Jihad in southern Africa. From Zimdaily, with thanks to Cutter John:
HARARE- - Zimbabwe has become al-Qaeda’s newest hub amid reports that the embattled country has now become a sanctuary harboring militant Islamist groups and a territorial medium to smuggle people, arms, material and contraband, Zimdaily exclusively reveals today.Zimbabwe, which borders South Africa to the south, Mozambique to the East and lies close to the neighboring territory of Angola to the west has been offering an attractive operational theater on account of its modern and largely western character.
An intelligence document leaked to Zimdaily and authorerd by Andrew Holt, an independent, US-based terrorism and security agent states that Zimbabwe had become a major hub for al-Qaeda through the relaxed entry requirements into South Africa from Zimbabwe. The existence of major road transportation networks connecting the two countries and the lack of concerted border controls, even at major crossings such as Beitbridge, was clearly a feature that attracted militant groups into the country, the top US security agent said.
The explosive report, reproduced last week with permission of the Jamestown Foundation said Zimbabwe was convenient for the militant groups because it bordered Mozambique and Angola, two countries that represent significant sources of weaponry as a result of stocks left over from former civil wars and the failure of internationally mediated disarmament programs.
“Because Zimbabwe is situated ideally between both of these markets, it is able to act as a useful center from which to procure and subsequently disseminate a wide range of combat weaponry,” said the report. “Many of these munitions are exceptionally cheap; an AK47, for instance, can be bought on the Mozambique border for as little as US$14, or simply exchanged for a bag of rice or sugar. Moreover, the existence of shady arms brokerage or dealership firms - some of which have been directly tied to the procurement activities of prominent terrorist organizations such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ensures that weapons can be purchased in bulk quantities if so desired.”
The map is quickly filling up. Islamism is true to its word: Islamic triumphalism and the Caliphate are the goal. We peaceful non-Muslims better get up to speed or we'll be overrun and under Sharia before we know it.
while reading the article, i couldn't help but picture the jihadists as opportunistic vermin completely brainwashed in violent totalitarianism. i guess manhood can only be measured in tally of murders -- and the happy hedonistic hunting ground is the goal. which brings up an interesting epistemological question: what kind of theology would impose heavy legalism on earth only to offer its opposite in the great beyond? could it be a deception? but then again, are muslim males really constrained in their behaviour -- you know, underneath it all? i mean, are not we receiving reports that in many european countries, the majority of rapes are committed by the muslim minorities? did not the 9/11 19 engage in boozing it up prior to committing mass murder? which brings up another theological question: islam claims to be an improvement over Christianity -- one has to wonder, HOW? is it an improvement because murder is sanctioned? because it is okay to rape and pillage? because taqiyyah and kitman are such superior techniques of rationale? Christianity has somehow been improved by the elimination of commandments 6 through 9? i don't get it!
Zimbabwe is run by the corrupt and violent Robert Mugabe -- a man once hailed by Anthony Lewis, the former Times columnist who was never right about anything, as a great leader. Mugabe is at the moment the worst of Africa's tyrants. But that did not prevent the French, a year or two ago, when Mugabe was banned from the Commonwealth Conference, to invite Mugabe to Paris. And the French government very kindly supplied him with 27 rooms at the Plaza-Athenee.
Those rooms were presumably paid for by the ever-accomodating French state (no doubt the Zimbabwe government will reply with special favors, not for the French state, but for certain particular people in, or related to others in, that French state, for that is how France now works).
The French support, rather than condemnation, of Mugabe is of a piece with their behavior elsewhere in Africa. They do not care who rules, or what happens in the country to its inhabitants, as long as French interests are supported.
Take, for example, the Ivory Coast. The situation there may at first glance confuse. But what is going on is this: Muslims from outside the Ivory Coast (from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) have settled in the north, thereby unsettling the Christians of the prosperous south of the country. African Christians, unlike those in Europe, have no illusions about Islam -- even the syncretistic easygoing version of West African imams and viziers and wandering marabouts (see Joyce Cary's Mr. Johnson). The French, pretending to be neutral, have prevented the Christian government from defending the interests of the black Christians in the Ivory Coast, for Chirac and Cie. only care about offending the Muslims of Africa -- they don't give a damn about whether or not the Ivory Coast becomes Muslim, as long as they can still trade and dominate.
The ivoirian government tried to attack northern positions. By accident (for it would have been foolish to do it on purpose), government planes killed 8 French "Peacekeepers." (I.e. protectors of the northern Muslims, often non-Ivoirian). The French destroyed 2 Sukhoi bombers and 5 helicopters -- the entire ivoirian airforce. The rest -- what Chirac is no doubt dismissing privately as "les emeutes des noirs" has led to an excited populace taking out its revenge, not on Chirac and D. de V. and Barnier, but on local French and other foreigners.
Result: destruction of Ivory Coast, great damage to local Africans, and some damage to the French position in West Africa. Had Chirac done otherwise, had he backed the Christians of the Ivory Coast in their attempt to refuse to permit the islamization, by immigrants, of their country, this might have been a salutary lessen for metropolitan France.
But no -- French colonialism was working as the dutiful servant of islamization, of Arab colonialism, in the Ivory Coast. With the melancholy results we all see.
As for those 27 rooms at the Plaza-Athenee -- why 27, for god's sake? Wouldn't 19 have done? Or 11? This is running into money.
And what little gift from Mugabe to Chirac was sent, in gratitude, to the Elysee, and the private collection of M. Jacques Chirac, grand connaisseur of jewels and all sorts of precious metals. Surely there was some token of Mugabe's affection and esteem -- there almost always is.