Ibrahim Kontao “studied theology in Saudi Arabia, heads Mali’s wealthiest Islamic charity, known as Al-Farouk, which channels $3 million a year from donors in Gulf Arab states and Turkey.” This money goes to open health clinics in remote areas, but also for mosques and Qur’anic schools. Kontao busily signs checks “as men and women line up outside his air-conditioned office in the Malian capital, Bamako, to ask him for donations and help with their children’s school fees.”

Critics say it and other groups are championing the stricter Wahhabi school of Islam that inspires al-Qaeda- and Islamic State-affiliated militants who claim attacks across West Africa.

All over the world, oil money is fueling the global jihad. That is common knowledge. And such efforts are not limited to the spread of Wahhabism in mosques. Islamic leaders buy the minds and hearts of needy families, and their children, too.

“They gain people’s trust by taking care of their needs,” said Brema Ely Dicko… head of the Social Anthropology Department at the University of Bamako. “Today you see women wearing niqabs, something that used to be very foreign to Mali.”

“Gulf Cash Fuels Fight for Muslim Hearts and Minds in Africa,” by Katarina Hoije, Bloomberg, November 27, 2018: