Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07NIAMEY123
2007-02-12 10:00:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Niamey
Cable title:  

ISLAM IN NIGER (3): FAITH FOLLOWS THE DOLLAR IN

Tags:  PGOV PTER PINR EAID SOCI KDEM NG 
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R 121000Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3241
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0503
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUFGNOA/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NIAMEY 000123 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

AF/W FOR BACHMAN; INR/AA FOR BOGOSIAN; PARIS FOR AFRICA
WATCHER; PASS TO USAID FOR AMARTIN & KTOWERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR EAID SOCI KDEM NG
SUBJECT: ISLAM IN NIGER (3): FAITH FOLLOWS THE DOLLAR IN
AGADEZ

REF: A. NIAMEY 76


B. 06 NIAMEY 1193

Classified By: POLITICAL OFFICER ZACH HARKENRIDER FOR REASON 1.4 (D)

-------
SUMMARY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NIAMEY 000123

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

AF/W FOR BACHMAN; INR/AA FOR BOGOSIAN; PARIS FOR AFRICA
WATCHER; PASS TO USAID FOR AMARTIN & KTOWERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR EAID SOCI KDEM NG
SUBJECT: ISLAM IN NIGER (3): FAITH FOLLOWS THE DOLLAR IN
AGADEZ

REF: A. NIAMEY 76


B. 06 NIAMEY 1193

Classified By: POLITICAL OFFICER ZACH HARKENRIDER FOR REASON 1.4 (D)

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) NOTE: This is the third in a series of cables (reftels
A&B) reporting on the changing nature of Islam in Niger. END
NOTE During recent travel to Agadez, Poloff and AIDoff tried
to square an interesting circle. Traditional authorities -
the Sultan and Grand Mosque Imam - claimed that the Nigerian
inspired Islamic fundamentalist movement Ihiyaus Sunnah wa
Ikhmatul Bidi'ah (Izala for short) had been all but excluded
from the city by their tenacious stewardship of Sufi
tradition. This seemed born out in the street, where no
veils, beards, or other visible Izalist markings were
evident. Yet, upon closer inspection, emboffs encountered
other perspectives, and discovered several well financed and
conspicuous fundamentalist mosques. The search for an
explanation illuminated the role of traditional authorities,
"religious entrepreneurs," and foreign money in the
low-intensity conflict between African syncretistic Islam and
global Islamic fundamentalism running in the world's least
developed country.

--------------
THE SULTANATE OF AGADEZ: BUTTRESS OF
SUFI TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL POWER
--------------


2. (C) Elhadj Ibrahim Oumarou dit Sofo, the 126th Sultan of
the Air (pro. aye-air),has reigned in Agadez since January
of 1961. His dynasty traces its roots back to 1405. By virtue
of this lineage, the Sultanate of Agadez remains a symbol of
the north's independence and distinctiveness and a source of
pride for a region that often feels cut off from the
resources and culture of a demographically and politically
dominant south. Like the lesser traditional village and
nomadic "groupement" chiefs who owe him allegiance, the
Sultan of the Air is both a temporal and spiritual leader for

the people of northern Niger. The duality of his role is
expressed in the mud-brick architecture of Agadez's old
quarter, where the Sultan's Palace adjoins the city's
landmark 16th century Grand Mosque, with its hundred-foot
tall baked-mud minaret. The Sultan stressed his dual function
during a December 11 meeting with emboffs, in which we were
joined by the Imam of the Grand Mosque, the Grand Khadi Malam
Sidi. The two men stressed the importance of tradition and
downplayed Izalist influence in Agadez.


3. (U) The Sultan and the Grand Khadi are the paramount
religious and moral leaders of the Agadez Region. Like
traditional chiefs and Grand Mosque Imams throughout Niger,
they are recognized by the government and people as
authorities in civil disputes, family law, and in matters of
faith. They conceive of their role as the preservation of the
Islamic traditions brought to the region by Sufi saints 700
years ago, and they defend those traditions through a veto
authority over mosque construction and sermon content (reftel
A). Their traditions are based on Sunni Islam and the Maliki
school of jurisprudence practiced in Egypt. Both the
Quadiriyya and Tidjaniya Sufi brotherhoods played a role in
defining Agadez's brand of Islam in the 19th century. Indeed,
Quadiriyya's great popularizer, the Fulani cleric and Sokoto
Caliphate founder Ousmane Dan Fodio, studied in Agadez prior
to launching his (1804-1808) "jihad" to purify the faith.


4. (C) However open Agadez's Islamic establishment may have
been to Sufi innovation in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
the door seems to have swung closed long ago. There is little
space in the Sultan or Khadi's worldview for a tradition as
profoundly different and culturally disruptive as Izala. Both
men minimized the role of Izala in Agadez, while stressing
the disruptive aspect of its teachings on local culture.
Bianou, Agadez's traditional 23 day carnival, is a clear
throw-back to the animist past. The Sultan and Grand Khadi
noted that Izalists would ban all such festivals, effectively
"de-Africanizing" Agadez's very African style of Islam.


5. (C) Our interlocutors drew our attention to Izala's
resource base, while denying its influence on them. They
speculated that the movement received funds from abroad and

NIAMEY 00000123 002 OF 003


noted that they had been approached by Izalist activists who
wished to build mosques. Noting that "one does not speak of
money with traditional rulers, because no matter how much you
have, they have infinitely more," the Sultan and Khadi
claimed that they had sent such emissaries packing. At the
same time, they insisted that their traditional right to
approve or disapprove of mosque construction and
proselytizing remained effective. They cited various
instances in which they had forced Izalists underground, and
stressed that Agadezians had little use for the sect. They
cited one 2005 instance in which a mob of young people burned
down a straw Izala mosque.


6. (C) A subsequent meeting with another mainstream Sufi
cleric, Malam Barmou of the Nigerien Association for Call and
Islamic Solidarity (ANASI) suggested a slightly stronger and
more public Izalist movement, though one limited by
demography. For the last 30 years, Malam Barmou has run a
sort of Islamic teachers' college out of his home in the
city's old quarter. Offering advanced education in the Koran
and Hadith to between 100 and 200 other Islamic teachers, the
school is open to both men and women. Barmou also preaches on
the religiously oriented private radio network R M. Barmou is
a spiritual advisor to the Sultan and characterized their
relationship as mutually respectful. Like the Sultan and
Grand Khadi, he plays a role in policing sermon content. He
noted that he screens guest preachers for conformity with
ANASI's principles - namely, unity of religions and
understanding between them, and the inculcation of Islamic
faith through the demonstration of its virtues.


7. (C) Such moderation clashes with Izala's more
confrontational approach. Barmou noted that Izalists had
created "a militia of 150,000 people in Nigeria," and
expressed his concern that some Nigeriens may have gone there
to train too. He stressed the Hausa connection to Northern
Nigeria's "Izala zone," noting that most of Agadez's Izalists
were Hausas from Tessaoua (a town north of Katsina, Nigeria,
and just west of the Nigerien city of Zinder). Few Tuaregs or
"real Agadezians" were involved with Izala. While he conceded
that Izalists were building a big mosque with Saudi or
Kuwaiti money, Barmou argued that few of those who pray in
Izala mosques are true believers. Citing plausibly prosaic
considerations, Barmou noted that people pray in Izala
mosques because of their location in residential
neighborhoods, especially during the hot months when it is
hard for people to go all the way to the Grand Mosque.

--------------
A SECULAR PERSPECTIVE
--------------


8. (C) On December 12, emboffs met with local broadcast
journalist and political activist Serge Hilpron. Half French,
half Tuareg, western-educated and militantly secular, Hilpron
started his private radio station, Radio Nomade, in the early
1990s, taking advantage of the new press freedoms available
under Niger's democratizing government. A pro-democracy
activist, Hilpron remains a critic of corruption in public
life and the current Nigerien government. The Sultan's thesis
on Izala in Agadez found its antithesis in Hilpron's
argument, which suggested that better than half of Agadez's
Muslims were Izalists. "As with termites," Hilpron argued,
"though the penetration may be great, little is evident on
the exterior until the building collapses."


9. (C) COMMENT: The choice of analogy said something about
the way this modern, liberal, foreign-educated activist views
the Izala. Passionately committed as he is to the
modernization of his country and the maintenance of its
secular democratic order, Hilpron likely exaggerates the
extent of Izalist influence in his hometown. No one else in
Agadez claimed that Izala enjoyed anything like the popular
support that he suggested. Indeed, over the course of our
visit, most interlocutors were to argue that Izalists
comprise five-percent, maximum, of the city's population.
However, while Serge Hilpron, a long-standing Embassy
contact, might be guilty of alarmism he is not guilty of
fabrication. Even while controlling for the secular
intellectual's tendency to exaggerate reactionary influence,
emboffs felt that his concerns suggested that the
"penetration" might be much more extensive than the Sultan or
Grand Khadi cared to admit. END COMMENT.

--------------

NIAMEY 00000123 003 OF 003


RELIGIOUS FRAUD AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
IZALA THE AGADEZ WAY?
--------------


10. (C) Seeking to reconcile the views of Hilpron and the
clerics, emboffs asked other Agadez contacts about the space
open to Izalists and the popularity of the movement. One
answer was particularly revealing. A Tuareg ex-rebel leader
turned UNDP staffer noted that a cousin of his was the Imam
of a large new Izala mosque. NOTE: Izalists have five mosques
in Agadez out of a reported total of 100 END NOTE. The Imam,
"Hamaya," had traveled to Saudi Arabia, but had come back
inspired more by money than theology. His cousin jokingly
noted that Hamaya "likes money," and was probably impressed
by Izala's association with the wealth of Saudi Arabia and
northern Nigeria. Speaking seriously, our interlocutor then
noted that Hamaya had used 100 million CFA ($198,000) in
Saudi funds to build the new Izala mosque in Agadez - while
pocketing 20% of the money for himself.


11. (C) COMMENT: While Agadez has a history as an Islamic
center, it has an even longer and more distinguished history
as a caravan town and smuggling center. Clean business ethics
are not an Agadezian tradition, and, when foreign money is on
offer, Agadezians see opportunity. The notion that Izalist
construction is fueled by foreign money and local greed
rather than religious belief has considerable currency on the
Agadez "street." Coupled with the fact that one sees few
signs of Izala on those streets - none of the beards or
clothing so noticeable in the cities of the south - it
appears that foreign NGOs and preachers seeking to advance
Wahabist interpretations of the faith may be getting taken
for a ride by some shrewd local operators. Few Islamic NGOs
in Niger have any monitoring and evaluation controls to speak
of, and for every true believer, there are likely to be any
number of "religious entrepreneurs."


12. (C) The Tuareg leader's anecdote was telling. No
discussion of Izala got far without coming around to the
issue of money. No one in Agadez argued that Izalists had a
convincing or attractive theology to offer. All conceded that
their resources and their image of wealth and connection to
foreign sources of wealth made them attractive. Locals, we
were told, went to Izalist mosques simply because they looked
nice and new, or were convenient to their homes. Meanwhile,
Izala's foreign finances seemed to be attracting "religious
entrepreneurs" like Hamaya who embraced the movement for
personal gain rather than spiritual renewal. Traditional
rulers and Sufi Imams do limit the scope of Izalist activity
in Agadez, even though they can no longer exclude it
completely. But they may even accommodate it to satisfy the
demands of those who stand to profit from Arab largesse. In a
commercial town in a poor country, faith - or at least
professions of it - follows the dollar. END COMMENT
ALLEN