Faith in the Balance Regulating Religious Affairs in Africa Editor Haim Malka ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 1 8/21/19 5:50 PM 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 2 8/21/19 5:50 PM Center for Strategic & International Studies 1616 Rhode Island Ave nue, NW Washington, DC 20036 202-887-0200 | www. csis .org Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, MD 20706 www. rowman .com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2020 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passage in a review. ISBN 978-1-4422-8121-9 (hb) ISBN 978-1-4422-8120-2 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-4422-8122-6 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 3 8/21/19 5:50 PM 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 4 8/21/19 5:50 PM Contents Acknowl edgments vii Preface ix Ellen Laipson Introduction 1 Haim Malka Morocco: Islam as the Foundation of Power 11 Haim Malka Tunisia: Searching for a Postrevolutionary Religious Equilibrium 34 Haim Malka Nigeria: Between Formal and Informal Religious Regulation 62 Alex Thurston Kenya: Cooperation, Co- optation, and Confrontation 85 Richard Downie Burkina Faso: State and Religious Authority in Turbulent Times 111 Sebastian Elischer Conclusion 137 Haim Malka v 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 5 8/21/19 5:50 PM vi Contents Index 143 Contributors 151 About CSIS 155 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 6 8/21/19 5:50 PM ACKNOWL EDGMENTS Many people played a role in this proj ect, which could not have been completed without their valuable efforts. Jon Alterman, se nior vice president and director of the CSIS Middle East Program, provided strategic guidance on the proj ect and feedback on the entire manu- script. His input was invaluable. Judd Devermont, director of the CSIS Africa Program, always made time to review chapters and pro- vide a real ity check on the sub- Saharan Africa components. Ellen Laipson, director of the International Security program at George Mason University, shared her wisdom and wrote the study’s preface. A number of people also provided feedback and comments on specific chapters. Ziad Munson, associate professor of sociology at Lehigh University, provided valuable comments on the introduc- tion. Nathan Brown, professor of po liti cal science at George Wash- ington University, and Intissar Fakir, fellow and editor in chief of Sada in Car ne gie’s Middle East Program, reviewed the Morocco chapter; Sarah Yerkes, fellow in Car ne gie’s Middle East Program, commented on the Tunisia chapter; Alexis Arieff, specialist in Af- rican affairs at the Congressional Research Ser vice, reviewed the Burkina Faso chapter; and Stephen Ruken, analyst for Maghreb Af- fairs at the U.S. State Department, commented on the Kenya chapter. I owe them much gratitude for their willingness to share their expertise. The study also benefited from numerous interviews and meet- ings with individuals and organ izations in Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and the United States. Some are cited, but others wished to remain anonymous. We would like to thank all of those who took the time to meet with the authors, both formally vii 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 7 8/21/19 5:50 PM viii Acknowl edgments and informally, to provide their valuable feedback and recom- mendations. Special recognition is due to two colleagues who worked tire- lessly to help complete this proj ect. Amber Atteridge, associate di- rector of the CSIS Middle East Program, ensured that the proj ect components stayed on track, guided all aspects of publication, and provided valuable feedback on the manuscript. Hannah Porter, re- search associate in the CSIS Middle East Program, was often on the front lines of editing initial chapter drafts and provided valuable re- search throughout that filled in many gaps. She also edited and provided feedback on the manuscript. Both were a critical sounding board throughout the proj ect phases, and I am very grateful for their support and partnership on the proj ect. Jennifer Cooke, the former director of the Africa Program at CSIS, helped conceptualize the proj ect in its early stages, and I am grateful for her intellectual partnership. CSIS’s Rebecka Shirazi guided all aspects of the book’s publica- tion and Will Todman reviewed the final manuscript. This proj ect also received valuable assistance from CSIS Middle East Program interns: Iakovos Balassi, Frances Fitzgerald, Sacha Gilles, Claire Harrison, Farah Oraby, Lauren Remaley, Asha Sawhney, Daniel Sharp, and Jonathan Thrall. We are grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for its generous support of this study. While this study benefited greatly from the guidance of nu- merous people, the content is the sole responsibility of the authors and should not be construed to represent the opinions of anyone as- sociated with the proj ect. Any errors contained herein are the sole responsibility of the chapter’s authors. 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 8 8/21/19 5:50 PM PREFACE It is indisputable that religion has become a more prominent factor in politics in the twenty- first century. Cases from every continent and nearly every religion demonstrate the rising salience of religion in defining identity and in organ izing socie ties, at the same time that confidence in and competence of governments are on the de- cline. What was once a clearly understood boundary in modern- izing socie ties between the secular function of the state and the personal, communal bonds of religion or ethnicity has become newly contested terrain. Formal institutions of government in both developed and developing countries are on the defensive, as newly empowered citizens and civil society challenge the dominance of formal public institutions to deliver ser vices and define national and individual identity. At the turn of the millennium, many po liti cal analysts celebrated the unifying and homogenizing effects of globalization. With greater mobility and improved access to information and tech- nology, people around the world would become more alike, as mil- lions of young global citizens, mostly in developed countries, were eager to shed the constraints of traditional cultural norms, including religion and the po liti cal affiliations of their parents. But that was not really the experience of most people, and a back- lash against what was seen as the new inequalities of globalization led to the realities of identity politics in many countries. Religion is often, though not always, the driver of identity politics and has become a power ful determinant of state- society relations in dozens of countries. In 2004, the National Intelligence Council’s quadrennial Global Trends report noted that “over the next fifteen years, religious ix 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 9 8/21/19 5:50 PM x Ellen Laipson identity is likely to become an increasingly impor tant factor in how people define themselves.”1 Al Qaeda’s attacks against the United States in East Africa in 1998 and in New York and Washington in 2001 transformed the discourse about religion in politics to a focus on extremism— and on Islam in par tic u lar. But extremism and hardline interpretations of religion were rising in other faith communities as well, from dif­fer ent sects of Chris tian ity, Judaism, and Hinduism, sometimes as an expres- sion of po liti cal opposition and sometimes within po liti cal parties that won elections and took power. In her 2007 book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. secre- tary of state Madeleine Albright traces the evolution of thinking in at least one Western capital, where diplomats have been trained to treat religion as a private, personal matter, not a topic for official policy exchanges. But that bright red line between state and church has become increasingly blurry and anachronistic, and she came to recognize the importance of learning about religious traditions, organ izations, and belief systems as a normal part of understanding foreign cultures and the political- cultural realities that shape leaders’ capacity to act. This impor tant and timely study, Faith in the Balance: Regulating Re- ligious Affairs in Africa, provides unique insights into how five gov- ernments on the African continent do just that: manage the politics of religion and the role of religion in politics. The study looks at each case— Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Burkina Faso— from the perspective of the state, complementing work that has explained religious organ izations and belief systems as they relate to the state, seeking to address grievances, or to access resources and security. One impor tant insight from the vari ous cases is the centrality of politics and power relationships, more than doctrinal theological debates, in shaping the state- religion interactions. In this study, the key questions relate to the changing strategies of states towards religious communities and institutions: What are 1. “Mapping the Global Future,” National Intelligence Council, 2004, 79, http:// www . au . af . mil / au / awc / awcgate / cia / nic2020 / map _ global _ future . pdf. 594-81493_ch00_4P.indd 10 8/21/19 5:50 PM Preface xi states’ goals in regulating religious space? What are the conse- quences of intervening or not intervening in religious life? Does a more robust government role in religious affairs lead to more do- mestic peace and consensus, or does it prove to be counterproduc- tive and lead to more religious opposition to the state? Can ministries of religious affairs or education change the direction of religious beliefs and be hav ior over time, or are those phenomena beyond the control or influence of the state? The five country chapters represent a fascinating mix of cases.