KAOLACK, Senegal (AP) – Dozens of armed security forces descended on the Quranic school at night, arresting an imam suspected of having links to Islamic extremists in Nigeria.
As the forces encircled the home of Imam Alioune Badara Ndao, 300 boys from his boarding school ran into the dirt courtyard, panicked at the sudden appearance of the gendarmes in this peanut-industry town.
More arrests were carried out in the weeks that followed, including of three other imams accused of supporting Boko Haram, stoking fears that extremism could be sprouting in this predominantly Muslim, moderate nation that prides itself on its tolerance and co-existence with the Christian minority population.
“Until now the debate on terrorism was considered a distant one, but with these new arrests Senegalese perception has completely changed,” said Bakary Sambe, an expert on radicalism and religious conflict in Africa who is based at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. “People are starting to see this as a local reality.”
Authorities said they found a video on the night of Ndao’s arrest at the Quranic school last October that they said “glorified terrorism” and believe the imam had been meeting regularly with a Senegalese jihadist looking to set up a Boko Haram cell here after living and training in Nigeria.