The Intricacies of Being Senegal’s Lebanese Shi‘ite Sheikh (Lebanese Religious Leader in West Africa)

Abstract

Sheikh Abdul Monem El-Zein is an imposing figure in his long gray robes, white turban, and gray beard. He is a charismatic man, and when he speaks, people listen. He demands respect not only because he is the first Shi‘ite sheikh (Islamic leader) in Senegal, but also because he is one of the few highly educated men among the Lebanese community in Dakar. Here, knowledge is something to be shared, and Sheikh El-Zein is certainly not a man short of words. He lectures at more than four hundred occasions a year—weekly at Friday prayer, every evening during the month of Ramadan, and twice a day during the ten days of the Shi‘ite holiday of ‘Ashura. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he teaches religious classes for men, on Saturdays he teaches Qur’an classes for women, and he speaks at memorial ceremonies and various other community events. He lectures about religion, politics, history, moral issues, and the daily struggles the community might face. For example, his theme for Ramadan 2002 compared the Qur’an, the Torah, and the Gospels. He has encouraged the community to live life to the fullest, to be unafraid of death, to seek knowledge and education, and to quit smoking. He has used such occasions to talk about the dangers of the Internet, which contains good sites about religion, but also has bad sites about sex, which children should be forbidden from accessing.