All along east Africa’s Swahili Coast — once a necklace of gems on the body of Islam — the faith of Mohammed seemed like a museum exhibit in a neglected side room. The Christians — from tribes Muslims had enslaved — were the rising power.
As far as converts go, Muslims are being
baptized (at great personal risk), but Christians aren’t converting to Islam. Wahhabi Islam’s rejection of joy just doesn’t speak to Africans — who even in misfortune seem incomparably alive.
Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the old mysticism of folk religion glides easily into
charismatic Christianity, but collides head-on with the intolerance of Wahhabism.
When I reached West Africa in later travels, it struck me that Islam never managed to penetrate the forests — and not for lack of trying.
Forests, as we know from fairy tales, are the abode of
magic — for which Sunni Islam has no space. Africans can interpret Jesus as the greatest of conjurers, a worker of miracles, a miracle himself. Wahhabism, with its barracks regulations, can’t compete.
nypost.com/2010/07/19/the…
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