Fifteen Jesuits from Asia, Europe, and Africa recently gathered in Senegal to discuss relations between Muslims and Christians. It was the first time the Jesuits Among Muslims (JAM) group was meeting in sub-Saharan Africa, and Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country. Only five percent of the population is Christian.
Although there are only four Jesuits in the country, the Society is responsible for a parish in Tambacounda, in the centre of the country, and is about to open a new centre in M’bour, 80 km south of Dakar, to work, among other things, at the service of interreligious dialogue.
Held from April 7 to 11, the meeting was convened by Indonesian Jesuit Fr Heru Prakosa who is Delegate for Islam under the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations in Rome and Coordinator of Dialogue with Islam for the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
On April 7, the group met two Muslim professors from the Cheikh Anta Diop University who presented on the history of Islam in this region of Africa and the origin of several conflicts involving radical Islam in some countries of the continent, especially Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Shabab in Somalia. Fr Jean-Marc Balhan SJ shared that the group learnt that one of the peculiarities of Islam in Senegal is that it is almost made only of Sufi brotherhoods and is very inculturated, which meant that the group often heard criticism of “Arab Islam” (Wahhabi) by Muslims themselves. The country’s fear of radical Islam was such that the two Indonesian participants had problems on arrival and their passports were kept at the airport during their stay. That afternoon, three African Jesuits spoke of their ministries: Médard Sane SJ on working for peace and reconciliation in the Central African Republic with the University Catholic Centre, Stephen Mborong SJ on the service of education with the movement Fe y Allegria in Chad, and Norbert Litoing SJ presented a reflection on interfaith marriages.
The next day, the group visited the Muridiya, the second most important brotherhood in Senegal after Tijaniya, in their holy city of Touba, 200 km east of Dakar, where the biggest mosque in West Africa stands. This brotherhood was founded in the early 20th Century by Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba (1853-1927) to reform Senegalese society against the French colonizers. Working was for them a way to get cultural and religious independence. Thus their motto that can still be read on walls is: “Work as if you would never die. Pray to God as if you would die tomorrow!”
Other presentations during the six-day meeting were Christophe Ravanel SJ on his experience of spiritual sharing with Muslims in the spiritual centre of Algiers; Tobias Specker SJ on teaching Muslim theology in German universities; Laurent Basanèse SJ on the question of “true Islam” in face of the diversity of interpretations; Joe Kalathil SJ on the reconciliation process between India and Pakistan; Victor Edwin SJ on the varieties of Islam present in India, also mentioning the challenge of “wahhabisation”, a concern shared by Fr Prakosa who spoke about “heterodox” Islam in Indonesia; Greg Soetomo SJ on Hasan Hanafi; and Fr Balhan on the evolution of the official presentation of Turkish identity in what is now called by the Turkish authorities “New Turkey”.
The last day was spent on a pilgrimage to Goree Island, one of the most important places of the transatlantic slave trade; and then to the controversial monument erected by previous Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade in 2010 to celebrate the African Renaissance in grand fashion.
JAM has been meeting since 1980. The next meeting will be held in Indonesia in 2017.