Editing Religious persecution (section)

====Persecution of Dogons====
{{main|Dogon people|Dogon religion}}
For almost 1000 years,<ref name="Griaule"/> the [[Dogon people]], an ancient tribe in [[Mali]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Caught in the crossfire of Mali's war|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/caught-in-the-crossfire-of-mali-s-war-8467800.html|access-date=2023-01-02|website=The Independent|date=25 January 2013| author= Kim Sengupta}}</ref> had faced religious and ethnic persecution—through [[jihad]]s by dominant Muslim communities.<ref name="Griaule">[[Marcel Griaule|Griaule, Marcel]]; [[Germaine Dieterlen|Dieterlen, Germaine]]; (1965). ''Le mythe cosmologique. Le renard pâle.'', 1. Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie Musée de l'homme, p. 17</ref> These jihadic expeditions were undertaken in order to force the Dogon to abandon [[Dogon religion|their traditional religious beliefs]] and convert to Islam. Such jihads caused the Dogon to abandon their original villages and move up to the [[Bandiagara Escarpment|cliffs of Bandiagara]] in search of a place where they could defend themselves more efficiently and escape persecution—which they often did by building their dwellings in little nooks and crannies.<ref name="Griaule"/><ref>''[[Africa Today]],'' Volume 7, [[Africa Media Review|Afro Media]] (2001), p. 126</ref> In the early era of [[French colonial empire|French colonialism]] in Mali, the French authorities appointed Muslim relatives of [[El Hadj Umar Tall]] as chiefs of the [[Bandiagara]]—despite the fact that the area has been a Dogon area for centuries.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wise|first=Christopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YNwCDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|title=Sorcery, Totem, and Jihad in African Philosophy|date=2017-03-23|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-350-01310-0|page=68}}</ref>

In 1864, [[Tidiani Tall]], the nephew and successor of the 19th century [[Senegambian]] jihadist and Muslim leader—El Hadj Umar Tall, chose to make Bandiagara the capital of the [[Toucouleur Empire]] thereby exacerbating the inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflict. In recent years, the Dogon have accused the [[Fula people|Fulanis]] of supporting [[Islamic terrorism|Islamic terrorist]] groups like [[Al-Qaeda]] and they have also accused the Fulanis of sheltering members of these same terrorist groups in Dogon country, leading to the creation of the Dogon militia [[Dan Na Ambassagou]] in 2016—whose aim is to defend the Dogon against systematic attacks. That action resulted in the [[Ogossagou massacre]] of Fulanis in March 2019, and the Fula retaliated by committing the [[Sobane Da massacre]] in June of that year. In the wake of the Ogossagou massacre, the [[List of heads of state of Mali|President of Mali]], [[Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta]] and his government ordered the dissolution of Dan Na Ambassagou—whom they hold partly responsible for the attacks. The Dogon militia group denied its involvement in the massacre and it also rejected calls to disband itself.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Matfess|first=Hilary|date=2019-09-11|title=What Explains the Rise of Communal Violence in Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia?|url=https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/what-explains-the-rise-of-communal-violence-in-mali-nigeria-and-ethiopia/|access-date=2023-01-02|website=World Politics Review|url-access= subscription}}</ref>