Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem

Islam in Mauritania Between Political Expansion and Globalization: Elites, Institutions, Knowledge, and Networks

When M. Ould Taya, the president of Mauritania, was deposed in a coup d’etat on August 3, 2005, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy (Conseil militaire pour la justice et la democratie) which acceded to power promised to reestablish a true democracy and to allow open participation in politics. The members of the Council and of the transitional government were even legally excluded (by decree) from competing in the election, planned to restart the democratic process after the resolutely authoritarian rule of the previous regime, which had been in power since 1984. Consultative meetings allowed the signing of a national pact that was warmly welcomed by nearly all Mauritanian political forces. The new authorities rapidly implemented the measures they had promised: institutional reforms, recognition of new political parties, liberation of political prisoners, a new electoral calendar, creation of an independent electoral commission, and so on. But unlike all other elements, the Islamist movement (by which I mean the totality of projects and dis-courses which propose the political reform of Muslim states or societies according to an explicitly Islamic ideology) has not benefited from the new political climate. On one hand, the new regime did not consider certain “Islamist” prisoners to have been jailed only for expressing their opinions; on the other hand, it immediately and categorically refused to recognize any party based on religion. It is true that the research for this chapter was conducted before this notable political change; but it is unlikely that the state will recognize the Islamist movement in the near future. Even so, Islamist leaders are favorably disposed to the new authorities and seem to have suspended their political activities.

The paradoxes of Islamic radicalisation in Mauritania

Introduction: Antiphonal Responses, Social Movements and Networks George Joffe 1. Islam in Libya Alia Brahimi 2. Social Change, Regime Performance and the Radicalisation of Politics: The Case of Libya Mohamed Zahi Mogherbi 3. Tunisia: The Radicalisation of Religious Policy Mehdi Mabrouk 4. Radicalisation in Tunisia Alison Pargeter 5. The Causes of Radicalisation in Algeria Zine Mohamed Barka 6. Trajectories of Radicalisation: Algeria 1989-1999 George Joffe 7. Moroccos Radicalised Political Movements Rachel Linn 8. Salafism in Morocco: Between Religious Radicalism and Political Conformism Abdelhakim Aboullouz, with an introduction by Mohamed Tozy 9. The Paradoxes of Islamic Radicalisation in Mauritania Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem

Mauritania: A Saharan Frontier-State

The key importance of the peripheral areas of a frontier-state should be self-evident. At the same time, the history of the geographic margins of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania largely explains their successive fluctuation and their recent location in a manner that, in legal terms, is definitive. In addition, Mauritania is balanced between North and South in Africa such that its identity as a bridge between Black Africa and the Arab World is open to question. One of the most interesting of such questions is to establish how the state has responded, in political, social and economic terms to the double threats of balkanisation and isolation which have dominated its history in contemporary and earlier times. In the North, the Saharan conflict and its potential outcome weigh heavily on the evolution of acute aspects of domestic and foreign policy. In the South and in the East, patterns of events are not self-evident and the social life of frontier regions – smuggling, conflict, communication and the dual loyalties of populations – provide them with an ambiguous nature that sometimes results in violence, as emerged in the conflict with Senegal. This article seeks to confront these issues both in general terms and in terms of their geopolitical and domestic significance for Mauritania. It will draw on historical research and current sociological investigation in analysing significant political events that have had an effect on contemporary Mauritania.

Sur la formation des élites politiques et la mobilité sociale en Mauritanie

S’opposant a une certaine vision fixiste des categories ethniques, sociales, tribales, etc., l’auteur etudie les parcours politiques au sein de la societe maure contemporaine, en soulignant la part seconde des questions de representativite et la nature individuelle des carrieres qui se definissent en fonction des caracteres de l’Etat moderne.