Hope For Africa?

"With the exception of Syria, African countries currently get the worst rep when it comes to violence and conflict. Virtually every story coming out of the continent seems to showcase one atrocity or another.
This narrative is both true and false. In 2014, Africa experienced more than half of worldwide conflict incidents, despite having only about 16 percent of the world population. This is a slightly larger share of the world’s conflicts than even during the chaotic years of the post-Cold War 1990s."

Peter Dörrie, The National Interest, January 22, 2016 

The author of the above is quick to point out, however, that context is vital in the interpretation of his statement, in that world conflicts have abated in the past several decades, difficult though that is to credit, given the scope and the brutality of current conflicts in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and the threats to world stability emanating from the Middle East. But it is to Africa that we look in dismay and puzzlement; how long will those countries place the blame for their inability to become responsible, non-conflict states capable of full security for their populations, on their colonial pasts?

Yes, they did suffer unspeakable humiliation from the conquest and occupation of European nations eager to expand their influence and their capacity to exploit the vast natural resources of countries too weak to defend themselves against a foreign invader whose technology in producing military equipment was just too far superior to their own. But those same African countries have received a good measure of reparation and support to prepare them for full sovereignty and normalcy.

What hope is there for Africa? Despite billions poured into the Continent through investment and humanitarian aid, Africa languishes behind other continents and their nations in the indexes of conflict, privation and social cohesion. This is a reflection of primitive tribalism and its stark animosities toward others and the effect of clan loyalties, where compassion for others and a willingness to make peace with one another is simply not carried over from an ancient tradition of viewing the 'other' as a competitor for scarce resources.

It is to Nigeria that attention is given often now in the news. News that highlights that this most populous of all African countries, the one with the greatest wealth and energy resources, fully independent and on fairly good terms with its neighbours, is incapable of defending its population against the deadly depredations of Boko Haram, the jihadist Islamist terrorist group wreaking vengeance on those who aspire a Western-style education for their offspring.

Like most African countries the government and society in general is rife with corruption; money waylaid and sidelined to line the pockets of the grasping who have power over the ordinary people who see no hope for their futures. Nigeria is 50% Muslim, 40% Christian and the rest is comprised of a variety of likely nativist religions. The former Christian president was incapable of providing security to Nigerians, and the current Muslim president has somewhat targeted corruption in the military so that the country's armed forces are now provided with weaponry at least the equal of that of the jihadists.

But Muhammadu Buhari crowed too quickly that his forces had succeeded in putting Boko Haram on the run, as more recent atrocities against villages close to the area where the jihadists have their capital attest. One can only experience feelings of sadness and great compassion for the people of Nigeria when time and again they have been lethally targeted by a maniacal group of religious murderers, satisfied that the mass slaughter they commit is pleasing to their god.

On the other hand, when reading in one's local newspaper of the lack of common sense, compassion and humanity expressed by many of those same villagers against the most vulnerable among them, it is difficult not to believe that the people of Nigeria and by extension much of Africa as well, given its situation of many militias as well as regime militaries, abduct young children for training in the conflicts they engage in, experience any measure of concern for the trajectory of their own humanity.

"When we heard that the child was only 2 to 3 years old, we did not hesitate. A child that young cannot survive a long time alone on the streets. We immediately prepared a rescue mission."
“Thousands of children are being accused of being witches and we’ve both seen torture of children, dead children and frightened children. This footage shows why I fight."
"With all the money we can [collect] besides giving hope the very best treatment now also [is to] build a doctor clinic on the new land and save many more children out of torture! It's just so great!"
"Hope is getting so much better. Already gaining a lot of weight and looking so much more healthy. Now we only need him to talk. But that will come naturally when he is out of the hospital and starting his life among all our children."
Anja Ringgren Lovén, founder, African Children's Aid Education and Development Foundation

"Hope," on the day of his rescue. (Anja Ringgren Lovén)

"Hope" was the name given to a toddler whom villagers identified as a "witch" and who was abandoned by his family. He was found emaciated and starving, close to death, and was given immediate blood transfusions and loving care by the founder of the African Children's Aid Eduction and Development Foundation, Anja Ringgren Loven.  Whose group is attempting to rescue the estimated 15,000 -- in one Nigerian state alone -- children named as "witches" and abandoned to their lonely, morbid fates.

"[Boys who displayed a] solitary temperament, physical deformities or conditions such as autism [are most likely to be identified as 'witches'."
"Many social and economic pressures, including conflict, poverty, urbanization and the weakening of communities, or HIV/AIDS, seem to have contributed to the recent increase in witchcraft accusations against children. Child witchcraft accusations are part of a rising tide of child abuse, violence and neglect, and they are manifestations of deeper social problems affecting society."
UNICEF Regional Child Protection Adviser Joachim Theis  

So there is hope that "Hope" will survive his dreadful ordeal of rejection, isolation and privation which would have led inexorably to death had he not been rescued. He is reported to be able now to sit up and smile, and he is eating well. Will he remember how desolate he felt at such a young age, wandering the dusty streets of his village, trying to sustain life on his own? Will he be capable of trusting people in his future? While there is hope for this little fellow, what hope is there for Africa, where many of its countries have a tradition of rejecting children they name as "witches"?

Anja Ringgren Lovén and "Hope," a Nigerian toddler who was accused of being a witch. (Anja Ringgren Lovén)

Parents' Dilemma

"This sad story is that of a young boy submerged by the messages of violence, of vengeance and of war issued by the Islamic State."
"By alerting the authorities, his parents probably saved his life."
"How many others out there are dreaming of leaving Canada for the ranks of Islamic State like the accused?"
Judge Dominique Wilhelmy, Quebec Court youth division

"I said, 'Why are you doing that? It is not a battle. ... It is terrorism. ... You're not going to go to paradise by dying there. You are going to kill innocent people. You will commit crimes there."
"He doesn't answer. He doesn't answer."
Father of jihadi teen, Montreal

"We have to promote his rehabilitation, his re-entry into society, all the while maintaining the protection of the public in the case of terrorist infractions."
"We'll wait for the results of the report to be able to evaluate what's appropriate [in recommending a sentence], considering it's a youth who was convicted today." 
Marie-Eve Moore, federal prosecutor

Montreal courthouse

It's a sad thing when parents understand that their children in their teens for one reason or another become alienated, difficult to interact with, demanding and dismissive at one and the same time, and pose a risk to harming themselves through developing unhealthy interests and engaging in dangerous pursuits. Parents of a thirteen-year-old boy who had emigrated from Algeria when their son was four, to live in Canada, would have had no idea that their son's future would be so problematic.

He had been an outstanding student, winning a bursary to attend an elite private Montreal high school. And then his studies began to suffer and his school grades plummeted and he no longer had any interest in engaging with his parents. At the age of 15 the boy -- who under Canadian youth-protection laws remains unnamed as do his parents -- robbed a convenience store, threatening harm with a knife in the process.

The money he stole was to be set aside for use to allow him to travel to Syria, where he would fulfill his obligation as a faithful Muslim, to engage in jihad. He had faulted his parents for not being sufficiently involved in the kind of activities that drew his attention, to the point where several times he used his parents' credit card data to try to send funding to an unnamed group in Lebanon in support of the conflict against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

That would, needless to say, be Hezbollah. And while striking a blow against the Syrian tyrant who is slaughtering his own people may not sound horrendous, supporting a terrorist group on Canada's list can certainly be classified as criminal action. When he once again attempted to use his parents' credit cards; on this occasion to attempt to arrange a one-way ticket to Gaziantep, Turkey near the Syrian border, his father was alarmed.

The parents had discovered that their son had been diligently accessing jihadi propaganda via the Internet since the age of 13. Parental computer-Internet-access controls were no hindrance; he managed to evade them. A later police search of the boy's hard drive discovered ten issues of the al-Qaeda propaganda magazine Inspire there, as well as other jihadi-self-help publications.

Last year, the parents found a telephone number they couldn't identify on a piece of paper in their son's pocket. They began to fear he might "commit an attack because of his interest in the Islamic State", as the judge put it. That telephone number was Martin Couture-Rouleau's, the jihadist who killed a member of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves standing guard at the National Cenotaph last November, and who sprinted into the Parliament buildings, with the same rifle that killed Corporal Vincent Cirillo.

When, during interrogation after he was taken into police custody, the-then 16-year-old was informed that his contact had killed a Canadian soldier, he expressed satisfaction: "well done". The Muslim RCMP officer that led his interrogation was labelled by the youth a "traitor" and "apostate". Canada, he asserted was "a land [house] of war", which in Islam simply means any non-Muslim country which is meant to be attacked by the "land [house] of peace", which is Islam.

The teen's father was convinced his son had laid plans to reach Syria to dedicate himself to fighting for either ISIL or Jabhat al-Nusra. Once his parents discovered hidden in their backyard their son's backpack with the knife and the money he had stolen from the convenience store, they questioned him further. His response was: "Give me back my bag and I will leave for good." Which was when they felt they had little option but to contact authorities.

He was subsequently convicted of committing a crime in the armed robbery, in association with a terrorist group. And convicted as well of the illegal act of attempting to leave Canada to participate in terrorist activity. The Crown is considering requesting that the teen be sentenced as an adult, awaiting the results of a pre-sentencing report and psychological assessment.

Seeding Terroristic Jihad

"Two or three years!?" [Senator Lang]
"Yes, unfortunately."
Cathy Hawara, director general, Canada Revenue Agency
"We've been told privately by some people within the intelligence service that there's millions of dollars coming into this country. It's a very legitimate question for the public and all agencies within the government to find out what's going on. I would ask that we try to speed it up."
Senator Daniel Lang, chair, National Security and Defence Committee

"A lot of these funds, I think, are directed to religious institutions or quasi-religious institutions. It's very difficult in this country to start poking about, if you'll forgive my English, religious institutions because of the respect that we have for freedom of religion."
"I think it's fair to say, without commenting on the particular country of origin, there are moneys coming into this country which are advocating this kind of approach to life."
Richard Fadden, National Security Adviser

"It tends not to be funds directly sent to support overt acts of terrorism in large volumes (here). If we had that happening, terrorist groups in Canada would be more powerful and already causing damage to critical infrastructure."
"Yet, there is funding for so-called extremist purposes, including for terrorist propaganda."
Christine Duhaime, expert, terrorist financing, money laundering

In the 2014 federal budget there was a commitment to expend $23-million over five years for the purpose of modernizing the IT system at the Canada Revenue Agency's charities directorate. It is the agency's hope that an upgraded system will make it possible for charities to provide annual, and more detailed reporting requirements. Which would include specific activities meant to benefit by foreign donations.

At the present time, however, Canada Revenue Agency is not capable of tracking money received by Canada-based charities from foreign donors ostensibly for religious and educational work. The suspicion is there that millions ultimately go to fund Islamist terrorist recruiting and propaganda. But, according to Cathy Hawara speaking for the CRA, two or three years is what it will take to provide that kind of data.

Canada's intelligence agencies have suspected for years that the wealth in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar has been bankrolling fundamentalist Wahhabi and Salafist institutions in western countries. Better yet, it is widely acknowledged within the Western intelligence sector that this is precisely what has been occurring, and it's no different in Canada.

Wealthy oil-rich Arabs have been lavishing funding on madrassas, and these are the breeding grounds for present and future jihadists.

Security experts feel the conservative ideologies of Salafist and Wahhabi Islam represent the fertile soil from which springs individuals geared toward jihad. It is, after all, a fundamental and obligatory aspect of Islamist values. Money arriving in Canada for the promotion of extremist Islamism goes to religious institutions, according to Richard Fadden, testifying before the Senate committee in April.

His testimony was a repeat of very similar testimony heard by the committee which was delivered by a Canadian imam who manages 13 mosques across the country. Non-resident charitable donations coming into Canada face no restrictions as long as they are not coming from a banned terrorist organization. Instead, wealthy individuals send the money for the purpose of achieving the groundwork leading to terrorist militias.

Most of these donations arrive by bank wires and the CRA is unable to track them because it has no access to banking transactional records or money services business records. Non-resident gifts of over $10,000 are meant to be disclosed by the charities themselves. If they fail to report those gifts CRA has no method of ascertaining how much of that funding is directed to Islamic religious and educational programs.

"We know that that's (not) ideal and we want to be able to collect better information and we're looking at that actively now", Ms. Hawara informed the Senate committee. But it is theorized that the millions arriving in Canada from Persian Gulf States include the support of organizations that may be determined to be fronts for terrorist organizations, or those affiliated with them, said Christine Duhaime.

Allahu Akbar!

"They did not want to let him leave because if he comes back, he might be caught by the Israelis and tell them what he had seen. So they wanted to get rid of him."
"I know my son. I raised him well. I am sure he’s not working for the Mossad."
"[19-year-old Mohamed said to his parents] They promised a lot of things, and then I came here and there is nothing."
Said Musalem, East Jerusalem

Said and Hind Musalam, parents of a man who appeared to be executed by a child soldier in a recent ISIS video, mourn their son

"Here are the young lions of the caliphate."
"They will kill the one sent by the foolish Mossad to spy on the secrets of the mujahideen and the Muslims."
"I say to those who come to spy on the Islamic State, you won’t succeed at all."
Islamic State killing video

A screen grab from the Islamic State video purporting to show a child executing Mohamed Said Ismail Musalam.

"They said, [Mossad] ‘We’ll give you a monthly salary, we’ll give you a house and we’ll take care of any issues you have, as well as your living needs when you return'."
Mohamed Said Ismail Musalem, Palestinian Israeli, prisoner of ISIS

The latest propaganda video proudly unveiled by Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham cleverly geared to once again elicit admiration from the ranks of would-be jihadists and maximum revulsion by the rest of the world. With the victim, a young Israeli-Palestinian ostensibly 'admitting' he was a Mossad agent, and that his parents and his brother encouraged him to become that agent. "A spy of 19? How is that possible? Why would he have gone there if he were a spy?", wept his mother Hind Musalam.

No mind, it makes for great entertainment for Islamofascists, sweeping non-involved Israel and Jews into the same basket that holds those actively engaged in combat against the Islamic State, from the U.S.-led airstrike coalition, to the Iranian al-Quds Republican Guard Corps, and the Shi'ite militias along with the Iraqi military attempting to unseat Islamic State from its third of Iraq it now squats within. The irony is that the burning antipathy toward Jews is shared by Iran, Iraq and the Shia militias.

The United States administration sees a hopeful sign amongst the tragedies playing out with ISIS slaughtering Yazidis and uprooting Christian heritage along with the ancient Assyrian heritage of relics from the far distant past. They see signs of the summary execution of ISIS recruits who are attempting to defect and depart from the field of combat. Apart from wishful thinking, small comfort to those who are so horribly afflicted by their vicious presence.

While the French authorities are on the cusp of certainty in identifying the French-accented man who accompanied a young boy lauded as the new generation of Islamic State fighters coolly shooting the orange-clad Israeli-Arab at close range. Investigators feel the man is a half-brother to the extremist who attacked a Jewish parochial school in 2012 killing seven people and paratroopers in southern France, Mohamed Merah.

Jews remain the target of favour by French extremists, some 1,400 of whom are held to have left France to fight for Islamic State as slaughter-loving, women-enslaving jihadis. In France, one atrocity after another inflicted upon French Jews by Islamist fanatics heeding the message of the Koran and the Hadiths to kill Jews wherever they are found. 

Quran (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Never too early in life to begin training for martyrdom, as proven by the adolescent boy who never falters in his exalted post as executioner of a man only a few years older than himself. The murdered young man's father insisting his son was no Israeli spy, but tricked into joining Islamic State, then regretting his decision. Unfortunately that regret came with a price so steep he will never again commit to a life-altering decision.

Quran (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"

Dalai Lama Teaches Muslims How to Conduct Jihad

Tibetan spiritual leader claims Muslim terrorists have jihad all wrong, holy war 'combats inner destructive emotions.'

By Ari Yashar

First Publish: 9/20/2014, 10:05 PM

Dalai Lama (file)

Flash 90

 

The Dalai Lama on Saturday condemned violence in the name of religion, claiming the Muslim concept of jihad was being misused and misinterpreted by Islamist extremists.

The Nobel Peace prize winner was referring to bloodshed unleashed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria and Iraq where it has conquered large swathes of territory, leaving bloodshed and brutal torture in its wake.

"Killing in the name of faith is unacceptable," he told a meeting of India's religious leaders including a senior Muslim cleric, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bombay and the head of the Jewish community in Delhi at a two-day conference, reports AFP.

Jihad, the Muslim concept of holy war, should be a fight "to combat our inner destructive emotions", the 79-year-old spiritual leader said. "It (jihad) does not mean harming other people."

Not all share the appraisal that the ever-growing plague of violent jihadist terror is out of line with the Muslim precept of jihad.

Professor Rafi Israeli, an expert on Islam and the Arab world, told Arutz Sheva last Sunday that cruelty is a part of Islam, arguing the religion has a basic disregard for human life. He noted the Koran calls on Muslims to spread terror among their enemies without specifying who those enemies are, hence the internal war between Sunnis and Shi'ites since the start of the religion.

That take on Islam has been played out most recently by ISIS, which lately released videos of its brutal beheadings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as UK aid worker David Haines.

However, the Dalai Lama said "if we remain indifferent to what is happening around us, it is wrong. The spiritual people can show the world that it can be a happy family (despite) the different faiths."

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, lives in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala. He says he supports "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet within China rather than outright independence, but Chinese authorities accuses him of covertly campaigning for Tibet's independence, branding him a "splittist."