by Radwa Hassan, IOL Cairo Staff

CAIRO, November 1 (IslamOnline.net) – Burkina Faso witnesses an educational boom represented in Arabic-teaching schools, the number of which have reached 500. Graduate students amount to 150.000 annually. Yet, Muslims there still suffer the impact of the previous literacy, particularly on the political level.

“Muslims have recently exerted great efforts until they established schools to teach their children the Arabic language and the principles of Islam. Meanwhile, they added French, the official language of the country, to their curricula,” head of the general authority for Arab French Islamic schools, Sheikh Suleiman Konfi told IslamOnline.net.

Sheikh Konfi has demonstrated that an employment pre-requisite is that the applicant should obtain his high school certificate from a French school. That is why Muslims added French language to their schools’ curricula, underlining that Arab and Islamic school graduates suffer from unemployment.

The number of official state-recognized Arabic schools is currently estimated at 500. A decade ago, such number was less than 250 schools.

An authority has been established to provide the schools with services and act as a link among different Arabic schools and educational authority, according to  Konfi.

The authority is concerned with organizing training courses for teachers and sending them in scholarships to Arab and Islamic states.

Konfi added that Muslims in Burkina Faso seek to establish a Sharia faculty, too.

9/11 Reduced Aids

Sheikh Suleiman Konfi

On the effects of September 11, 2001 events on the curricula of Islamic and Arabic schools, Konfi said, “Educational curricula come from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Kuwait and the Sudan. When changes are made in such states, they will inevitably apply to us.”

Konfi said that September events had negative repercussions on the Arab and Islamic aids, either financially or in the form of scholarships, to Burkina Faso.

“We worriedly follow up the U.S. procedures to freeze financial balance sheets of Islamic organizations,” he said.

“Islamic World Relief Agency has been supporting a large number of orphans, yet, the Agency sent nothing for the past 6 months,” Konfi reiterated.

Muslims’ Weak Political Situation

Konfi emphasized that though Muslims account for 70% of the total population of around 12 millions, they do not enjoy the same significant political situation of the Christians.

Muslims dominate four ministries, out of a total of 26, and such four ministries do not have as much significance or influence as that of the ministries controlled by Christians.

The number of Muslim MPs does not exceed 20 out of a total of 115 representatives.

Konfi underlined that this small number can never influence the resolutions taken by the parliament.

On the reason for the political situation of Muslims, Konfi said, “This situation is due to the fact that Muslim families refuse to let their children join French schools, deeming them atheist schools, while Christians deal with the situation from an objective perspective.”

Konfi affirmed that the large numbers of Muslims have made them the focus of attention among election candidates.

“Any candidate goes to Muslims and asks them to vote in his favor. We give him our votes without return. Muslims have not matured politically so as to demand their rights and privileges in return for such votes.”

Konfi urged Muslims to move and take their full rights. He also called upon Arab and Islamic states to contribute to raising awareness among Burkina Faso Muslims through offering scholarships to them.

On the existence of tribal and ethnic conflicts in Burkina Faso, Konfi said, “We haven’t witnessed any tribal struggles. On the contrary, all tribes cooperate together”.

Rented Media Channels

On the Muslim media situation, Konfi affirmed that Muslims have no media channel through which they can express themselves.

“Up to this day, Muslims have no media channel to express themselves. We only rent some hours in the radio stations and TV channels every now and then,” Konfi said.

On mosques, Konfi said that there are 3000 mosques around Burkina Faso due to the efforts exerted by the Charitable African Muslims Committee, located in Kuwait. The committee is specialized in establishing schools and mosques in different African states.

Apart from those mosques, he said, there are several small mosques set up by Burkina Faso’s nationals in different neighborhoods and rail and bus stations.

Konfi said that there are serious attempts to set up the Higher Islamic Council in Burkina Faso to act as an umbrella under which all Islamic societies and organizations act. This council consists of several committees for Fatwa, pilgrimage and others.

On the Hijab (Islamic veil) in Burkina Faso, he pointed out that young women started to wear it, emphasizing that no problems face women in Burkina Faso due to wearing Hijab.

About social and marital life, Konfi affirmed that Burkina Faso had been famous for polygamy, but this phenomenon has started to disappear due to the difficult economic situation the people currently confront.