Accelerating with the attacks of September 11, 2001, but extending back more than a decade, studies of the growth of Islam as a source of political mobilization have proliferated, but few have examined political Islam on the African subcontinent or broadened the approach beyond transnational terrorism. On July 9, 2004, a conference of Africa experts from academia and the U.S. foreign policymaking community convened at the United States Institute of Peace to begin an examination of this shortcoming and its foreign-policy implications. Ambassador George Ward, director of the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Professional Training Program, and Taylor Seybolt, program officer in the Institute’s Grant Program, chaired conference panels. Presenters included Howard University’s Sulayman Nyang, the University of Connecticut’s Lucy Creevey, and George Mason University’s John Paden. Additional panelists included Malik Chaka, a staff member with the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, and Ambassador David Shinn, now at George Washington University and former ambassador to Ethiopia, and John Voll of Georgetown University. Africa specialist David Dickson organized the conference and wrote the report. Joseph Sany, an assistant in the Research and Studies Program, provided advice and assistance for the report. Paul Stares, director of Research and Studies, and Abdeslam Maghraoui, associate director for the Institute’s Muslim World Initiative, supervised the drafting of the report. The report provides a brief background on Islam in sub-Saharan Africa and its policy lessons for East Africa, the Horn, Nigeria, and Senegal. A future research agenda for policy analysts and overall recommendations for United States policy conclude the report.