Introduction

In recent years there have been increasing reports of an upsurge in radical Islam, or political Islam, among Muslims in the West African Sahel. Evidence for this upsurge includes inroads by Algerian Islamist rebels, an influx of foreign Islamist preachers, and an expansion of indigenous Islamist communities. Four nations in particular, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad, are widely regarded as vulnerable to the influence of Muslim extremists because they abut the seemingly lawless Sahara, an unpatrolled expanse rife with trafficking and contraband. As a result, the United States currently ranks the Sahel as the number two front for Africa in the War on Terror. In response, various U.S. agencies have focused significant attention and resources on the region. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently increased development aid for the Sahel, believing that poverty makes Muslims there susceptible to foreign extremists. The Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Account, which provides supplemental development aid to nations that “respect human rights, and adhere to the rule of law” also targets certain Sahelian countries. In addition, the State Department established a little-publicized program in 2002 called the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI) for the purpose of providing training and support to Sahelian states to help them interdict Islamist terrorist activity.

This chapter will examine the emergence of radical Islam in the West African Sahel and Sahara and the U.S. response to it, as well as the threats to stability that it may pose in the region.