In Burkina Faso, the line between fighting armed extremism and suppressing religious freedom has never been so blurred. Under the guise of rooting out the terrorist threat that undermines the country, the transitional government led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré is pursuing an unprecedented strategy of control and repression against the Muslim community, which is the majority in the country. Behind official rhetoric about “national security,” a real subjugation of Burkina Faso’s Islamic figures and institutions is being orchestrated from Ouagadougou. The question is simple: can a nation truly secure itself by alienating the very community it claims to protect?
Detentions, closures and the taming of imams
For several months, security rhetoric has served as a convenient justification for hunting down independent religious voices. Moderate imams, influential preachers and leaders of Muslim associations face arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention or forced conscription into the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). Their only crime: criticizing the junta’s methods, questioning the handling of the security crisis or simply calling for the preservation of civil rights.
At the same time, mosques and Quranic schools in high-risk areas are subjected to drastic controls, arbitrary administrative closures or systematic accusations of collusion with armed groups. By indiscriminately labeling any non-aligned religious discourse as “subversive” or “complicit with the enemy,” the authorities are instilling a climate of fear within a religious community historically recognized for its role in mediation and social cohesion.
Political instrumentalization and national fracture
This iron-fist policy has a clear objective: to neutralize any social force capable of articulating structured opposition to military rule. By targeting primarily local Islamic networks and figures, the transitional regime seeks to impose a single mindset and lock down public space.
Far from weakening the jihadist groups ravaging the region, this brutal offensive against religious practice risks producing the opposite effect. By stigmatizing the Muslim community, breaking customary and spiritual relays, and depriving the faithful of moderate reference figures, the government fuels a sense of injustice and alienation. By turning religion into an internal enemy under the guise of sovereignty and security, Ibrahim Traoré takes the major risk of atomizing the social fabric of a country already on its knees.
