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If before 11 September 2001, many praised Mali as a model of democracy, secularism & toleration, many have now begun to express concern about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Mali. I consider a number of recent public debates in Mali over morality, so-called women's issues, & the proposed changes in the Family Code & show how the perspectives of many Malians on these issues are not new but rather relate to longstanding & ongoing debates about Islam, secularism, politics, morality & law. What is new is the way in which some Muslim religious leaders have been articulating their complaints & criticisms. Since the guarantee of the freedom of expression & association in the early 1990s, there has been a proliferation of independent newspapers & private radio stations & new Islamic associations with a coterie of increasingly media-savvy activists. I explore how some Muslim activists have used such outlets to articulate the concerns of some ordinary Malians, who face the contradictions of living as modern Muslim citizens in a modernizing & secularizing state where, in this age of neoliberal governmentality, the allegedly un-Islamic seems to be always just around the corner. References. Adapted from the source document.

At a time when so-called fundamentalism has become the privileged analytical frame for understanding Muslim societies past and present, this study offers an alternative perspective on Islam.