Sheikh Chérif Ousmane Madani Haïdara is a

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

figure in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

who has been the president of the High Islamic Council of Mali since April 2019. He is a follower of the

Maliki school The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the Maliki s ...

of IslamHolder, Gilles
"Chérif Ousmane Madani Haidara and the Islamic Movement Ansar Dine. A Popular Malian Reformism in Search of Autonomy"
''Cahiers d’études africaines'', vol. no 206-207, no. 2, 2012, pp. 389-425. and a

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

. In 1991, Haïdara established the Sufi-based Islamic movement Ansar Dine (also written Ançar Dine) - not to be confused with the terrorist organization

Ansar Dine Ansar Dine ( ''ʾAnṣār ad-Dīn'', also transliterated ''Ançar Deen''), meaning " helpers of the religion" (Islam) (Defenders of the Faith) and also known as Ansar al-Din (abbreviated as AAD), was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Gha ...

operating in the north of Mali. The movement is strong in southern Mali, the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and with Malian diaspora.

References

Malian Sufis Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Grand Muftis {{Mali-bio-stub