The Bamiyan Buddhas were infamously destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban in Afghanistan. A similar tragedy is unfolding in West Africa as Islamic fundamentalists are now destroying Islamic shrines and cultural heritage in Mali.

Earlier this year a coup in Mali was linked to the destabilization of the northern half. Military leaders hoped to squash rebellion but instead created a greater mess. The emergent political void was filled by militant rebels of the Tuareg, an ethnic group who has sought independence for more than fifty years as I’ve written before:

In brief: the Tuareg (who call themselves Kel Tamsheq) live in the southern Sahara, dispersed across the borders of several countries including Algeria, Mali, Libya, and Niger. Despite this separation they share a common language apparently related to Berber. They are perhaps most known historically for establishing the north African city Timbuktu in the 10th century near the Niger river and fostering trade including scholarship, literature and books.

They were essentially tribes of caravans around the Sahara with agricultural work performed by non-Tuareg serfs. Fast forward several hundred years to their fierce resistance to French colonization in the 1890s — colonial guns against swords of the nomads. The French feared them as raiders, which led to massacres of the nomadic minority. They were thus forced to sign treaties that led to oppression by the state. Their attempt to gain autonomy during the Mali independence movement in the 1960s failed and so they struggled as dislocated minorities through severe African drought in the 1970s and 1980 that devastated their livelihood. With little or no control of government, and rampant corruption, foreign aid rarely was distributed where it was needed most.

Their suffering resulted in a cultural revival and rebellion. By the start of the 1990s the Tuareg attempted again to gain more autonomy in Niger and Mali through armed resistance. This led many into years of rebel training camps, imprisonment and even exile to Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso. The mid-1990s, finally saw cease-fire agreements and they are apparently doing better under President Konare.

Also interested in control of the territory are fundamentalist groups such as the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), the radical Ansar Dine, and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM). These different groups initially worked under a common plan to establish control and setup a governing council. Things soon fell apart.

Last month representatives from the neighboring country Algeria brokered a meeting between the various rebels. It was soon clear that the MUJAO were intent on nothing less than forcing the territory into a fundamentalist Islamic state. That put them at odds with the Mouvement National de liberation de l’Azawad (MNLA), who expressed interest in a secular nation.

From a Western view it might be easiest to characterize the differences between secular and fundamentalist Islamic rebels in terms of their view of Westerners. Those with ties to al-Qaeda terrorist factions will try to capture or kill Europeans in Mali. Ansar Dine, for example, is led by a man trained by Pakistanis for jihad who amassed wealth by being involved in the business of kidnappings. Beyond this man’s distaste for secularism he clearly has a hatred of Westerners and is unlikely to form relations with non-Islamic states.

In contrast the MNLA are Tuareg and veterans of the Libyan army who already have strong ties to Western nations. The destabilization of Libya may have been a turning point that exposed Mali to rebellion; the Western-backed offensive in Libya enabled soldiers there to leave and create pressure in north Mali for ethnic sovereignty. These Islamic rebels have a very different profile from the jihadists, as noted in a harrowing tale of escape by two British during the coup.

…they were made an unexpected offer: the French embassy had contacts with secular Tuareg-led MNLA rebels who were offering them safe passage away from al-Qaeda factions searching the streets for Westerners.

That is why it is not surprising to read about a notorious al-Qaeda terrorist leader just reported as a casualty in a fight with the MNLA.

Dans un communiqué rendu public hier, le Conseil transitoire de l’Etat de l’Azawad (CTEA, ex-MNLA) annonce la mort de Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias «Belaouar», alias «Khaled Abou El Abbès», lors des affrontements armés l’ayant opposé au Mujao, le 27 juin, à Gao, ville du nord du Mali.

Although I have been watching the devolution of the country for years, I was hopeful Tuareg nationalists and secularists could work out a resolution with the religious fundamentalists. The best case would been negotiations to stabilize borders with Algeria and Niger, which in itself is a complicated problem given concern for ethnic nationalists living across them as I’ve written about before. Instead the heritage of the secularists appears to be threatened directly by fundamentalists and Mali is in danger of losing control to trained jihadists, which would expand the fight from from Algeria/Niger all they way into southern Mali…and create links into other jihadist struggles.

The difference between the nationalist-secularists and the fundamentalists is thus significant and a serious test of Tuareg nationalism. When Timbuktu was seized by the rebels in late May, fundamentalists threatened to destroy the historic site of Islamic learning that would obviously be a source of pride to a Tuareg nationalist.

The fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam objects to the veneration of saints’ tombs, maintaining that it amounts to saint worship.

“Salafis do not want there to be any intermediary between the believer and God. It looks like Ansar Dine is going after shrines just like other groups have done in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia”…

Some have suggested that attacks on shrines in Timbuktu by Islamic fundamentalists would be met by local resistance but thus far it has not materialized. Instead, yesterday the threats were realized and Islamic shrines in Timbuktu were destroyed.

“The tombs of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya in Timbuktu were destroyed Saturday by the Islamists… who are heading towards other tombs,” said one witness, whose report was confirmed by the source close to the imam.

In addition to three historic mosques, Timbuktu is home to 16 cemeteries and mausoleums, according to the UNESCO website.