Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09PORTLOUIS194
2009-06-24 13:26:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Port Louis
Cable title:  

RELIGION, WOMEN'S ROLE IN MAURITIUS: ROUNDTABLE ON OBAMA'S

Tags:  KPAO KMDR SCUL PGOV PREL MP 
pdf how-to read a cable
R 241326Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT LOUIS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 4621
INFO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS PORT LOUIS 000194 


SECSTATE FOR AF/PD CANYASO, TAYBAR, LALLISON AND PEHRNMAN; IIP/G/AF
AMURPHY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO KMDR SCUL PGOV PREL MP
SUBJECT: RELIGION, WOMEN'S ROLE IN MAURITIUS: ROUNDTABLE ON OBAMA'S
CAIRO SPEECH IS LIVELY

UNCLAS PORT LOUIS 000194


SECSTATE FOR AF/PD CANYASO, TAYBAR, LALLISON AND PEHRNMAN; IIP/G/AF
AMURPHY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO KMDR SCUL PGOV PREL MP
SUBJECT: RELIGION, WOMEN'S ROLE IN MAURITIUS: ROUNDTABLE ON OBAMA'S
CAIRO SPEECH IS LIVELY


1. (U) SUMMARY: At an Embassy roundtable discussion of President
Obama's June 4 speech to the Muslim world, secular-leaning reporters
participated in a lively and wide-ranging discussion, with many
ideas about religion in multi-confessional Mauritius. A subsequent
flyer distributed at Mauritian mosques around the island illustrates
a much more negative response to the speech. Most Mauritians were
very positive about the speech, while most Mauritian Muslims
welcomed Obama's new, positive tone but reserved judgment on how
much policy change has arrived. END SUMMARY.

--------------
Interfaith Dialogue, Interfaith Partnerships
--------------


2. (SBU) To supplement the extensive media coverage in Mauritius of
President Obama's June 4 Cairo speech to the Muslim world, the
Charge d'Affaires hosted an press roundtable June 10. Attending the
roundtable were reporter Hamish Ramdharry of the leading English
language weekly "News on Sunday" and senior reporter Henri
Marimootoo from leading French language weekly "Week-end." Among
the no-shows, unfortunately, was a Muslim journalist. The CDA
kicked off the roundtable discussion by emphasizing that President
Obama is proposing a new beginning between the United States and
Muslim communities around the world, based on mutual respect and
mutual interests. Noting President Obama's comments on interfaith
dialogue and interfaith partnerships, the Charge noted that it is
important to develop interfaith programs that bring community
service elements across cultural/religious groups in Mauritius,
where such programs often channel service and help to one's own
group only. She pointed out that the Embassy has focused on
interfaith grants to organizations in various communities in
Mauritius.

--------------
Mauritius a Religious Powder Keg?
--------------


3. (SBU) Ramdharry countered that "charity begins at home," but was
eager to discuss how to translate the U.S. example to Mauritius.
Religion should be a private matter, he believes. Marimootoo
agreed. Mauritians give too big a role to religion, he said, which
represents a deterioration since the 1950s and 60s. Mauritius is a
"powder keg," he went on, where unity is largely artificial.

Religion plays a negative role, and "the last by-election was the
worst" from his viewpoint.

--------------
Confronting Religion-Based Extremism
--------------


4. (SBU) Asked whether they believed there is extremism in
Mauritius, the reporters said yes, although Ramdharry called it
"veiled extremism." His example was recent student council
elections where a number of students told him the issues meant
nothing to them, they were going to "vote for the Brahmin." Both
the Hindu and Muslim communities are vulnerable to extremism, he
said.

--------------
Bias Flies Under the Radar
--------------


5. (SBU) Marimootoo saw no community that was immune to the virus of
religion and religion-based extremism. If someone says "I am not a
communalist" (NOTE: a partisan of his religious community, END
NOTE),then he is, according to Marimootoo. Religion-based
partisanship is subtle, because it needs no words, and can be based
on last names alone. "With my name, I am supposed to be a Tamil,
but I am not," he noted. When Mauritian Creoles (largely Catholic)
protested against the death of the Creole singer Kaya in police
custody, that was not originally about religion, but about
class-based police brutality, he said. Then "some wicked people"
made it a religious issue.

--------------
Not Religion, but Justice
--------------


6. (SBU) Marimootoo sees Obama's references to Palestine and Israel
as dangerous in the context of a dialogue with Muslims because for
him the right of the Palestinians to their state is not based on
religion, but justice. He wondered why the U.S. has been "taking so
long" to back a Palestinian state in reality: "even Bush said he
backed it," he noted ironically.

--------------
Religious Mythology, Political Reality
--------------


7. (SBU) Asked if Muslim extremism exists in Mauritius, Marimootoo
said the concerns are actually local, and have been twisted into
religious concerns. People are encouraged to see Mauritian politics
and history along religious lines. There is a mythology about
independence that Creoles and Muslims voted against it, while Hindus
supported it, but this is not the case, he asserted.


8. (SBU) Ramdharry, noting that he is a member of a Hindu social
club, said politics in Mauritius is about appeasement of groups.
Every religious group is represented in the Cabinet, he said, but if
the Prime Minister simply picked the best people for the jobs, "the
Cabinet might be all Chinese." The Prime Minister is a hostage to
people's feelings, stating one week in public that he deals with no
one based on religious identity and the next week, in a closed
meeting, promising to ensure that a religious group gets its share
of government benefits.

--------------
Women's Rights and Attitudes
--------------


9. (SBU) Nearing the end of the discussion, the Charge noted the
President's points on women's rights. She observed that girls are
being educated in Mauritius in numbers as high as boys, at least
until high school. However, she questioned the lack of
representation for women in Parliament, local councils and
Ministries (with only two women ministers). Marimootoo blamed women
in Mauritius for not learning about politics. "They are passive"
except for a few active ones, but those few are heard so often that
"they become boring." Ramdharry acknowledged women's rights and
said minds have to change in Mauritius.

--------------
A Tract from the Mosque
--------------


10. (SBU) On June 21, Muslim contacts gave an Emboff a copy of a
flier, written in French, that had been handed out at local mosques.
The flier, purporting to come from "Hizb ut-Tahrir" (translation:
"The Party of Liberation") is a hard-line Muslim response to Obama's
Cairo speech. Sprinkled with Quranic verses, the flier claims that
the President of the United States, "the head of unbelief, whose
hands were still stained with the blood of Muslims of Afghanistan,
Iraq, Pakistan, etc." has not changed the policies of the United
States, despite his "disconcerting gentle tone." Those policies,
according to the flier, are thoroughly unjust, but in the end "the
world will witness the resurgence of the Khalifate and good will
prevail in its every corner." Despite the harsh tone and some harsh
predictions, there is no call for violence. Rather, there is an
affirmation "to Obama and the world" that "Islam can count on its
sincere and devout men to reestablish definitively the Islamic State
in this world, not by exploitation or colonization or the pillaging
of its resources, but by justice, the elimination of oppression, the
reestablishment of the rights of those who have been deprived of
them." Some of the Muslim contacts who brought us a copy of the
text voiced their outrage at the anti-Obama statements.

--------------
Comment
--------------


11. The reporters who attended the roundtable may not represent the
center points here - they are often secular-leaning or not religious
at all. The writer of the mosque flyer appears to come from the
other end of the spectrum, seeing the world through a specific,
religious lens. Mauritius is a notably religious nation on the
surface, a place where churches are packed every Sunday, mosques are
full every Friday, and temples of several kinds attract numerous
devotees. While many question how deep the devotion runs, for the
vast majority of these worshippers, religion appears to play a
positive role. The dangers pointed out by the two reporters of
religion being used as a divisive political force are real enough.
At the same time, however, the various kinds of Hindus, Christians,
Muslims, and Buddhists here have been rubbing elbows on this small
island for several centuries in relative peace. President Obama's
speech brought some key issues to the surface, provoking a lively
discussion. The majority of Mauritians seem to have found much to
approve in Obama's speech. While a handful saw nothing good in it,
the majority of Muslims here seem to have been pleased with the tone
but to have reserved judgment on the substance. Even the head of
the opposition repeatedly used the Obama speech to note needed
changes in Mauritius. Post deems the speech to have had a strong
positive overall impact in Mauritius.

Blaser