To the country's Islamic leaders, Mauritanias bearded, white-robed preachers are devout Muslims spreading an interpretation of Islam they believe many have watered down.
For pro-Western President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, re-elected two months ago in a disputed poll, they are foreign-backed zealots out to turn Mauritania into a hotbed of Islamic extremism and topple his government.
"They'll tell you how to do the prayers, that you should grow a beard and tell women in the house to cover their heads," said Mohamed Sidi Ali, an observant Muslim like almost all of the 2.9 million people in this country which straddles black and Arab Africa.
"They'll be very careful not to offend you, but by what they say you understand they preach a more conservative brand of Islam than the one we see in this country," he said.
Taya's diplomatic about-turn over the past decade, moving from support for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to becoming one of Israel's closest Arab allies, has stirred considerable opposition at home. That discontent was reinforced by his silence over the US-led war in Iraq this year.
Even before a foiled last June coup attempt, Taya, who took power in a 1984 putsch and has since ruled with an iron hand, launched a crackdown on Islamists in the former French colony.
Scores of religious leaders were arrested in May and charged with threatening state security. Baathist opposition politicians close to Saddam were also targeted.
Taya said at the time that Islamists had incited people to side with the disgruntled soldiers behind the June uprising, which was crushed after two days of bloody fighting.
Two of the coup leaders had visited Saudi Arabia and were critical of Taya's pro-Western stance. But Western diplomats play down the idea that the foiled coup was anything other than soldiers looking for a better deal.
In July, several foreign-backed Islamic charities were shut down and a law passed that restricted mosque activities and required religious. leaders to seek the approval of the interior ministry.
Witnesses say some Imams make anti-American speeches at prayers and criticise Taya for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel -Mauritania is one of three Arab League states to have done so.
In his crusade against Islamic opponents, Taya has won the backing of the United States, which regards Mauritania as a possible breeding ground for Islamic militants.
Washington suspects al Qaeda cells have moved south along the ancient trade routes spanning the Sahara. It fears that with a long coastline, desert covering most of its territory and Algeria and Morocco as neighbours, Mauritania could prove an ideal base for extremists.
Diplomats and government officials acknowledge there is no firm evidence of al Qaeda penetration in Mauritania. Some critics say Taya is playing up the threat to get Western cash.
The country was one of the prime beneficiaries last year of the US Pan-Sahelian Initiative providing a number of states with US equipment and training to strengthen border security and help fight the "war on terror."
"There is no Islamic threat as yet. We've had no terrorist acts here. But we have to be vigilant," Taya's spokesman, Mohamed Vail Ould Beilal, told Reuters.
"People go to the Gulf and then come back here with different ideas, a different vision. We simply want to preserve our Islam as we've always known it," he said.
Mauritania is an Islamic republic but, as in most of West Africa, Islam here has traditionally been tolerant.
It is common to see women in brightly coloured veils, their faces uncovered, driving luxury cars around the capital - clutching the steering wheel with one hand and a cell phone in the other.
The sale of alcohol is officially illegal, but beer and spirits are freely available in some bars and most hotels. Islamic Sharia law has rarely been strictly applied and coexists with a Western-style legal code.
Analysts generally agree that Islamic radicals are finding it hard to build popular support in the country. And Islamic leaders say they are only raising issues relevant to Muslims.
Sitting on a row of cushions in his sparsely decorated house, Imam Abdoulaye Sarr, 34, laughs off any suggestion that people like him are spreading a message of violence or seeking recruits among the young and marginalised.
"When the police chief came to search the house and asked me if I had guns or explosives, I thought he was drunk," said Sarr, one of 32 Islamic leaders arrested in May and granted provisional release in August.
"The government doesn't want us to say things as they are. They don't want us to talk about the Palestinians or about Iraq. But if Muslims are killed in a war, then you have to talk about it. And if that means we are doing politics, then so be it."
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