Teaching Pride in Islam through the Malian Empire

Many Virginians have Malian ancestors, and many of them were Muslims. We believe that Islam has had a deep influence on Virginia: were Thomas Jefferson’s ideas on FREEDOM OF RELIGION not derived from Islamic tolerance? The Puritans and Pilgrim fathers were not known for broad-minded tolerance: and they had been chased out of Europe by 100 years of discord between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Islam preaches tolerance (we are not talking about the intolerant extremism of Salafists, Wahhabists, Deobandists, the Taliban or other weird sects: we are talking about mainstream Islam as practiced by 1.4 billion people from Morocco to Indonesia and another 5 million in the United States of America).

The American destiny of many African ancestors took them through Richmond.

Developing a pride in Africa will help the new generations to improve their self-esteem and ambitions.

We can come to your school to offer in-class teaching about the medieval Empire of Mali and about Africa today.

We also offer training courses to teachers to support the SOLs for 3rd and 6th Grades.

We are professional West African teachers with a profound understanding of Mali, West Africa, the religions of Islam and Christianity, and the ancestral African monotheism that Abraham and Moses gave to the Jews. Yes, Africa and the Pharaohs bring new insights into world history!

HIRE US!

Lydie is a French West African teacher working in the Chesterfield County school system. Robin is British and Malian, author of books on West Africa and Visiting Professor 2002-2004 in VCU. Tall (tahl) is a Fulani name from Mali, and this doesn’t mean that Macky is especially tall!

The October 2005 exhibition Timbuktu in Mali at the Richmond Public Library was a great success, leading to the October 2006 exhibition on Malian music and culture. The Malian Ambassador brought the Prime Minister to Richmond in November 2005 and we created Virginian Friends of Mali to promote education and cultural exchange. ASK US ABOUT IT !!!

Our next teaching exhibition is scheduled for JMU Harrisonburg in March-May 2007.

If you want professional West African teacher workshops on Mali or on Islam and Timbuktu, in-school Mali events, story-telling for students, parents and teachers, or simply want to discover the wonders of West Africa, call

Teaching about Islam

The following are key terms relating to religion in the Islamic world.

SUNNI MOSLEMS are 80% of the Moslem world and 80% of Arabs, following a very un-hierarchical form of religion preached by the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon Him) after the hegira or hijra "flight to Medina" in 622 AD. Islam is based on a direct relationship between the Moslem believer and God. Leaders are the Imam of the local mosque, and intellectuals made famous through their reputation for great learning, wisdom and teaching.

SHIA MOSLEMS are the majority in Iran, with significant minorities existing in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Pakistan (where they are persecuted). Shias = ÔfollowersÕ are descended from those who followed the family of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) after the murder of the fourth Caliph Ali. In the Battle of Karbala AliÕs sons were defeated by politically ambitious people who established the Caliphate of Damascus; and Shism was born as a minority part of Islam. Theirs is a hierarchical structure with Ayatollahs and Imams at the top of the pile.

SUFISM, Islamic mysticism that began to develop in the 7th century, the first century of Islam. The term sufi (Arabic, "man of wool") was coined in the early 9th century as a name for mystics whose ascetic practices included wearing coarse woolen garments, or sufu; soon the term referred to all mystics, whether or not they followed ascetic practices. Sufism arose out of a desire to escape the hardships due to the social and political upheavals of the time. Jalal Eddin Rumi (d. 1273) is today the MOST ASKED FOR POET in English "speaking" bookstores!

ALAWITES separated from Shi-ism after the 7th Imam, they are on the margins of Islam with un-Islamic elements mixed into their mystical approach to God. 13% of the Syrian population, including the President, they are extremely powerful in politics and the army.

BAHAIS emanating from Shia Islam during the 19th century, they follow the precepts of the Bab and his son the BahaÕullah. Persecuted in Iran and Pakistan, they are a non-proselytizing and tolerant people, with their holy center in Haifa, in Israel.

DRUZES Middle Eastern Muslim sect mainly in mountainous regions of Lebanon and southern Syria. The basis of the Druze religion is the belief that at various times God has been divinely incarnated in a living person and that his last, and final, such incarnation was al-Hakim, the sixth Fatimid caliph, who announced himself at Cairo about 1016. The religion itself is an outgrowth of Islam but is admixed with elements of Judaism and Christianity. The Druze believe in one God, whose qualities cannot be understood or defined and who renders impartial justice.

MARONITES Christian community of Arabs, centered in Lebanon and in communion with the pope. Smaller Maronite groups also exist in Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, and the United States; their total number throughout the world is about 1.3 million.

COPTS (Arabic qubt; from Greek aiguptios, "Egyptian"), the major Christian church in Egypt, the name of which points to its national origins. Recent scholarship suggests that the origins of Egyptian Christianity are to be found among the Jews living in Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Often called a discriminated minority in EgyptÉin recent weeks, the Egyptian government, in a move to show respect and bring harmony, recognized Coptic Christmas.

JUDAISM, religious culture of the Jews, an integrated cultural system encompassing the totality of individual and communal existence. Judaism originated in the land of Israel (also known as Palestine). Subsequently, Jewish communities have existed at one time or another in almost all parts of the world, in a "Diaspora." Judaism's sacred writings are accepted by both Christianity and Islam, which accepts the Old Testament books as filled with God's "light."

Today, Rabbinic tradition, divisions called Orthodox, Reformed, Conservative and (in the smallest numbers of members) Reconstructionists, expressing degrees of adherence to law and practice and interpretation thereof. The State of Israel is riven by theological questions of great intensity concerning the question as to whether a Jewish State is compatible (or not) with the nature of "literalist" Judaism.

Similar questions are raised concerning the nature of Islam and the possibility (or not) or there being an Islamic secular State Ð modern Turkey proves that there is one, at least.

Islam was founded by Mohammed (Peace be upon Him and upon all the Prophets) and accepts all the Prophets of the Old and New Testaments including Jesus (known as the Prophet Isa). Mohammed declared himself to be the Last Prophet. This means that any one coming after him who claims some sort of prophet-like status is an Apostate (one who has renounced the tenets of Islam). This is why the Bahai - among others - are persecuted by Muslims.