Political Participation and Religious Injunction: Trajectories of Muslim Activists in Senegal

This article highlights the endogenous modes of participation in Senegal which are not considered as such when international development programs aim to implement participatory mechanisms. By tracing the variety of practices of political participation set up by young muslims activits led by Sheikh Bethio Thioune, a charismatic and controversial Sufi leade, this paper wants to question the existence of a "religious injunction". The latter can explain the continuum of participation between religious and political spaces in which the group develops its public activities. Paradoxically, the public and political engagement of these young followers, although driven by the requirement of their religious leader, seems to empower their citizenship.