AL QAEDA’S NORTH AFRICAN INFLUENCE: ADRIAN MORGAN….SEE NOTE
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8430/pub_detail.asp
AND STAY TUNED FOR TUNISIA…..RSK
Al Qaeda Kidnapping in Niger: Nine Killed
The tragedy in Tucson has eclipsed other news this past week. On the same day that the shooting took place, a shoot-out took place in Mali, northwest Africa, in which nine people died. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), the North African branch of the Al Qaeda network, had only the day before kidnapped two young French men in Niger.
The two men who were kidnapped were Vincent Delory (left in picture) and Antoine de Leocour, whose families live near Lille in northeastern France. They were eating a meal in a restaurant in Niamey, capital of Niger, when they were snatched by gunmen who had white vans. They were taken across the border into Mali and were held in the desert, with the movements tracked by spy planes. An attempt to free the two men led to a firefight in which the two hostages died, along with four kidnappers, and three policemen from Niger. The rescue was to have involved French commandos in helicopters, but there appears to have been killing before they arrived.
AQIM announced that: “Two heroic clashes between the mujahideen and the French and Niger forces took place and resulted in a catastrophic failure to free the two hostages.”
One of the murdered hostages, Antoine de Leocour, was planning to marry a Muslim woman from Niger, and this would have been seen as forbidden by Islamists (unless he had converted to Islam). The wedding was due to have taken place on the Saturday that he and M. Delory were killed. The two men had been friends since childhood. The circumstances of the botched rescue attempt are now being discussed. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon had said on Monday that only French forces were involved in the firefight.
Currently, AQIM is holding seven people whom it kidnapped in September. Five of these are French, one hostage is from Togo and another is from Madagascar. These individuals are still in captivity, while AQIM is looking for a ransom of 7 million Euros ($9.34 million U.S.). They are also urging a repeal of the burka ban in France, which will be enacted as law in early 2012.
AQIM appear to have control over the Mali desert, and according to Olivier Guitta, they are allowing FARC to import drugs from South America into Europe by using the lawless Sahel region of Africa as a smuggling conduit. FARC (Colombian drug and terror group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) already shares operations in Central America with Hizbollah, and FARC has established a solid base in West Africa for its drug smuggling operations. Guitta’s suggestion that AQIM has linked up with FARC to protect a drug transit route seems plausible.
Al Qaeda’s Somali affiliate, Al Shabaab, now has control of most of the country, and there are fears that Somalia and four other countries (Yemen, Mauritania, Mali and Niger) could soon fall under al Qaeda’s control. These fears are more prescient – the government of Lebanon has recently collapsed due to Iran and Hizbollah’s influence. The collapse of Lebanon’s government has been a political event, not marked by civil unrest.
Tunisia has recently seen the overthrow of its government which has remained unchanged for 23 years. This has happened after a period of instabilitry and civil unrest in which there has been violence and death. Ostensibly, the fall of the Tunisian government is linked to oppression and economic hardship, but there may be forces working behind the scenes.
Tunisia – where the general level of education is high, and where there is a large middle class – could now become at risk of further unrest, and groups like Ennahda – a banned Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group – will try to gain political legitimacy and influence. President Obama has praised the courage of the Tunisians in their struggle, and there are hopes for democracy in Tunisia. It is likely that Ennahda will attempt to field candidates in any upcoming elections in the nation, probably standing as “independents”, as did the Muslim Brotherhood in elections in Egypt in 2005.,
USA: Clinton is Either Ignorant of, or Dishonest About, Islamism
In an excellent op-ed article on Fox News’ website, a former senior adviser to the White House highlighted some ludicrous comparisons that were recently made by Hillary Clinton. Christian Whiton pointed out that:
This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demonstrated convincingly that the Obama administration does not understand the biggest foreign threat facing America. When asked in Abu Dhabi about Islamist terrorists, Ms. Clinton said “Look we have extremists in my country” and then referenced the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
This was disingenuous on a number of levels but raises a key question: How can a country win a war if its leaders choose not to understand its enemy at all?
Speaking at the town hall event, Secretary Clinton elaborated that: “We have the same kinds of problems. So rather than standing off from each other, we should work to try to prevent the extremists anywhere from being able to commit violence. There will always be a small minority in any country that is loudmouthed and rude and ignorant that will say things that are just not either true or reflective of what we believe.”
Whiton makes some interesting and accurate observations, but it is self-evident that Clinton has disgraced her position. To even begin to connect the actions of a psychotic misfit loner with those of a highly organized collective effort by political Muslims is bizarre. Worse, such muddle-headed thinking and crassness is dangerous. America needs to show it understands the problem of Islamist terrorism in order to defeat it. Sending out messages like this does nothing for America.
Meanwhile, John Esposito who heads the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University, Maryland, has been in Indonesia. Here, he was heard to be blaming America’s foreign policy for creating most of the ill-will that exists from Muslims. At Yogyakarta’s State Islamic University, he said that many Muslims have “great admiration for what America and the West stand for, but not what they often do.”
PAKISTAN: Crippled by Islamism, the State Still Promotes Islamism
The murder of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, highlighted how Pakistan is a country in crisis. On Tuesday, January 4, Taseer was shot numerous times in the back by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his bodyguards. The 26-year old attacker admitted the crime, claiming he had done it because the governor had spoken out against the country’s draconian blasphemy laws. These laws, introduced under the dictatorship of General Zia ul-Haq, are used to victimize minorities, particularly Christians and Ahmadiyya Muslims (who are prevented by the blasphemy laws from preaching or calling themselves Muslims). Taseer had highlighted the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death on November 8, 2010 for blaspheming against the founder of Islam.
The day after he killed his employer, Mumtaz Qadri appeared in court. He was greeted by lawyers who showered him with rose petals. Qadri shouted “God is Great.” It seems shocking that lawyers should act in this manner, but in 2007 when Pakistan underwent civil crisis spurred on byIslamists, lawyers were involved in anti-government demonstrations, encouraged by the head of an Islamist coalition.
The murder of Salman Taseer was publicly praised by a group calling itself Jamat Ahle Sunnat, which issued a statement. This declared: “The supporter is as equally guilty as one who committed blasphemy.” The leader of this group, which claims to be “moderate,” paid “glorious tribute to the murderer … for his courage, bravery and religious honor and integrity.”
Rather than engendering a proper debate in the country, the issue has been used to promote further Islamic fanaticism. Secularists have fallen silent, fearful of ostracism or worse, and religious scholars have gone on the offensive. On Sunday (January 9) 20,000 people staged a demonstration in Karachi, Sindh province, against any potential changes to the blasphemy laws.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s International News reported that religious scholars were declaring that of 54 Muslim nations, only five had capital punishment for blasphemy. Instead of condemning this, the scholars were arguing that the remaining 49 countries were at fault for not being like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran and Sudan.
Despite calls from the Pope and also Britain’s Home Secretary, urging Pakistan to amend the blasphemy statutes, Pakistan’s politicians will bemaking no attempts to change the legislation.
Qadri’s lawyers are so sure that they can get support from judges, they are using an unusual defense strategy. His attorney, Rao Abdul Raheem, said
that Qadri has not done anything prohibited by law, but in fact, law was not being enforced because of Article 248 of the Constitution, according to which a governor cannot be prosecuted.
This gambit has been ridiculed by the PPP – the ruling party to which Governor Salman Taseer belonged, but in the febrile climate in Pakistan, anything is possible.
The Interior Minister Rehman Malik, in an apparent effort to appease religious fanatics, ordered a crackdown on websites that carry material that insults Islam.
Meanwhile, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minorities Minister, who is Christian, continues to maintain the need for the blasphemy laws to be repealed. He said:
“I was told that if I was to continue the campaign against the blasphemy law, I will be assassinated. I will be beheaded. But forces of violence, forces of extremism cannot harass me, cannot threaten me.”
A woman member of parliament, Sherry Rahman, has suggested a compromise to the existing law, and has received hourly threats. She stated:
“There’s a very clear and present danger to the fabric and soul of Pakistan. The kind of country we want to live in, if we are not up to strategise and face up to this very existential threat, I think that that will swallow us whole eventually.”
MALAYSIA: Shiites to be Tried for Worshipping.
An article from Associated Press claims that: “In this Muslim-majority country, it’s OK to be Christian, Buddhist or Hindu. But not Shiite.” The article is titled “In otherwise tolerant Malaysia, Shiites are banned.” When Shiites gathered at a three story private building to celebrate the festival of Ashura on December 15 2010, the venue was raided and more than 100 people were arrested and detained.
According to the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, the number that were arrested were 200. 105 of these were local adults, with Pakistani, Iranian, Indonesian adults and also children among those arrested. The arrests took place in Seri Gombak in the state of Selangor. Those who carried out the arrests were “enforcement officers from the office of the Selangor Islamic Department (JAIS).”
Those arrested were scheduled to reappear before Shariah Courts between January 20th and March of this year.
For Shia Muslims, the festival of Ashura (where people often cut or whip themselves – even cutting the heads of infant boys) commemorates the death of Husayn, the son of Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter. Husayn was killed in 680 and this – combined with the earlier killing of his father – led to the schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
According to the Associated Press, the practice of Shia Islam was banned in 1996 after a special consultation by the National Fatwa Council. However, the Ahl ut Bayt news agency quotes Datuk Muhammed Khusrin Munawi, the director of JAIS who stated:
“We will prosecute them under Section 12(c) (of Islamic Jurisdiction Administration Enactment of 1989) for their violation of the fatwa of the Mufti of Selangor, which decreed that (Shiisme) is deviant from the teaching of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah or from the true teaching of Islam;”
He continued:
“Among them there are some who allow mutaah (contractual) marriage, a concept which entices some of them to practice shiisme; Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca) is not compulsory for them; visiting Imam Hussein’s shrine is sufficient for them to get into heaven; They can combine prayers at any time, zuhr and asr together, maghrib, isya’ and subh, without darurat or conditions like travelling 90 ‘marhalah’; Lightening of ibadah (strict following of Islam) is an attraction to their followers. Some of them which are fanatic and believed that we are not Muslims and our blood it is ‘halal’ (permissible) for them; It is a jihad if they could kill Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah (followers). For me, this make them the most dangerous deviants compared to other deviant teachings. From the evidences and documents available to us, the group is the shia hardliners, and for me if we let them, it will threaten our national security.”
A fortnight after the arrests, Khusrin Munawi defended his actions, saying:
“We have been observing the group for the past two years, we have enough evidence to declare they have deviated from Islamic teachings. So I will not apologize, why should we apologisze to the people we arrest. It was not a usual gathering, they were there to promote their teachings which is illegal. That was why we acted swiftly as we did not want things to get worse.”
According to the Malaysian Insider news site, the Selangor state ruling that was used to arrest the Shia Muslims was issued in 1998, two years after the National Fatwa Council declared that only Sunni Islam was to be followed. There are 16 million Sunni Muslims in Malaysia, and there are an estimated 40,000 Shia.
There are more areas to cover, including Al Qaeda arrests in Turkey and Iran, and instances of Islamist activism in Russia and Central Asian states. These subjects will feature in the next Global Islamism Watch.
Adrian Morgan
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