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Africa: Southern
Radical Islam’s Move on Africa
2003-10-16
EFL:
Many students from Pakistan’s madrassas, or radical Islamist schools, are leaving to avoid arrest in a government crackdown on Islamic extremism. Some are going to Saudi Arabia, but hundreds are heading to more surprising shores — to Africa. Last month Mohammad Jamil, a spokesman for the Federation of Madrassas, said, "About 500 have already moved to South Africa. . . . Others are planning to pack their bags."
Had the same report, without as much detail, a month ago, from an AP story in Wash. Times. Guess the Post decided to run with it...
Islamic extremists in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania have turned to terrorism, and non-Islamic dictators, such as deposed Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, have developed economic links with al Qaeda. But more alarming is the spread of rigid forms of Islam, which are historically rare south of the Sahara and which are creating division, chaos and violence in both East and West Africa.
As if they don’t have enough of these already.
It's the happy hunting ground of Islam, chock full of tribal societies, some of which consider ignorance and brutality to be virtues...
Islamists in Kenya are pushing to expand Islamic law, or sharia, to include sentences of amputation in certain crimes, as well as stoning in cases of adultery, practices already in place in Nigeria. The chairman of Kenya’s Council of Imams and Preachers, Ali Shee, has warned that Muslims in the coastal and northeastern provinces will break away if sharia is not expanded.
That's a usual pattern. Once they're ensconced, they need their own state if they can't have all of yours...
Tanzania is experiencing a similar push for Islamic law. Saudi Arabia is funding new mosques there, and fundamentalists have bombed bars and beaten women they thought inadequately covered. Mohammed Madi, a fundamentalist activist, told Time magazine last month, "We get our funds from Yemen and Saudi Arabia. . . . Officially the money is used to buy medicine, but in reality the money is given to us to support our work and buy guns."
Tap, tap, nope, suprise meter doesn’t even twitch.
Mine quivered, but only at the honesty of the admission...

Note, also, that he says they're getting their dough from both Soddy Arabia and Yemen. Yemen's a poor country, where the gummint's trying to bring the Bad Guys under control, apparently sincerely. Perhaps they should have a closer look at where that money pipleline is — whether it's a religious charity or whether it's one of their import-export companies, perhaps one involving members of the bin Laden or an allied family...
Before President Bush’s visit this year to usually quiet Malawi, government security forces, assisted by Americans, arrested five suspected Muslim militants (two Turks, one Saudi, one Kenyan and a Sudanese) and flew them out of the country. In response, Muslim mobs rioted in Mangoci, burned six churches and attacked local priests. In Zambia this summer, police raided an Islamic school and found 280 students confined in cages, where they were forced to study military tactics and Arabic.
We heard about this, they were mostly children.
Similar patterns are evident in West Africa. The civil war in Ivory Coast has complex roots, but like other conflicts spanning religious divides, such as in Serbia or Chechnya, it has taken on a fanatic coloration. Muslim rebels have been sporting T-shirts adorned with Osama bin Laden’s face superimposed over a map of the country. Extreme Islamic law continues to spread and provoke violence in Nigeria, a country bin Laden has singled out as "ready for liberation." Meanwhile, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mauritania, Chad and even historically democratic Mali are also experiencing Islamist unrest, with riots and, in some cases, coup attempts. This Islamization is being pushed by Sudan and Saudi Arabia, which are trying to replace local variants with their own restrictive systems.
As they say, follow the money.
But as this newspaper has reported, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is also a major player. While he has provided financial support to thugs of Christian background, such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Charles Taylor, his goal, announced before 15,000 people in Benin in 2000, is to "make Islam triumphant in Africa."
He is an African, after all. He says so all the time.
The Bush administration is sending Special Forces personnel and upgrading anti-terrorism work in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania. But it is also thawing relations with Gaddafi, complimenting Sudan for "good cooperation" on terrorism and treating Saudi Arabia as an ally.
Well, I don’t think our position on Gaddafi has changed that much, and I’ll bet with Saudi that there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.
I think that at this point our relations with Muammar could actually become more friendly — he's said publicly he's gone out of the terrorism business (unless he can plausibly deny it, of course), and he's realized that he was backing the wrong horse in his glory days. He's still trying to figure how to make Libya into a capitalist country and still retain his revolutionary credentials. We could turn him, and I think Bush-Powell-Rice is smart enough to do so — if they want to. Muammar's already got strained relations with the Soddies, and it would tickle his vanity to be used as a counterweight to them, keeping in mind that he'd be counting the while on feathering his own nest.
Instead, the United States should demand that Tripoli, Khartoum and Riyadh cease their export of radicalism to Africa.
Agreed.
It should also encourage democratic development through the Millennium Challenge funds. If, as President Bush has said, "America is committed to the success of Africa" and has a "long-term commitment" to developing democracy there, it needs to counter the threat to democracy posed by the spread of extremist forms of Islam.
Other than building a fence around it, I don’t know what the hell to do about Africa. Stopping the Saudi money would be a good place to start.
Posted by:Steve

#8  In other words, ED B--they are where the Catholic church was during the Middle Ages--interest was usury but the Jewish money lenders were allowed to charge interest--when the ruler got too far in the hole--he expelled the Jews or started an Inquisition/Pogrom
Posted by: RonnieRaygun   2003-10-16 10:53:57 PM  

#7  Same goes for bribes. Bribes are forbidden, charitable donations are not.

Gifts aren't fobidden either. One of my sailors did something stupid in a Bahraini restaurant (cussed out the owner). Solved the problem by a)having him apologize in front of all and sundry and b) me buying dinner for the two Bahraini policemen and giving a large tip to the owner.
Posted by: Pappy   2003-10-16 8:49:56 PM  

#6  Ed, I wish my bank would wink wink - encourage me to make my payments late.

Thank you for the information about the interst loophole- the more I find out about people in the world the more facinating I find them.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-10-16 5:58:28 PM  

#5  Is the bribe acceptable in Islam - kind of like a replacement for the interest payment?

Sort of, Super Hose.. While interest, aka ursury, is supposedly forbidden in Islam, they have a rather neat way around it.

You can get a loan from someone, and they're forbidden to charge you interest. (ie, you borrow $100, you pay back only $100)

But late charges are NOT forbidden. So when a loan is made, there's an unspoken understanding between lender and borrower that the borrower will come in "late" to make a payment. (Late meaning something along the lines of "ohmyallah, it's 2pm, I was supposed to be there at 1:59...")

Then, the borrower is charged a "late fee" for not having made the payment on time. And if the late fee just happens to be the same amount that any interest might have been, hey, that's just one of those marvelous coincidences that Allah permits to happen in this wonderful world.

The entire process is winked at by the majority of Islam, with only the real psychos screaming about it.

Same goes for bribes. Bribes are forbidden, charitable donations are not. "I was just a little too busy to make it to a place where I could donate this money, your Honor.. will you please take it for me, and see that it's put to a charitable use?"

And it's just another one of those marvelous coincidences that the "most charitable use" that the judge could find was at his own home.

Funny how that works out, eh?

Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra   2003-10-16 3:47:49 PM  

#4  Sorry, that was 74 freed.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-10-16 2:37:15 PM  

#3  Mummar is expanding into Africa because he thinks the US doesn't really care if he builds a fiefdom to the South. The US demonstrated to him that our interests in the ME would thwart his efforts to be the new Salidin.
I am a little confused about the Sharia Law in Kenya. If Sharia Law is supposed to re-enforce morality throughout society, then why are all the
Kenyan judges being canned for corruption? Will throwing out these judges solve the problem, or just drive up the price of the bribes? Is the bribe acceptable in Islam - kind of like a repalcement for teh interest payment?
When you talk about child labor, don't leave out Nigeria. Saw a BBC article about 74 kids as young as 4 being freed from rock crushing duties in a granite pit.
I'm sure we can provide some manpower from Gitmo if the Nigerians still need their rocks pulverized manually.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-10-16 12:41:30 PM  

#2  I believe I read somewhere that the other rapidly growing religion in Africa is evangelical Christianity. This should be an interesting mix.
Posted by: John B   2003-10-16 12:01:56 PM  

#1  Let's keep the Zulus on our side.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-10-16 10:24:59 AM  

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