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Africa
African Victims of Jihadism: Sudan, Nigeria, and
the East Coast
Jihadism is one of the Primary Sources of Instability and
Oppression in Africa
Coverage of the war on terrorism has focused on the Jihad against
the West, ignoring the fact that radical Islamist groups have
been targeting black Christians and animists in Africa for
decades.
Jihadism comprises several extremist Islamic ideologies, all of
which utilize terrorism and deny such fundamental rights as freedom
of religion, freedom of speech and women's emancipation. Among the
Jihadist ideologies are: bin Ladenism, Wahhabism, Khomeinism,
Ba'athism and Arafatism. Millions of black Africans have been
killed, wounded, raped, enslaved and displaced by Jihadis in
Sudan, Mauritania, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria.
The spread of Jihadist ideology in Africa is funded and
encouraged by such oil-rich Arab countries as Saudi Arabia. (The
state religion of Saudi Arabia is Wahhabism which is specifically
Islamic-supremacist.) Jihadism is promoted by the funding and
controlling of mosques and religious schools that teach religious
intolerance, especially of �infidels� -- Christians, Jews,
Hindus, Buddhists, animists and traditional Muslims.
Jihadists wage a war of terrorism against �infidels� -- they
slaughter innocent men, women and children for ideological purposes.
In Sudan, Mauritania and Northern Nigeria, Jihadist governments
persecute, enslave (literally) and massacre non-Muslims.
Along the East coast of Africa, from Somalia to South Africa, al-Qaeda
and its allies are creating terrorist centers, mainly in
remote areas plagued by poverty, conflict and weak state
infrastructures. Jihadist terrorists have conducted massive attacks
in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks that have killed hundreds of innocent
Africans, and which also aim to destabilize these countries'
economies and governments
Jihadism presents on of the greatest dangers to Africa. Aid to
Africa in the areas of counter-terrorism, education and
state-building are essential to the success of the global war on
terrorism.
Jihadists Violate Human Rights
Jihadists attempt to impose a strict, fundamentalist
interpretation of the Sharia � Islamic law. They use the Sharia to
impose their beliefs and justify oppression of non-Muslims and women
in particular:
Discrimination against women: Women and men are separated
in public gatherings, and women receive unequal treatment before
the law. A number of activities and professions are restricted
to men only. Men are usually not punished for alleged sexual
crimes, whereas women suffer corporal punishment and death
sentences even if they are victims of rape.
Religious discrimination: Non-Muslims are barred from
being judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in the Sharia courts to
which they can be subject. Sharia has been used in countries
such as Nigeria and Pakistan to restrict the construction of
churches; tax revenues are taken from people of all religions to
support Islamic revenues. Members of non-Muslim religions are
discriminated against in employment and education, and religious
freedoms are not upheld.
Imposition of strict codes of conduct on Muslims and
non-Muslims: Under the Jihadist interpretation of Sharia,
women are not allowed to show their hair, music and dancing are
forbidden, and contact between men and women is strictly
regulated by religious authorities.
Sudan
The Jihadist government is waging a genocidal against non-Muslim
Blacks.
Key facts:
� Sudan (pop. 35 million) is divided into an Arab, Islamic
north, and a Black, non-Muslim south (Christians and animists).
� In 1983, the growing radical Islamic movement successfully
pressured the government to impose Islamic law on the whole country,
prompting a rebellion by the non-Muslim South.
� In 1989, the Jihadists took power through a military coup led
by General Omar el-Bashir. His regime had close ties to Osama
bin-Laden, which made Sudan his home base in the 1990s.
� The National Islamic government has declared "Jihad
against the people of the South, to be totally eradicated or brought
under the banner of Arabism and Islamism.
� Sudan is listed by the State Department as a sponsor of
terrorism.
Twenty years of
systematic persecution and killing of non-Muslim Blacks:
� Forced conversion to Islam: Non-Muslim children are
often forcibly placed in madrassas (Islamic schools).
� Slavery: The Arabian slave trade of non-Muslim blacks
in Sudan is centuries old; today's slave raids into Christian
regions serve the purpose of supplying cheap labor to the north,
terrorizing the local population and waging jihad on the infidels.
Often adult men are slaughtered, while women and children (both boys
and girls) are abducted, sometimes gang raped, and taken north to be
used as concubines and laborers. Masters attempt to strip slaves of
their religious and cultural identities, giving them Arabic names
and forcing them to become Muslims. The UN Special Rapporteur on
Sudan and the U.S. State Department state unequivocally that Sudan
is the only government in the world today engaged in chattel
slavery.
� Famine is used as a tool of war: The Jihadist
government has prohibited humanitarian air flights and diverted
foreign food aid from the South. According to the U.S. Agency for
International Development, 2.6 million south Sudanese were on the
brink of starvation in 1998, and some 100,000 people have starved to
death.
� Military activities against civilian populations in the
South, including the bombing of relief facilities, hospitals,
schools, and churches.
� Since 1983 the war and famine-related effects have led to more
than 2 million deaths and over 4 million people displaced � the
death toll is greater than Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya
combined.
� The May 2000 report of
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that
Sudan is the "world's most violent abuser of the right to
freedom of religious belief."
Continued persecution despite recent peace talks:
� Although a cease-fire agreement between the rebel black forces
of the South and the Islamic government was mediated by neighboring
Kenya, in July 2002, the government's efforts to Islamize the south
and its bombings of civilians have continued.
� On October 21st, 2002, President Bush signed into law the
Sudan Peace Act, a bill that promotes the Kenyan peace agreement,
and states that Sudan has engaged in genocide and has committed war
crimes.
President Bush said on October 21st, 2002: �For too long,
the people of Sudan have endured slavery, violence, disease, and
forced starvation. The Government of Sudan must choose between the
path to peace and the path to continued war and destruction.�
Nigeria
The rise of Islamic extremism in the North is provoking religious
violence against Christians.
Key facts:
� Nigeria (pop. 130 million) is Africa's most populous nation,
with a predominantly Christian south and overwhelmingly Muslim
north. The President, Obasanjo, is Christian, while the Muslim
Northerners wield tremendous power through their control of
Nigeria's military.
� For fifteen years the army ruled Nigeria. In 1999, the current
President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was elected. Since then, Nigeria has
been struggling to establish a functioning democracy. Because of its
size, Nigeria's fate could have a tremendous impact on Africa's
prospects for breaking out of the poverty and warfare plaguing the
continent.
� Nigeria's progress is threatened by the growth of radical
Islam in Northern states, which are adopting Sharia (Islamic law),
and fomenting violence against non-Muslims.
The growth of Islamic extremism in the North:
� Imposition of Sharia: 12 of the 36 states of Nigeria
have imposed or signaled intent to impose Islamic law. Taliban-style
religious police patrol parts of Nigeria to impose strict dress
codes. In Zamfara State, all citizens must speak Arabic despite the
fact that the language is not native to the area.
� The imposition of Sharia is provoking inter-religious
violence: Dr. Paul Marshall at the Center for Religious
Freedom recently wrote: �In the past three years, some 6,000
people have been killed in Sharia-related conflict nationwide.
The governor of Yobe state has said he will keep the new laws even
at the cost of civil war. Zamfara [state] has begun buying arms,
something only the federal government can legally do, and Sani [the
governor of Zamfara state] has called for the Sharia states to form
their own army to defend Muslims and promote Islam.�
� Jihadist ideology threatens to take Nigeria in the
direction of Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan, which have been
wrecked by inter-religious warfare, and whose people, especially
women, are oppressed in the name of religion.
More than 6,000 people killed in Nigeria in inter-religious
conflict in last 3 years:
� Frequent Muslim riots against Christians or perceived
insults to Islam cause hundreds of deaths: In November and
December 2002, over 100 people were killed in Muslim riots against
the Miss World contest, and in response to a related article that
some Muslims considered blasphemous. From October 14-18, 2001,
protests against American air strikes in Afghanistan turned into
violent riots in which as many as 350 Christians were killed and at
least five churches were burned.
� Attempts to impose Sharia on non-Muslims lead to sectarian
violence killing thousands: In September 2001, riots following
the implementation of Sharia in Jano State resulted in at least 500
killed. In February and May of 2000 when the state of Kaduna
attempted to imposed Sharia on all citizens, fighting between
Muslims and Christians left over 2,000 people dead.
� Churches and Christian property are regularly destroyed:
On August 13, 2002, the government of Kano State told a church
delegation that half of the churches in the state must be closed
because of Muslim complaints about "too many churches."
Church leaders and Christian sources report that at least 20
churches have been destroyed in Kano over the past three years. On
March 7, 2002, 12 people were killed when gunmen stormed a Christian
prayer meeting in Enugu.
The East Coast of Africa: From Ethiopia to South Africa
Al-Qaeda infiltration is creating a terrorist network extending
along the Eastern coast of Africa.
Key facts:
� Since 1991, when Bin-Laden was based in Sudan, al-Qaeda has
been building a network of radical Islamic groups in the Horn of
Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia). As in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, al-Qaeda is exploiting the region's poverty, conflicts,
open borders and corrupt and inefficient governments to create a
"terror center."
� On August 7, 1998, al-Qaeda truck bombings against the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 240 Kenyans, 12 Tanzanians,
and 11 Americans, and injured over 5,000 people, mostly Kenyans.
� On November 28, 2002, two simultaneous attacks were conducted
against Israeli targets in Mombasa, Kenya. Al-Qaeda is suspected to
have been involved. In the first attack, suicide-bombers drove a
truck into an Israeli-owned hotel, killing 10 Kenyans and 3
Israelis, and injuring over 20 Kenyans. Around the same time,
terrorists tried to shoot down an Israeli aircraft using
surface-to-air missiles; had they succeeded they would have killed
more than 200 passengers on board.
The devastating toll of terrorism in poor states like Kenya and
Tanzania:
� The devastation of these attacks on local Kenyans and
Tanzanians is exacerbated by the poverty of these countries, which
have only very basic health care and no support services for victims
and their families. Many of the victims were the sole breadwinners
for their extended families.
� Kenya and Tanzania's economies rely heavily on tourism and are
particularly vulnerable to downturns in tourism as a result of the
attacks. Tourism is Kenya's third largest industry. It was severely
impacted by the 1998 bombings and was just beginning to recover.
Poverty, refugee camps and weak states create a fertile ground
for Jihadism :
� Somalia illustrates the potential for al-Qaeda to
thrive in the remote and devastated areas of the Horn of Africa.
Somalia is a collapsed state, with no effective central government
since 1991. Al-Qaeda began to build contacts with local warlords in
1992, and was directly involved in the 1993 killing of 18 American
peacekeepers that forced the withdrawal of US forces from the
region. Somalia then became a haven for Arab fighters who were
expelled from Pakistan.
� Somalia has a long border with Kenya, and a long, unguarded
coastline with the Red Sea. Jihadis conduct religious training in
Somali refugee camps similar to the Taliban's indoctrination
lessons. Somalia is suspected to have been the terrorists' entry
point into Kenya in 1998 and in 2002. The missile that was used to
fire on the Israeli aircraft is widely available in Somalia and
southern Sudan; it costs as little as $500 and has been used in
various conflicts in the region.
� Neighboring countries such as Kenya and Tanzania that attract
hundreds of thousands of tourists each year represent soft targets
for anti-Western attacks. The poor security and lack of border
controls make them easy to infiltrate, and Jihadist terrorists can
easily blend into the Muslim populations of the coast.
� Saudi Arabian money is transforming traditionally tolerant
Muslim communities into hotbeds of extremism. Wahhabi Islamic
schools and mosques funded by rich Saudis are mushrooming in the
coastal areas. Imams preach fiery anti-Western rhetoric, and exploit
remote conflicts such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the
Chechen war and the American campaign in Afghanistan to present
Islam as under assault by the West.
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