US embassy cable - 05MAPUTO1427

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MAPUTO 001427 
 
SIPDIS 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/PD (LMING); AF/S (HTREGER); IIP/G/AF 
(SSITTON) 
PARIS FOR ARS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMGT, KISL, OIIP, KPAO, MZ, Islam 
SUBJECT: AMERICAN IMAM CHALLENGES IMAGE OF A BUSH HOSTILE TO 
ISLAM 
 
 
1. SUMMARY. American Imam Darryl Wainwright's description of 
a President Bush not hostile to Islam was one paper's 
headline in an otherwise low-key whirlwind Ramadan visit to 
Maputo. Wainwright - a salesman by background -- portrayed 
American Muslims as mainstream and drawing from the well of 
common values that have built up the U.S. American Islam, 
he said, is healthy and growing, in part because the U.S. is 
a pluralist, tolerant society that makes it possible for a 
faith to sell itself based on values and ideas. Eight area 
mosques welcomed Wainwright to pray, share Iftar, and speak 
about Islam in the United States. He pointedly avoided 
commenting directly on U.S. foreign policy, though he did 
ask his audience to recognize that it was mainly Arab 
Muslims - not Americans -- killing Muslims in Iraq. Maputo 
would strongly welcome Wainwright back to Mozambique. END 
SUMMARY. 
 
ISLAMIC COUNCIL PLAYS HOST 
2. American Imam Darryl Wainwright, aka Abu Haamid, gave a 
series of programs in the Maputo area October 22-26. To 
facilitate programming, PAS coordinated with the Islamic 
Council of Mozambique to set up activities in a variety of 
Maputo-area mosques. Accordingly, he attended prayers and 
spoke in eight different mosques ranging from wealthy and 
predominantly South Asian in ethnic makeup to relatively 
poor and black Mozambican, a spectrum that reflects the 
variety of the Islamic community. He also met with a 
Supreme Court justice and ruling Frelimo party 
parliamentarian, both Muslims. 
 
RELIGIOUS COMPETITION NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME 
3. Wainwright's message was consistent and upbeat. He 
emphasized that Islam not only existed in the U.S., but was 
alive and well to the extent of claiming some eight million 
adherents, and growing. In particular, Islam appeals to 
African-Americans, and he described briefly his own 
experience within the Nation of Islam. Muslims can owe the 
health of their faith in the U.S., he averred, to the fact 
that Americans are tolerant and accepting of religion in 
general, leaving each faith sink or swim on the strength of 
its message in what amounts to a marketplace of ideas. He 
cautioned that Islam's success is not a zero-sum game, the 
economic term he invoked repeatedly. All faiths gain by one 
faith gaining strength because the entire marketplace 
expands, challenging competitors to sharpen and adapt their 
messages. 
 
IMAMS NEED REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE 
4. Wainwright also wove his own professional background into 
each talk as an example of the need for Muslims to obtain as 
broad an education and practical experience as possible. He 
noted that he studied Islam in the Middle East, and 
accordingly learned Arabic on the way to becoming an imam 
(he was comfortable speaking courtesy Arabic to imams, and 
was able to make numerous references to the Arabic 
original). But he was also in the business world. He 
studied business and psychology, and has made a career first 
as a car salesman and then as a personnel consultant. This 
practical grounding has made him a more effective imam, he 
said. He strongly suggested that Muslim education include 
the liberal arts and sciences, declaring that theology 
without worldly experience does not pass muster. 
 
TOUGH QUESTIONS ON IRAQ 
5. On October 24, PAS hosted Wainwright for a roundtable, 
which included non-Muslim journalists and the Catholic 
Archbishop of Maputo. In addition to discussing American 
Islam, he handled several questions on U.S. foreign policy. 
What did he think of U.S. weapon killing the faithful in 
Iraq? He answered that his response was contradictory. On 
the one hand, he was an American (and Navy veteran), and 
felt called to defend his country and its actions. On the 
other hand, he suffers each time that a Muslim is harmed. 
Keep in mind, nevertheless, who's doing most of the killing, 
he added; it's Arab Muslims killing other Muslims. A non- 
Muslim reporter asked him to explain "holy war," or jihad. 
Wainwright responded with a scholarly explanation of jihad 
as a striving for something better. Mozambican Muslims, he 
said, ought to launch a jihad for education of their own 
people. A PAS-hosted Iftar followed the roundtable. 
 
GO NORTH, IMAM 
6. Invariably Mozambican Muslim leaders asked Wainwright if 
was traveling to the predominantly Muslim north. When they 
realized that he was only in the Maputo area for this visit, 
they invited back to focus on the north the next time. (In 
fact, with more lead time, PAS would have programmed him in 
the north as well.) He left Maputo with an open invitation 
to return. 
 
PRESS COVERAGE 
7. Post did not make general media coverage a priority since 
the Islamic community itself, not the broader Mozambican 
public, was the intended audience. Thus, Radio Islam, which 
airs to a Muslim audience of about 15,000, carried excerpts 
of Wainwright's PAS roundtable. Nevertheless, the 
independent daily Diario de Mozambique (press run of 10,000) 
ran an October 28 story headlined, "American Muslim 
Challenges Idea of a Bush Hostile to Islam." 
 
8. COMMENT. Wainwright established a person-to-person 
relationship for the Islamic leadership with an American 
imam, exactly what Post sought. He succeeded in showing a 
human face of an American Islam rooted in the African 
American community. We would enthusiastically support a 
return visit. 
La Lime