosque of Charoufa in Nouachkott, said the terrorist's message is getting through loud and clear, with some young people even travelling abroad to train and fight.
"There are young people... who want to go to Jihad. It is our duty to put them in check," he said.
The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb terrorist group is accused of having recruited several Mauritanian youths into its training camps in the Sahara, a practice which has become more common since the democratisation of the country, one well-placed source told IRIN.
Unemployment
Nouakchott University's Al-Bara puts the growth in religious fervour partly down to the influx of nomads from rural areas to the capital, which led many of them to congregate in groups for the first time, and high unemployment rates which mean many men have little to do other than pass the time drinking tea or at the mosque.
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According to 2006 World Bank figures, two-thirds of the working-age population are unemployed and almost half of Mauritanians live in poverty.
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