Senegal President Under Fire for Past Masonic Membership

It seems the president of the African nation of Senegal is in hot water over his past membership in Freemasonry. According to Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade has been outed by Paris' weekly l'Express magazine as a former Mason, and it's causing a row among the Muslim nations in Africa. According to l'Express, Wade was initiated many years ago into a lodge in Besançon, in Eastern France.

The Kenyan paper claims that Freemasonry is "usually associated with sectarianism, rejection of God, shady and satanic practices and more importantly as a practice incompatible with Islam." Nothing like an unbiased source of news, I always say.

Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade

The article goes on:

In a note sent to the French publication, the Senegalese president denied being a member anymore.

He said he resigned long ago. But he also openly admitted that he had been a member of a freemason movement in the past, out of “intellectual curiosity”, thus generating more controversy in the country where freemasons, rightly or wrongly, are viewed as a sect opposed to God’s supremacy.

In his answer to the article accusing him of being a freemason, Mr Wade wrote “It’s true, but I have to specify that I am not a ‘dormant mason’. I was deprived of my membership after a voluntary resignation.”

Following the revelations, one Member of Parliament, Imam Mbaye Niang, who defends Islamic views said the president should resign.

The allegiance of francophone heads of state to freemason movements is a matter of great speculation here and a subject that comes up in the media every now and then.

According to l’Express, only the Gabonese president El Hadji Omar Bongo Ondimba openly admits his belonging to freemasonry while many other leaders in West and Central Africa are reported to be active but “hidden” members.

Wade's letter was reprinted on the Pressafrik website and says he left the lodge in 1959, after failing to find "intellectual exchanges of a high level."