Mali traditionally has been a very tolerant society with a lot of space for different religious minorities and different expressions of religious majorities too. That was the practice and the culture prior to the events in the north.
Part of the rationale for Tuareg uprisings hasn't been primarily religious at all. It's been levels of poverty and a feeling that they have not been sufficiently reflected in the political elite in the south and some ethnic divides as well.
Prior to the events of the past year, it's been quite tolerant. The Tuareg themselves do not have a history of that kind of extremism. It was the Islamist extremist groups who imported the extremist ideology. There are some Malians who form part of those extremist groups, but there are a lot from outside as well. They've imported that extremist ideology and that sense of oppressing the local population for their own extremist religious views.
Over the last year it got worse in Mali. We'll see what happens in the north, but the trend is good to push the extremists out. The fact that the Tuareg have indicated a desire to come back to the table to talk to the Government of Mali is a very important signal.
Across the Sahel, as I indicated previously, and as I think General Vance did too, Islamist extremist groups have become emboldened. They have created some links. Many of them have a very extreme ideology related to Jihad. Some are more extremists for hire; there's a bit of mercenary brigandry going on, but that's the lay of the land.