R 241326Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT LOUIS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 4621
INFO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS PORT LOUIS 000194 
 
 
SECSTATE FOR AF/PD CANYASO, TAYBAR, LALLISON AND PEHRNMAN; IIP/G/AF 
AMURPHY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO KMDR SCUL PGOV PREL MP
SUBJECT:  RELIGION, WOMEN'S ROLE IN MAURITIUS: ROUNDTABLE ON OBAMA'S 
CAIRO SPEECH IS LIVELY 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  At an Embassy roundtable discussion of President 
Obama's June 4 speech to the Muslim world, secular-leaning reporters 
participated in a lively and wide-ranging discussion, with many 
ideas about religion in multi-confessional Mauritius.  A subsequent 
flyer distributed at Mauritian mosques around the island illustrates 
a much more negative response to the speech.  Most Mauritians were 
very positive about the speech, while most Mauritian Muslims 
welcomed Obama's new, positive tone but reserved judgment on how 
much policy change has arrived.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Interfaith Dialogue, Interfaith Partnerships 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) To supplement the extensive media coverage in Mauritius of 
President Obama's June 4 Cairo speech to the Muslim world, the 
Charge d'Affaires hosted an press roundtable June 10.  Attending the 
roundtable were reporter Hamish Ramdharry of the leading English 
language weekly "News on Sunday" and senior reporter Henri 
Marimootoo from leading French language weekly "Week-end."  Among 
the no-shows, unfortunately, was a Muslim journalist.  The CDA 
kicked off the roundtable discussion by emphasizing that President 
Obama is proposing a new beginning between the United States and 
Muslim communities around the world, based on mutual respect and 
mutual interests. Noting President Obama's comments on interfaith 
dialogue and interfaith partnerships, the Charge noted that it is 
important to develop interfaith programs that bring community 
service elements across cultural/religious groups in Mauritius, 
where such programs often channel service and help to one's own 
group only. She pointed out that the Embassy has focused on 
interfaith grants to organizations in various communities in 
Mauritius. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Mauritius a Religious Powder Keg? 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Ramdharry countered that "charity begins at home," but was 
eager to discuss how to translate the U.S. example to Mauritius. 
Religion should be a private matter, he believes.  Marimootoo 
agreed.  Mauritians give too big a role to religion, he said, which 
represents a deterioration since the 1950s and 60s.  Mauritius is a 
"powder keg," he went on, where unity is largely artificial. 
Religion plays a negative role, and "the last by-election was the 
worst" from his viewpoint. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Confronting Religion-Based Extremism 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) Asked whether they believed there is extremism in 
Mauritius, the reporters said yes, although Ramdharry called it 
"veiled extremism."  His example was recent student council 
elections where a number of students told him the issues meant 
nothing to them, they were going to "vote for the Brahmin."  Both 
the Hindu and Muslim communities are vulnerable to extremism, he 
said. 
 
-------------------------- 
Bias Flies Under the Radar 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Marimootoo saw no community that was immune to the virus of 
religion and religion-based extremism.  If someone says "I am not a 
communalist" (NOTE: a partisan of his religious community, END 
NOTE), then he is, according to Marimootoo.  Religion-based 
partisanship is subtle, because it needs no words, and can be based 
on last names alone.  "With my name, I am supposed to be a Tamil, 
but I am not," he noted.  When Mauritian Creoles (largely Catholic) 
protested against the death of the Creole singer Kaya in police 
custody, that was not originally about religion, but about 
class-based police brutality, he said.  Then "some wicked people" 
made it a religious issue. 
 
------------------------- 
Not Religion, but Justice 
------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Marimootoo sees Obama's references to Palestine and Israel 
as dangerous in the context of a dialogue with Muslims because for 
him the right of the Palestinians to their state is not based on 
religion, but justice.  He wondered why the U.S. has been "taking so 
long" to back a Palestinian state in reality: "even Bush said he 
backed it," he noted ironically. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Religious Mythology, Political Reality 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Asked if Muslim extremism exists in Mauritius, Marimootoo 
said the concerns are actually local, and have been twisted into 
religious concerns.  People are encouraged to see Mauritian politics 
and history along religious lines.  There is a mythology about 
independence that Creoles and Muslims voted against it, while Hindus 
supported it, but this is not the case, he asserted. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ramdharry, noting that he is a member of a Hindu social 
club, said politics in Mauritius is about appeasement of groups. 
Every religious group is represented in the Cabinet, he said, but if 
the Prime Minister simply picked the best people for the jobs, "the 
Cabinet might be all Chinese."  The Prime Minister is a hostage to 
people's feelings, stating one week in public that he deals with no 
one based on religious identity and the next week, in a closed 
meeting, promising to ensure that a religious group gets its share 
of government benefits. 
 
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Women's Rights and Attitudes 
---------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Nearing the end of the discussion, the Charge noted the 
President's points on women's rights.  She observed that girls are 
being educated in Mauritius in numbers as high as boys, at least 
until high school.  However, she questioned the lack of 
representation for women in Parliament, local councils and 
Ministries (with only two women ministers).  Marimootoo blamed women 
in Mauritius for not learning about politics.  "They are passive" 
except for a few active ones, but those few are heard so often that 
"they become boring."  Ramdharry acknowledged women's rights and 
said minds have to change in Mauritius. 
 
----------------------- 
A Tract from the Mosque 
----------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) On June 21, Muslim contacts gave an Emboff a copy of a 
flier, written in French, that had been handed out at local mosques. 
 The flier, purporting to come from "Hizb ut-Tahrir" (translation: 
"The Party of Liberation") is a hard-line Muslim response to Obama's 
Cairo speech.  Sprinkled with Quranic verses, the flier claims that 
the President of the United States, "the head of unbelief, whose 
hands were still stained with the blood of Muslims of Afghanistan, 
Iraq, Pakistan, etc." has not changed the policies of the United 
States, despite his "disconcerting gentle tone."  Those policies, 
according to the flier, are thoroughly unjust, but in the end "the 
world will witness the resurgence of the Khalifate and good will 
prevail in its every corner."  Despite the harsh tone and some harsh 
predictions, there is no call for violence.  Rather, there is an 
affirmation "to Obama and the world" that "Islam can count on its 
sincere and devout men to reestablish definitively the Islamic State 
in this world, not by exploitation or colonization or the pillaging 
of its resources, but by justice, the elimination of oppression, the 
reestablishment of the rights of those who have been deprived of 
them."  Some of the Muslim contacts who brought us a copy of the 
text voiced their outrage at the anti-Obama statements. 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. The reporters who attended the roundtable may not represent the 
center points here - they are often secular-leaning or not religious 
at all.  The writer of the mosque flyer appears to come from the 
other end of the spectrum, seeing the world through a specific, 
religious lens.  Mauritius is a notably religious nation on the 
surface, a place where churches are packed every Sunday, mosques are 
full every Friday, and temples of several kinds attract numerous 
devotees.  While many question how deep the devotion runs, for the 
vast majority of these worshippers, religion appears to play a 
positive role.  The dangers pointed out by the two reporters of 
religion being used as a divisive political force are real enough. 
At the same time, however, the various kinds of Hindus, Christians, 
Muslims, and Buddhists here have been rubbing elbows on this small 
island for several centuries in relative peace.  President Obama's 
speech brought some key issues to the surface, provoking a lively 
discussion.  The majority of Mauritians seem to have found much to 
approve in Obama's speech.  While a handful saw nothing good in it, 
the majority of Muslims here seem to have been pleased with the tone 
but to have reserved judgment on the substance.  Even the head of 
the opposition repeatedly used the Obama speech to note needed 
changes in Mauritius.  Post deems the speech to have had a strong 
positive overall impact in Mauritius. 
 
Blaser