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| Africa North |
| AQ in the Sahara |
| 2010-04-19 |
| Stephen Ellis, a scholar at the Free University Amsterdam, has a very good article on Open Democracy about what extremists are up to in the Sahara. "It is not often that the words "cocaine" and "al-Qaida" are plausibly linked. But these two forces are turning the western half of the Sahara - approximately from southern Libya to the Atlantic coast - into a locus of illicit money-making and radical politics. The development, quite a feat for a sparsely populated region, presents a challenge that the rich states to the north cannot afford to ignore." I spent some time in Mali not so long ago and thought it was one of those places that could suddenly become a "hot spot". At which point everyone would sit around scratching their heads saying, "Wow, we didn't know. That came from no-where". Well, it has been building and some of that has been reported. Stephen's article will give you a good round up on what's happened so far and what the situation is at the moment. If suddenly something horrible were to happen and all attention turned to the Sahel, I'm pretty sure that we will hear the usual thing about how all Muslims - whether in the Middle East, Asia or Africa - are all violent mental cases who follow a religion that tells them to kill and dance in blood etc etc. That will be pretty annoying. So, I'm also posting an article I wrote while out there about the spread of extremism in the region and the reaction of local communities. "In the market next to the grand mosque in the centre of town, Muslim women with their hair covered but their shoulders and arms bare barter for T-shirts emblazoned with photos of US President Barack Obama. In another part of the market, a young man in the austere Saudi-inspired dress of trousers hitched up at the ankle and long beard berates a bookstall owner for not carrying the "right sort of works". Yemen, Somalia, and those in the Maghreb that have been pushed across the borders to Morocco and Libya are of Strategic intelligence concern. CNAS is a daily check. |
| Posted by:newc |
| #1 ION ALLAFRICA > CLIMATE CHANGE A TICKING TIME BOMB FOR AFRICA. Jihad-happy Camels don't rely on PEAK OIL,+ a HOTTER EARTH means better food crops for same. WARMING-INDUCED NEW ARABLE LANDS + WATER SOURCES > means Radic Islam knows where to send their Hard Boyz time after next. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-04-19 02:40 |