By RFPosted on 10-10-2019Modified on 10-10-2019 at 03:21

The country, made up of nearly 95% of Muslims and overwhelmingly confrère, is regularly presented as an exception in terms of religious tolerance. But representatives of the country's major Muslim religious movements, grouped together in the "Unitarian Framework of Islam in Senegal," warn: recent events and the rise of extremism in the region are undermining this model.

There was the ban on the wearing of the veil for students of a Catholic school in Dakar in September, which created the controversy between Christians and Muslims. Insults, too, against fraternities, conveyed on social networks. So many signs, according to the Unitarian Framework of Islam in Senegal, that show that the Senegalese model of living together is threatened,

" Senegalese living together has a global reputation for strength and resilience. However, the skirmishes and other manifestations of the crisis of living together are multiplying between Sufis and non-Sufis, between Muslims and Christians, even within Sufi brotherhoods, sometimes of the same obediences, "says the president of the unitary framework of the Islam, Sheikh Ahmet Tidiane Sy.

In a context of religious radicalization in the region, the researcher Cheikh Guèye, also secretary general of the association, highlights the figures of Senegalese Islam, and focuses on education: " all the lessons of peace, cohabitation peaceful, of our great religious figures, are not taught in our schools. It is very important for our students, our students, to be imbued with these teachings, which represent the springs that are close to them, which can convince them much more than others that the exceptionality of Senegalese living together must be promoted and safeguarded. "

A Senegalese living together marked by the permanent interactions between religious and political spheres in a secular state, said the researcher.

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