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The Malian crisis has since January 2012 been on the front-burner. It is a crisis with a complex dynamics that is impacting negatively on the socio-economic and political life of the people. As efforts towards resolving the crisis continue to evolve with rapidity, the need for the active involvement of all actors in forging a multi-stakeholder framework for resolving the crisis is very crucial. For the Malian civil society, this need for involvement is especially felt because of the highly disruptive ideas of certain actors that have been posing as civil society since the onset of the crisis. It is in order to address the specific issue of seeming division within civil society as well as to define a coherent strategy for civil society involvement in the future resolution of the crisis that a Fact Finding Mission to Mali was deployed by WACSOF and CODESRIA. The deployment of the mission therefore underscores the solidarity of the entire West African Civil Society constituency with the Malian people in this time of great need, and serves as the first step in WACSOF’s intervention towards re-energizing the Malian Civil Society.

WACSOF and CODESRIA

This is a fatwa issued by the al-Azhar fatwa department on 24 October 2011 responding to a question regarding the permissibility of the destruction of graves.  The fatwa states that Islam prohibits transgression against the sanctity of the deceased and it is therefore not permissible to dig up their graves. In addition, the removal of any corpse from its place or from the mosque in which it is buried, especially the graves of the saints, the pious, martyrs and scholars, destroying its distinguishing marks by flattening it to the ground or destroying whatever is above it is prohibited according to the sacred law – no matter under which pretense it is done – and it is considered from amongst the major sins.

Translation of fatwa by E Moos

Detailles de la histoire de Douentza et l’occupation de la ville par rebelles du MNLA.

This article discusses the political relationship between Songhay askias in Gao and ulama in Timbuktu in the 17th Century, in relation to chronicles from this period.

JSTOR