Islam in Guinea

The Conakry Grand Mosque in Guinea, one of the largest mosques in West Africa

2005 official statistics for Islam in Guinea estimate that 85% of Guinea's 7.8 million people are Muslim. Most are Sunnis who follow the Maliki legal tradition and Qadiri and Tijani Sufi orders. There are also many Ahmadi Muslims in the country.^[1] Although the French established a colony in 1891, their control of the region was weak. After independence in 1958, the nominally Muslim Marxist president Sékou Touré discouraged Islamization; only after his popularity waned in the 1970s did Touré seek to co-opt Muslim institutions to legitimize his rule. Since Touré's death in 1984, cooperation between the Muslim community and the government has continued.^[2]

References

1. J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs. p. 1280. ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
2. John Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press 2003