Oh whoopee. These somalis, who are currently making such a wonderful contribution to the UK economy, are now encouraged to wage war on us (presumably not on a Thursday morning when they are collecting their welfare payments).

Posted by: Celsius at December 23, 2006 8:32 AM

Talk to Ethiopian Christians in the West. Ask them about their fears. Not fears or memories of this or that regime, of Mengistu and the DERG, or complaints about Zenawi, but fears about Islam. Many may be hesitant at first, thinking perhaps you might be a Muslim or a supporter of Muslims, but if you forthrightly declare your own views, see what you are told in return, what a torrent may follow.

The demographic conquest of the last redoubt of Christianity, the famous Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, so famous that when the inhabitants of Western Christendom, under constant Muslim attack, with raids up and down the coasts of Europe as far as Ireland and on one occasion, even as far as Iceland, sought and found a comforting myth of the powerful Christian king, beyond the lands of Islam, who would help the Christians of Europe fight the menace of Islam. At first this mythical kingdom of Prester John was located in Asia, in distant India, but later became identified in the minds of many in Europe with Ethiopia as the new Kingdom of Prester John.

Here is how one blogger at an Addis Ababa site expresses his fears:

"Ethiopia is at a crossroads. In fact it was headed for this crossroad no matter who was prime minister. It is a lion cub being hunted by the sabre of Islam. Islam is at odds with democracy, freedom and human liberty. It will ultimately oppose Ethiopia, even in violation of its own Koran.

I have been traveling & working in Ethiopia for several years now. There have been many changes. While the politics of Meles may be brought into question. Any situation beats the DERG and I would say the current status, though far from perfect beats an Islamic state any day. Ethiopia faces the loss of a developing democracy to the enemies of freedom and liberty.

Where Isalm is the minority they are as lambs,
where they are equal in power they are like a fox, when Islam is the majority they are as wolves.

What's going on is not merely political or philosophical, it is a war of idiology. The sovereignty of Ethiopia is at stake. Shore up her borders and then tackle the internal issues, as a parlimentary democracy - there is less freedom in an Islamic-fascist state. Just visit Somalia or Eritrea."

One might also note the views of Muslim apologists who do not want the Americans helping Ethiopia precisely because it is seen as a "Christian" state, and this would offend Muslims, who apparently are free to wage Jihad, but we who are not Muslims must not extend aid to fellow non-Muslims lest this put a "religious" cast on what, of course, is already a religiously-prompted war.

This absurd argument can be found in a piece that appeared in a Houston paper, of which an excerpt is given below:

There are several reasons why aligning with Ethiopia on Somalia would be a bad idea that might even jeopardize the current coalition and undermine the long-term objectives of the war against global terrorism.

First, such partnership with a nation that portrays itself as "a Christian" nation against a Muslim neighbor, which is a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, and based on little and tainted information, would give the war a religious color, thereby undermining President Bush's core message right from the start: that the war is against terrorism, not against Islam.

Historically, Ethiopia viewed itself as a "Christian island surrounded by a Muslim sea." As a result, Islam has historically been perceived as a major threat to this country, and Ethiopian Muslims, though they constitute at least half of the population, have had an invisible presence in the country. A former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia wrote: 'Islam in Ethiopia has confined itself entirely to the spiritual realm. It has shown no interest in politics, though it is keenly aware that it comprises at least half the population and probably more.'
Furthermore, Ethiopia's unshakable image in the eyes of the world is that of a Christian nation. The recent U.S. Department of State classification of all the main Horn of Africa nations in the region, except Ethiopia, as either predominantly Arab or Muslim, also reinforces that image. Apparently, this has nothing to do with being "predominantly Arab or Muslim."

The transparent argument here is that Christians are not allowed to help fellow Christians lest the war be perceived, as it is declared to be by the Muslims in Somalia and by all the non-Somali Muslims who will help them, as a war between Muslims and Chrsitians.

About one thing the writer is correct: there are many Muslims in Ethiopia, and its Christian character is threatened by the missionary efforts, and the usual overbreeding by Muslims. That is another problem, and it is a problem that needs to be recognized and not ignored but dealt with, because it is in the interests of the entire non-Muslim world that Ethiopia remain a Christian country and not succumb to Islam. And whatever that takes -- including the transfer of some Muslims into Somalia -- should be considered.

Posted by: Hugh at December 23, 2006 8:46 AM

Jihadi's are like gangs of Malcontents , and Thugs gathering their goons and going from place to place starting trouble and fighting for injustices that don't exist! Except in their little pee sized Muhammadite Brains.

More People have suffered from Islam than Islam could ever ever have suffered from Others.

Truly Masters at manipulation. too bad so many Westerners are so weak minded and can't do the Math.

Always playing the Victim's

Posted by: Concerned Canadian at December 23, 2006 10:16 AM

The current “Islam is peace” foreign policy has been to pressure any victim of muslim extremists, from Israel, to Yugoslavia, to India, to many places in Africa, to not strike back with overwhelming force to eliminate the muslim threat for misguided fear of "alienation of muslim moderates" –hence the jihadi quote about the “world letting this happen” i.e. US hasn’t applied enough pressure to get Ethiopia to cave in to our terrorism.

What this does is boost Al-Qaeda recruitment, they suffer limited losses and go around saying we "won" in Lebanon, we "won" in Kosovo, we "won" in Kashmir, we “won” in Somalia, and any opposition to them in Islamic countries is undermined because it's hard to argue with success. Essentialy, Al-Qaeda ends up looking invincible because the US political leadership is refusing to let Al-Qaeda opponents, and this includes the US Army, to escalate the global conflict (both in terms of numbers of troops used by Al-Qaeda's opponents but especially the ferocity of the military actions taken against Al-Qaeda and the various muslim militant groups) past Al-Qaeda's limited ability to mobilize resources.

The muslim militants do not have the military capability to take on everyone they have been going around the world provoking with their terrorist attacks (nor does the muslim world have anywhere near the resources of all the non-muslim countries that it has been going around provoking). What the US needs to do is, instead of going around restraining victims of muslim aggression, is to take the billions currently wasted on non-existent "moderate" muslims, and instead use that money to support victims of muslim aggression and give them carte blanche to eliminate the muslim militant threat.

If you took even a fraction of the billions wasted on tsunami relief, most of which is going to be stolen by Indonesian government officials and has not created a favourable public opinion of the US in Indonesia anyway, and use some of it instead to build up the Ethiopian Army as a bulwark against muslim expansion in Africa, that would be money far better spent.

Take some of the money currently wasted on Iraqi recontruction, since Iraqis trashed anything that could off been built anyway, and covertly arm and train anti-sharia militias across Africa from Nigeria to the Sudan. There are large numbers of victims of muslim atrocities in these countries in need of arms and training to defend themselves, instead the US is pressuring them to negotiate with the terrorists through the UN, while the muslim militants continue to slaughter them.

It is in the interest of the muslim world not to escalate the conflict because given their resources compared to the non-muslim world they would inevitably lose an all-out conflict, and many of their leaders know that. So their leaders need to be put on notice that if they do not crush the muslim militants themselves and prevent them from violence against non-muslim countries and non-muslim minorities, the result will be a global economic and military campaign against muslim militants, as well as against larger muslim interests, which the muslims will inevitably lose.

Posted by: godfreyofbouillon at December 23, 2006 10:29 AM

So their leaders need to be put on notice that if they do not crush the muslim militants themselves and prevent them from violence against non-muslim countries and non-muslim minorities, the result will be a global economic and military campaign against muslim militants, as well as against larger muslim interests, which the muslims will inevitably lose.

Posted by: godfreyofbouillon

-------------------------------------------------

That was a great post. I'll go one further , The Leaders of the Muslim world need to be put on notice as well. Notice that if they don't start pitching in , speaking out against Jihad and curbing their Rabid dogs that they will be held accountable as well. This Fabled Moderate status does not exist IMO. when i see Thousands of Muslims in the streets of NY or London denouncing AlQaeda and Burning Effigies of it's leaders then i'll believe that the Radicals do not represent them. It's been over 5 years since 911 and i have seen nothing!

Posted by: Concerned Canadian at December 23, 2006 10:42 AM

1)When was the last time Muslims fought a war that wasn't "holy"? Whether they are on the offense or defense it's always "holy" because their bloodthirsty god tells them so.

2)Ethiopia geographically reminds me of Israel-an infidel land surrounded by cesspoolia.

3)Helping Ethiopia helps the West. Besides, it would be morally reprehensible not to at least supply them. I'm sure most of the people there would defend their nation to the death against the crazies if they had proper equipment.

40Celsius-I know exactly how you feel!

Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at December 23, 2006 11:00 AM

Lets see now;aren't they going to thin out there jihadist troops if they keep calling for more and more of them to take over this country and that country.

Let's see Ethiopia and then couple of days ago it was a call for Jihad to take back Spain, and of course the Iranians along with their satellite jihadists;Hamas, and Hezbollah need to annihilate Israel. OH! and then Hamas is now calling for attacks on American interests. And of course we need jihadist attacks on Denmark for those cartoons and any other country that reproduced them as well. And how about that never ending genocide in Darfur, and the Sudan? How about Western Mindanao in the Phillipines? Did I miss any? of course I did!

Boy these guys must have some mighty big armies out there, since they pretty much are telling us that they are going to take over the entire world.

Yep bend over and let freedom be dammed!

Posted by: Mackie at December 23, 2006 11:05 AM

Calling for reinforcements already?!

Good lord, these amateurs would be laughable if they weren't so deranged.

Posted by: Alex at December 23, 2006 2:11 PM

what those jihadis in somalia need is a big moab dropped on them

Posted by: callmeinfidel at December 23, 2006 4:27 PM

From above: First, such partnership with a nation that portrays itself as "a Christian" nation against a Muslim neighbor, which is a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, and based on little and tainted information, would give the war a religious color, thereby undermining President Bush's core message right from the start: that the war is against terrorism, not against Islam.

A similar arguement was used to prevent India retaliating against Pakistan, after Pakistani Jihadis attacked the Indian parliament. And ofcourse Israel has been prevented countless times to retaliate against its enemies, as it may jeopardise the Iraq war, or it will alienate/enrage/humiliate, the Islamic world, and its cooperation was essential to the war effort.

Posted by: DP111 at December 23, 2006 7:06 PM

Posted by: Concerned Canadian - It's been over 5 years since 911 and i have seen nothing!

Well there have been various demos in London calling for the death of the Pope, Europe take heed another 9/11 s on its way, behead those who insult islam etc. But I suppose these do not count.

Posted by: DP111 at December 23, 2006 7:11 PM

Concerned Canadian said:

It's been over 5 years since 911 and i have seen nothing!

It's exactly how I feel.

Posted by: rocky at December 23, 2006 9:23 PM