VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAB #0959/01 2551850
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121850Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3519

UNCLAS ABIDJAN 000959 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PK PO QA RP RS RW SA SF SG SL SN SO SP
SU, SY, SZ, TBIO, IV 
SUBJECT: (U) ACTION COMPLETED: IDENTIFYING "CREDIBLE 
VOICES" IN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES THAT REJECT VIOLENCE 
 
REF: SECSTATE 122288 
 
¶1. (SBU) Embassy Abidjan completed action requested in 
reftel.  Here is the biographic information on three 
influential Ivoirian Muslim leaders who have favorable views 
of the United States and offer an alternative view to Islamic 
extremism. 
 
¶2. (SBU) El Hadj Aboubacar FOFANA 
Gender: Male 
DOB: February 21, 1943 
POB: Cote d'Ivoire 
Sect: Sunni 
 
Background: El Hadj Fofana has a diploma in commerce from the 
University of Cairo (Jamuatou Kahira). He is a retired 
Director of Human Resources at the Societe Ivoirienne de 
Banque, the largest Ivoirian bank.  He is Imam of the Aghien 
Mosque in Abidjan and chairman of the Higher Council of 
Imams, the largest association of imams in Cote d'Ivoire.  He 
speaks Malinke, French, Arabic, and English. 
 
Imam Aboubacar Fofana is one of the most prominent and 
influential leaders of the Muslim community in Cote d'Ivoire. 
 He is one of the architects of the current organization of 
the Muslim community and the modernization of the teaching 
and practice of Islam in Cote d'Ivoire.  He was also at the 
root of the creation of the various Muslim associations: 
Muslim Students, Associations (AEEMCI), Muslim Women,s 
Associations, the National Islamic Council (CNI), the Ivorian 
League of Muslim Preachers (LIPCI) and the Higher Council of 
Imams (COSIM). 
 
In 2002, Imam Aboubacar Fofana was selected by Post to 
participate in the International Visitors, Program. However, 
a few days before his return to Cote d'Ivoire, the September 
19, 2002 war broke out and an imam was killed by 
pro-government militias while others received death threats. 
Imam Aboubacar Fofana believed that he would be the next imam 
killed because he was the spokesperson for COSIM and 
therefore for the Muslim community.  Imam Fofana has publicly 
denounced the treatment of Ivoirian Muslims and had been 
accused of fomenting the rebellion. 
 
Imam Aboubacar Fofana decided to remain in the US and to 
apply for asylum.   He spent four years in the U.S. where he 
reorganized the Ivorian as well as the West African Muslim 
community.  On April 25, 2006, Imam Fofana was designated 
chairman of COSIM by its members.  He therefore returned to 
Cote d,Ivoire on October 25, 2006 after four years of exile 
in the United States to assume the role of supreme guide of 
Muslims in Cote d,Ivoire. 
 
¶3. (SBU) El Hadj Idriss Koudoss KONE 
Gender: Male 
DOB: March 13, 1948 
POB: Cote d'Ivoire 
Sect: Sunni 
 
Background: Imam Kone has a diploma in financial and economic 
studies from the National School of Administration of Rabat, 
Morocco.  He is a retired civil servant and former State 
budget auditor at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.  Kone 
is the Imam of the Bilal Mosque in Abidjan and is the 
Chairman of the Executive Board of the National Islamic 
Council (CNI), the largest federation of Muslim associations. 
 He is a member of COSIM; Chairman of the Board of 
Administration of the National Committee for Organizing the 
Pilgrimage to Mecca (CNOPM); Chairman of the Board of 
Administration of Radio Al Bayane; Chairman of the Board of 
Administration of the Islamic Religious Schools Group (IQRA). 
 Since 2005, Imam Kone has been a member of the Executive 
Committee for the Support to the World Congress of Imams and 
Rabbis for Peace.  He is also a member of the World General 
Assembly for the Convergence of Islamic Legal Schools and a 
member of the Collective of Religious Confessions for Peace. 
Imam Kone speaks French and Arabic. 
 
As chairman of the largest federation of Islamic 
associations, El Hadj Idriss Koudouss Kone is a highly 
visible and influential leader of the Muslim community in 
Cote d'Ivoire. He serves as an intermediary between the 
government and the Muslim community and between the 
international community and the Ivoirian Muslim community. 
As such, he is very often invited by important Christian 
groups to participate in conferences in Europe on interfaith 
dialogue between Christians and Muslims. He has also been 
invited to international seminars on the various Islamic 
legal schools in the Arab world.  Imam Kone was instrumental 
with a few other religious and NGO leaders in preventing 
outbreak of war on September 19, 2002 in Cote d'Ivoire from 
becoming a war between Christians and Muslims. 
 
¶4. (SBU) El Hadj Djiguiba CISSE 
Gender: Male 
DOB: 1958 
POB: Cote d'Ivoire 
Sect: Sunni 
 
Background: Imam Cisse has a Bachelor's degree in English 
from the University of Abidjan, a diploma from the Arabic 
Language Institute in Saudi Arabia, and a Bachelor of Arts 
from the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.  He is a 
member of several prominent social organizations including 
the National Committee Against AIDS, the National Committee 
against the Worst Forms of Traditional Practices.  He is a 
founding member of the National Forum of Religious Groups in 
Cote d'Ivoire.  Imam Cisse is imam of the Plateau Mosque in 
Abidjan.  He is also Vice President of the National Islamic 
Council, spokesman for COSIM, Director General of Radio Al 
Bayane, and founder of the most important Islamic 
humanitarian NGO in Cote d'Ivoire, the Djigui Foundation.  He 
speaks Malinke, French and English. 
 
As Imam of the Plateau Mosque (since 1988), Deputy 
Spokesperson, then Spokesperson for the COSIM (since 1998 and 
2006), Vice President of the National Islamic Council (since 
1993), host of nationally televised Islamic Information 
Programs (since 1988), and Director General of Radio Al 
Bayane (since 2001), Imam Cisse is a highly visible and 
influential leader of Ivorian Muslims. 
 
His influence is far reaching because very knowledgeable, 
articulate and open-minded.  He is often invited by national 
and international organizations as well as by the government 
to participate in conferences in Cote d,Ivoire and abroad on 
various issues including interfaith dialogue between 
Christians and Muslims and national reconciliation.  Imam 
Cisse is also well-respected by young middle class Ivoirian 
Muslims because through his foundation, he fought against the 
harmful traditional practices that prevalent in the Ivoirian 
Muslim community (i.e., forced and early marriage for young 
girls, lack of schooling for young Muslim girls, and female 
genital mutilation (FGM)). 
 
Imam Cisse well and favorably known to the US Embassy.  In 
1995, Post selected him to participate in an International 
Visitors, Program on Ethnicity and Pluralism in the United 
States. In 2005, his foundation, the Djiguiba Foundation 
received ESF funding to carry out public awareness campaigns 
about FGM and other harmful traditional practices in Abidjan. 
AKUETTEH