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37 Fletcher F. World Aff. 45 (2013)
Towards an Islamic Republic of Mali

handle is hein.journals/forwa37 and id is 229 raw text is: 45 Towards an Islamic Republic of Mali? ALEX THURSTON On January 20, 2013, Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traor6 explained to government soldiers why they, alongside French troops, were fighting rebels in Mali's northern regions. Mali is at war, he said, because Malian women and men are not inclined to renounce liberty, democracy, their territorial integrity, or the republican and secular form of their country.' By referring to Mali's secular form of government, Traor6 implicitly rejected demands that Mali implement Islamic law, or Sharia, throughout its territory. Such demands came from the hard-line northern Islamist group Ansar al-Din, or Defenders of the Faith. Between the spring of 2012 when they commandeered what began as a separatist rebellion, and the winter of 2013 when French forces dislodged them, Ansar al-Din and its allies controlled much of northern Mali.2 Secularism, Ansar al-Din's leader lyad Ag Ghali told Reuters in a June 2012 interview, is disbelief.' Such statements suggest that Mali faces a stark choice between secularism and Islamism. Yet neither the political vision of Traor6, nor that of Ag Ghali, captures the range of Islamic political viewpoints that exist in Mali. This article argues that the future of Muslim politics in Mali will likely be more vibrant than either of these visions allows. Mali has attracted worldwide attention for its descent into chaos. Like others before it, the rebellion that broke out in January 2012 was aimed at the government in Mali's capital, Bamako, and led by the Tuaregs, a pastoralist ethnic group.' The causes of these Tuareg-led rebellions are Alex Thurston is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Northwestern University, where his research focuses on Islamic movements in West Afica. His writings on Islam and politics in the region have appeared in Foreign Policy, the Christian Science Monitor, World Politics Review, Islamic Africa, and elsewhere. He writes regularly on African affairs at the Sahel Blog (http://sahelblog. wordpress. com). VOL.37:2 SUMMER 2013

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