ABSTRACT
People consciously determine if and how they will practice respect and tolerance in circumstances particular to their lives, work, and social relationships. People's capacity for individual choice in religious faith is not greater or more diminished in other places, but Senegal's political and social context makes the conversation and the personal choices more visible. The nineteenth-century religious leaders who helped to shape contemporary Sufism in Senegal had varied approaches to their leadership and varied ways they interacted with state powers. From the beginning of the independent state, Senegal thus sought a fine balance between separation from religious authorities and cooperation with them. Secularism's goal is to both regulate religious diversity and promise freedom in that religious diversity. Senegal's political policies, traditions and practices of Islam, and people's own experiences and relationships combine to form the ideal of tolerance that is much discussed, both within Senegal and in writings about Senegal.
