INTERVIEW-Senegal's Wade urges Islam to drop jihads
10 Mar 2008 13:41:21 GMT Source: Reuters
By Pascal Fletcher and Diadie Ba DAKAR, March 10 (Reuters) - The era of crusades and jihads is over and Muslims and Christians should strive to coexist and not allow extremists to drag the world into a war of religions, Senegal's president said ahead of an Islamic summit this week. President Abdoulaye Wade made the appeal before a meeting of the world's biggest Islamic body, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which he is hosting in the Senegalese capital on Thursday and Friday. Wade said the summit, which will bring together around 30 heads of state from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, would consider Islam's image in the world, especially since the September 2001 attacks on the United States. Since 9/11, Muslims around the world face what their leaders sometimes call "Islamophobia" -- discrimination and suspicion that associates followers of Islam with terrorism, violence and intolerance, especially in the United States and Europe. "We'll be tackling this problem in a reasoned manner, without any excessive passion, and without turning it into a world conflict, which it isn't," Wade told Reuters in an interview at his presidential palace at the weekend. The Senegalese president, whose country practises a tolerant brand of Islam, said he believed the past antagonism between Islam and Christianity should be consigned to history, and not be allowed to trigger a clash of civilisations. "I think the days of crusades and jihads are long gone," Wade said, referring to the religious wars that pitted the bodies of faith in a bloody struggle for power and influence that engulfed continents and lasted centuries. The octogenarian Senegalese leader said he did not believe either Islam or the West should allow individuals to push the world into a global confrontation. He cited riots in Islamic states caused by the printing by Danish newspapers of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. At least 50 people were killed in these riots in 2006, and demonstrations have flared again in recent weeks after Danish newspapers reprinted one of the cartoons in protest against a plot uncovered by police to kill one of the artists. "With these individuals who draw caricatures of the Prophet, we shouldn't be making a world thing about it, an affair between Islam and Christianity, I think that's a mistake," Wade said. "DIALOGUE WORKS MIRACLES" In Africa, where pioneering Muslim merchants and slave traders carried Islam into lands far south of the Sahara, Western governments are concerned about the prospects of Islamic militants launching attacks against Western targets and strategic sub-Saharan oil suppliers such as Nigeria. Al Qaeda militants have carried out major bombings and shootings in Algeria and Morocco, but the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania in December in an attack claimed by the group has raised fears of violence moving south. Al Qaeda leaders have made several calls for jihads to "cleanse" the north and west of Africa of "crusaders" -- the term it uses to describe non-Muslim Westerners. Senegal's Wade, himself a Muslim, said he opposed individuals who waged war in the name of Islam. "Even though this emanates from our religion, I consider these people are not good Muslims. Our understanding in Senegal is that a good Muslim does not use violence against others," Wade said. He cited Islamic texts and said the Prophet Mohammad was tolerant and had allowed Jews to worship in the mosque. Wade said he was encouraged to see Western countries like France allowing the construction of mosques in major cities. "All we ask as Muslims is that we be allowed to exercise our religion freely" in other countries, he added. He called on Muslim and Christian intellectuals to engage in a dialogue that fostered mutual tolerance and understanding. "We've seen that dialogue can work miracles," Wade said. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Secondary school students shout slogans during a protest held in front of a local school in the center of Algiers January 20, 2008. Students demonstrated in major cities across Algeria against ...
