This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6039
September 23, 2013
By WILLIAM MAYERSeptember 23, 2013 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – As PipeLineNews.org has been highlighting now for many years [please reference for example, Emerson Vermaat, The Al-Qaeda Threat From Africa, PipeLineNews.org, May 18, 2010] the threat posed by al-Qaeda linked jihadists has grown exponentially in Africa.
"…With 1.2 million Somali immigrants and hundreds of thousands of restive Somali refugees, many Kenyans now fear that the bloody conflict in neighboring Somalia could spill over to their country. Kenya shares a 420-mile porous border with Somalia. In the past Islamic radicals crossed the border undetected. About 11 percent of the Kenyan population is Muslim, most of them are moderates, but there are Islamic courts (or Kadhi's courts) and these are recognized by the government. Abdulkarim Jimale, a Somali journalist in Eastleigh, Kenya, told Dutch "NRC Handelsblad" correspondent Kurt Lindijer in January 2010 "that wounded Al-Shabaab fighters travel to Kenya to be treated in Kenyan hospitals. They recruit Somali youths in northeast Kenya and Al-Shabaab seeks to pursuade preachers to disseminate their (Al-Shabaab's) radical message in mosques..."Aside from the Uganda based Boko Haram Islamic butchers, al-Shabaab [Arabic, ?arakat ash-Shab?b al-Muj?hid?n, transltated as the Mujahideen Youth Movement] arguably represents the most serious threat to the fragile governments of the countries from which it operates.Al-Shabaab is one of many dozen Islamic terrorist organizations associated with al-Qaeda. So common have such linkages become the groups are often referred to as "al-Qaeda franchises," just like your local McDonald's [hold the blood and gore sauce please] in form.
Kenya, Africa is located in East Africa and borders the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately the country is adjacent to Somalia, a jihadist stronghold for al-Shabaab against which Kenyan Defense Force troops have been actively engaged in cross-border operations.
The groups hazy roots can be traced back at least to 2006, perhaps longer ago than that, as small organizations morphed into larger ones, sometimes were defeated and then sprung anew under a different banner but with the same basic message, the imposition of Islam along and the Shari'a [Islamic law] through jihad.
Perhaps no other country in Africa better demonstrates the reason why terror based irregular warfare is required to place the yoke of Islam throughout the continent, since the overwhelming majority of Kenyan's are Christian – upwards of 80%.
Three days ago al-Shabaab launched its most ambitious attack yet in the country, attacking and then occupying the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi. As we go to press over 60 have been murdered and nearly 200 have been reported to have been wounded.
The complex is still [nominally?] under control of the terrorists, though government's Kenyan Defence Force seems to be slowly gaining the upper hand in a counter-attack against an unknown number of jihadis.
Though such statements must be evaluated against the often inflated claims of the government in such matters, Kenyan officials have announced that they are in full control of all floors at Westgate Mall.
"Cabinet Secretary for Interior Joseph Ole Lenku has said that in the ongoing security operation at the Westgate shopping mall… Kenyan forces have control of all the floors of the building. In a joint press briefing…Ole Lenku said that the number of hostages in the building has reduced.Regardless of what the eventual death toll turns out to be, the events of the last three days offer more proof [as if it was needed] that this administration's foreign policy, especially as it pertains to dealing with the "Muslim world," has utterly failed. Instead of placating fanatical Muslims with kind words and gestures, President Obama's Chamberlain-like response to the global Islamic jihad has emboldened the mujahideen.‘The number of hostages in the building is minimal if at all there are any left in the building,' Ole Lenku said. He added that the lists compiled from crisis centres of those missing has only very few persons unaccounted for…" [source, Ole Lenku: Kenya: We Have Control of All Westgate Floors, AllAfrica.com]
Until this president is willing to accept the fact that this is a religious war, pitting the Muslim world against that of the "unbelievers," nothing will change and the jihad will grow inexorably more violent and threatening.
End Notes:
For further reading, please refer to - PipeLineNews.org, Islamic Violence In Mombasa Escalates, Imams Call For Boycott Of Upcoming Elections
"As we noted yesterday in Mombasa Kenya New Flashpoint For Muslim Aggression the Kenyan city of Mombasa, the country's largest, has been hit by a wave of Muslim on Christian violence recently. The pretext being used to fuel the aggression was the government's assassination of a major al-Shabaab terrorist, Aboud Rogo. Rogo has a long jihadist history.=30=So far most of the attacks have targeted Christian churches:
A dispatch from McClatchy Newspapers, Kenya Church Attacks Latest Sign of Tension Between Christians and Muslims, states:
"...At least five churches, including the Salvation Army one in the poor Muslim district of Majengo, were attacked during heavy rioting, local religious leaders say. Other churches have been attacked with grenades in separate incidents over the past year..."
The last 24 hrs have seen the undertow of violence escalate into major riots accompanied by looting. The Kenyan government is taking a stern approach and over 40 rioters have so far been arrested, though keeping on top of the latest developments is difficult given the paucity of media coverage of African news…"
©2013 PipeLineNews.org LLC, William Mayer. All rights reserved. http://www.pipelinenews.org/2013/sep/23/The-Nairobi-Al-Shabaab-Terrorist-Massacre.html
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6039