NIGER: Muslim leaders in Niamey denounce Islamist rebels fighting French and Malian forces in Mali

Record ID: 235929

  • Title: NIGER: Muslim leaders in Niamey denounce Islamist rebels fighting French and Malian forces in Mali
  • Date: 26th January 2013
  • Summary: NIAMEY, NIGER (JANUARY 25, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF STREETS, PEOPLE LEAVING MOSQUE AFTER FRIDAY PRAYER VARIOUS OF GREAT MOSQUE OF NIAMEY ISLAMIC ASSOCIATION BOUBACAR SEYDOU TOURE, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE NIGER ISLAMIC ASSOCIATION, WORKING ON HIS COMPUTER (SOUNDBITE) (French) GENERAL SECRETARY OF NIGER ISLAMIC ASSOCIATION, BOUBACAR SEYDOU TOURE, SAYING: "How can one leave his own country to occupy another? Those people who call themselves Muslims are not from Mali, they are foreigners who just arrived there. Who knows, it's like a new form of colonisation, who knows. The Koran says if two groups of Muslims fight each other then reconciliation must be sought, common understanding must be sought. If one refuses then the whole Islamic Umma must meet to fight the other." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN NIAMEY VARIOUS OF ISLAMIC COUNCIL IN NIGER (SOUNDBITE) (French) VICE PRESIDENT OF NIGER ISLAMIC COUNCIL, MOHAMED AG AHMADOU CHAFIOU, SAYING: "These people in Mali are attacking people, attacking women and all this, they say it's jihad but it has nothing to do with the jihad. They don't understand Islam." VARIOUS OF NIAMEY (SOUNDBITE) (French) ECONOMY AND LAW STUDENT, MOUSSA BAKO BOUKARI, SAYING: "I am against this intervention because the situation must be studied, looked at carefully first." PEOPLE WALKING OUT OF MOSQUE (SOUNDBITE) (French) STUDENT, BELLO MAMAN, SAYING: "This is not how to introduce Sharia laws or stage the Jihad. You don't act that way." VARIOUS OF CHADIAN TANKER TRUNKS GETTING FUEL AT NIAMEY STATION
  • Embargoed: 10th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Niger
  • Country: Niger
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA3CJ2PMAIJ82Y7KMKJZFK7SWXC
  • Story Text: Muslim leaders in Niger voiced their support on Friday (January 25) for the French military intervention in neighbouring Mali, endorsing the allied African and French combat against Islamists in Mali's north.
    In Niger - a country of 16.7 million people - 98% of the population are Muslim, with many religious leaders in Niamey saying the intervention is justified.
    Their Nigerien government has also shown its support for Mali's fight against Islamists by pledging to send 500 troops to Mali as part of an African coalition force meant to continue the recent military advances won against the Islamists in northern Mali.
    Boubacar Seydou Toure, head of the Niger Islamic Association, said the Islamists who took over northern Mali nine months ago are not from Mali and should have negotiated with the government in Bamako to make peace.
    "How can one leave his own country to occupy another? Those people who call themselves Muslims are not from Mali, they are foreigners who just arrived there. Who knows, it's like a new form of colonisation, who knows. The Koran says if two groups of Muslims fight each other then reconciliation must be sought, common understanding must be sought. If one refuses then the whole Islamic Umma must meet to fight the other," he said.
    Niger Islamic Council's Vice President, Mohamed Ag Ahmadou Chafiou, added that the al Qaeda-allied groups fighting to control northern Mali were not true Muslims.
    According to Chafiou, jihad in the true sense of Islam is a struggle with oneself to be a good Muslim - not violence.
    "These people in Mali are attacking people, attacking women and all this, they say it's jihad but it has nothing to do with the jihad. They don't understand Islam," he said.
    Bello Maman, a student at the University of Niamey, said he - like many of his peers -- thought the Islamists were not representing Muslims well, and he supports the French intervention.
    "This is not how to introduce Sharia laws or stage the jihad. You don't act that way."
    But there were some who disagreed.
    "I am against this intervention because the situation must be studied/looked at carefully first," said Moussa Bako Boukar, an economics student at the University of Niamey.
    France sent troops and aircraft to its former colony two weeks ago to block a southward offensive by the Islamists. French and Malian troops have been pushing forward on either side of the Niger River, securing several farming towns recaptured over the last week.
    Malian officials said French air raids on Thursday hit rebel positions at Ansongo, 95 km (60 miles) south of Gao - a location on the road to Niger, where Nigerien and Chadian forces are poised to join the fight against the Islamists.
    France has 2,500 soldiers on the ground in Mali as part of its Operation Serval (Wildcat), while a total of 3,700 French armed forces members are involved in the whole operation, according to the French Defence Ministry.
    African Union leaders at a summit in Addis Ababa called on the United Nations to provide emergency logistics to allow a nearly 6,000-strong African ground force to deploy fully in Mali.
    Only around 1,200 soldiers of the African intervention force for Mali, known as AFISMA and to be mostly comprised of troops from neighbouring West African nations, have so far arrived in Mali.
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