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| Smoke billowing from Westgate Mall after siege by terrorists |
Later as the story unfolded, the militants initially mistaken for armed robbers turned out to be terrorists claiming to be 'Mujahedeen' from the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab militants. Their claim, as proclaimed by their handlers on social media was that the men were 'Jihadists'. Theirs was a war on non-Muslims for the invasion of Somalia by the Kenyan Defence Forces.
The questions then arise: are these men indeed representing the interests of Somalis? Are they in reality defending their religion from Kenyan invasion? The simple and direct answer to both questions is a big NO.
To give an in depth perspective, Kenya did not enter into Somalia on the basis of religion. The main reasons were heightened incidences of insecurity in the country that were pouring across from Somalia and the continued piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The nail on the coffin was the kidnapping of a tourist in the Kenyan coastal resort town of Lamu by Al Shabaab militants. It is imperative to remember that one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for Kenya is tourism. And this kidnapping was a direct threat to that foreign earning. Something had to be done and done quickly.
The next big problem that the country was facing was the huge number of refugees that were flocking the Dadaab Refugee Camp; the largest refugee camp in the world. It is said, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he will eat forever. If Kenya continued to house this refugees, how would they ever be anything more than refugees? How would they ever fulfill their potentials? Accepting them as refugees was tantamount to giving the fish, teaching them how to fish would be stabilizing their country so that they can go back to their homeland, their motherland, their way of life; their religion. At this juncture it is important to reminisce and ask ourselves; if Al Shabaab represented interests and nationalism of the
Somali people, how come then the biggest refugee camp in the world is made up of refugees running away from Somalia?
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| Al Shabaab Fighters with faces cover using arafats |
They looted and plundered public resources at will while carrying out piracy at sea. It is important to note that stealing from public is one of the most heinous crimes in Islam that is castigated in the strongest of words. So, how then were the so called defenders of Islam at the forefront of breaking the basic laws of the same book of law they were claiming to defend?
Again, it is as simple as; these people are not Muslims nor followers of any religion. They are merely Muslims by name, exploiting religion to earn the spoils of the nations wealth and power. Al Shabaab is a criminal and terrorist organization. It is for this reason that the Kenyan government sent its troop to Somalia. The public, the umma should understand this fact.
Wow, very informative. Great article!
ReplyDeleteMost of what you say is direct, simple and true. I however tend draw the line at trying to differentiate Islam from Jihad terrorism.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm a Christian. And I've really tried to keep away my thoughts from thinking of Islam every time I hear a terrorist. However, this time when the war has come right into our doorstep - again - I'm inclined to look between the lines. In addition, actions of muslim extremist rebels in Arab Spring (and the non-reaction of Arab League countries) seem to agree with me on my conclusions.
Just backtrack a few weeks ago when MB Supporters came full force after his ouster by the Egyptian Army. MB doctrine (and may I say Leadership too) are embedded in the Islam doctrine and no muslim came outright and condemned MB from using Islam to their advantage.
Today, on 24th September 2013, after almost 4 days standoff between Alshabaab and our Security at Westgate, may I point out that no Muslim-governed country has sent condolence or support message to our Government and military? You can confirm this for yourself. We are "good friends" of Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Saudi, Qatar ...and over 20 more Muslim nations; None of them has condemned Alshabaab actions as un-Islam. All of them are very very quiet. Their ambassadors are within the country, but even they have not sent condolence message (even shingo upande). Obviously, they cannot do this if its not in the best interest of their nations...
What am I trying to say? Obviously, Alshabaab targeting "infidels" is very beneficial to Islam. We've seen the Kenyan Muslim clerics condemning this. But they never voice it as strongly as the know they should. In the back of their minds, they know they should look good for the Kenyan Govt. so the surveillance is not turned on them, but at the same time, they must ensure the worldwide Muslim community does not disown them for their stand.
From what I see, as long as your bad actions will be beneficial to the long-term success of Islam, it is OK for you to kill "infidels". It is OK to kill whole neighborhoods of "infidels" because you want to lead your country in Muhammed's way ... (like pro-MB supporters did to Christians). From my view point, Islam and terrorism just cannot be separated.
I can see your dilemma and which is quite understandable. However, a few points of clarifications:
ReplyDelete1. Several Muslim nations were the first to condemn the attack and include and not limited to: Sahrawi Republic, Iran and most importantly Somalia. You can confirm some of this info even on Wikipedia, 'Westgate Mall Shooting'.
2. Unknown to most people, majority of the victims of terrorism are actually Muslims. For example, how many are killed inside Somalia out of suicide bombings?Maiming by Al Shabaab and prior to that by the radical Islamic Courts Union (ICU), in Afghanistan, millions of Muslims perished under the tyranny of Taliban terrorism and cases of suicide bombing are still rampant from the capital Kabul to Kandahar. The script is no different in Iraq. Today, some of the most dangerous cities in the world include Mogadishu, Kismaayo, Baghdad, Lahore, Kabul, Mosul, Kandahar, Damascus...and the list goes on. All of these cities have one thing in common, they are predominantly Muslim cities (more than 97%) and victims of these crimes are Muslims.
3. In the scenario of Egypt, it is a case of a radical group of Islamic faithfuls coming to power, the Muslim Brotherhood. It is vital to take note that this group had been declared a terror group in 1948 by both King Farouk when Egypt was a kingdom and 1954 by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Egypt has all through been in leadership of Muslim leaders and it has been very stable with safe co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Judaists until the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. The same case in Syria, the Al-Qaeda funded rabels are now persecuting Christians, something that has not been happening since the Assad's came to power in 1967. In Iraq, it was not until the terror groups infiltrated the country after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein that faithfuls of other religions were persecuted. Important to note in Iraq case, the trusted Defence Minister under Saddam Hussein and a close confidant, Tariq Azziz was an Orthodox Christian.
4. Lastly, some of the most peaceful countries in the world have huge Muslim populations: Malaysia, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Brunei, Maldives and Morocco. The most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, is by large extent a stable country. So, this is a clear proof that Islam is actually a peaceful religion. But we can deny there are criminal elements who use the name of Jihad and Islam to propagate their own selfish agendas. One of the things that allows these groups to thrive is the general ignorance of Muslim populace about Christianity and other religions, and the general ignorance amongst Christian populace about Islam. The Qur'an clearly says that the Bible is a holy book from God to His children, and consequently, the coming of prophet Mohammed is foretold in the Torah, the Old Testament in the Bible. This means that the Jehovah in the Bible is the Allah in the Qur'an. So why are to closely-knit religions in so deep hatred of each other? From my perspective, I blame it on ignorance on both sides.
According to the Bible, when Jesus, (Issa in Arabic) was on the cross, He cried, "My God my God why has Thou forsaken me?" in Aramaic. He and His disciples spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew. The exact words in Aramaic were; "Eloi, Eloi, Lemana Shabakthani!". Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semetic languages and closely related. Note that Aramaic for God is 'Eloi' and Arabic is 'Allah'. This means it is indeed one and the same God both in Islam and Christianity!