Yeah Samake, the only Latter-day Saint in Mali, is running for president in the nation’s darkest hour. Recording his journey could be merely a dramatic human interest story for Meridian readers, but it is so much more. For those who barely know where Mali is (West Africa) and wonder why they should care, understanding this critical information may illustrate why a fellow Latter-day Saint finds himself on one of the hottest hot seats in the world—and why it concerns us as well.

In the last few months, the northern two-thirds of Mali has become a new nest of al Qaeda and Islamist terrorism. The violent Islamists there have had the aim of subduing all of Mali and transforming this fledging democracy into a terrorist regime.