the northwest in the 1920s, while much of the Kaocen Revolt of Tuareg groups was inspired by Sanusiya sects in what is today Libya. More recently, Senegalese Nyassist Sufi teachers, especially in the Dosso area have gained converts, while some small Arab Wahhabite teaching is funded in Niger—as in much of Africa—through Saudi Arabian missionary groups. Contemporary Islam Government support The government does not directly fund religion and is legally separated from religious practice, but has funded several Muslim-oriented programs, such as a Muslim radio ministry and given US$18.5 Million in 1982 towards the establishment of the Islamic University of Niger in Say, itself founded and partially funded through donations from the Arab world. The government has made three Muslim feasts national holidays, as well as two Christian holidays. 1990s conflict In the 1990s there surfaced agitation for a move to the institutionalization of a Sharia legal system or even an Islamic Republic, attributed to elements of the Hausa-based Islamist movements across the border in Nigeria. The Maradi-based Movement for Suppressing Innovations and Restoring Sunnah - IZALA, allegedly funded by clerics from Jos, Nigeria pushed for greater adherence to their interpretation of Muslim law, and the conversion of those practicing other religions or holding Muslim interpretations inconsistent with these clerics. Tensions between these groups rose during the political instability marking the end of the Third Republic (1993–1996), attributed also to population movements of rural syncretic Muslims because of food shortages and political involvement of Nigerian groups and of the Niger military government who seized power between 1996 and 1999. Tensions culminated in a series of November 2000 riots surrounding a French run Niamey based fashion show which they deemed immoral. Violence in Niamey and Maradi, the center for most fundamentalist groups, spread to attacks on government, western, and Christian missionaries. The Nigerien government under both the Third Republic and (current) Fifth Republic has been swift and harsh in crackdowns on groups suspected of promoting religious intolerance, banning a number of religious groups and imprisoning leaders. Niger maintains its status as a secular state enshrined in the constitution of the Fifth Republic. Tolerance These events were seen then and now as more exception than rule, with interfaith relations deemed very good, and the forms of Islam traditionally practiced in most of the country marked by tolerance of other faiths and lack of restrictions on personal freedom. Divorce and Polygyny are unremarkable,