Paper short abstract:

This presentation discusses the activities developed by the League of Mauritanian Ulama (October 2001/2012) and the recent emergence of concurrent Islamic militant forces that directly question the legitimacy of this state-sponsored organization.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will discuss the activities developed by the League of Mauritanian Ulama (LMU) throughout the decade mediating from its foundation, in the aftermath of 9/11, to the present; a period which has proven decisive both at national and global levels. The regime-change process initiated in Mauritania in August 2005, the substantial impacts on Islamic polities after the 9/11, as well as the much more recent Arab uprisings, all signal different, but nonetheless pertinent, aspects related to the commitments of the LMU. I will present some of the personalities affiliated with this structure, their basic corpus of publicised Islamic scholarship, and the LMU's effective use of new media technologies; signalling, at the same time, the emergence of new Islamic actors directly concurring with the state-sponsored LMU. Special attention will also be devoted to the role of the Tawassoul party (with elected representatives in the senate and the parliament, and already responsible for the administration of two of Nouakchott's largest "communes"), which stands out as a structured opposition to the LMU.

All of these actors, albeit their divergent agendas, participate in the political structure of the state, they are all associated with - different - transnational networks, and they all make use of new technologies in order to diffuse their programs. These common aspects shared by different Islamic agents, should anchor a debate which is prominently centred on political Islam and on the vitality of Mauritanian, but also regional, Islamic militancy.