We laugh at this in the rational West, but we’re no different. In Cameroon, they’re fighting against jihad with witchcraft. In the United States, we’re fighting against jihad by pretending that its ideological roots don’t exist, and importing massive numbers of people among whom will inevitably be an unknowable number of Islamic jihadis, in the naive and complacent hope that all the migrants will be grateful moderates who will rapidly assimilate.
Which one is a more egregious example of magical thinking?
“Cameroon uses witchcraft to fight Boko Haram,” by Christian Locka, GlobalPost, January 12, 2017:
In the war on terror, guns and bombs just haven’t been enough. So Cameroon is trying spells and curses too.
About a year ago, Cameroonian President Paul Biya urged citizens to use witchcraft against Boko Haram, the Islamic State-affiliated militants who have terrorized West Africa for years.
“We expect every village to have brilliant actions in this direction,” said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region of the country, echoing the president. “We want to hear that this or that village has wiped out or limited the sect’s damage through witchcraft. Fight for your country.”
Many viewed the move as a sign of Biya’s desperation as the jihadists continue their rampage of suicide attacks, pillaging and kidnapping throughout Cameroon, as well as in Chad and Nigeria. The three countries have made headway against the group — some commercial routes between Cameroon and Nigeria that had been closed due to the violence have reopened, and some of the people displaced from villages near the Nigerian border have been able to return home. But there is much more left to do.
And locals in Mora, a remote mountainous district in the Far North province near Nigeria, said they would try anything to end the Islamic State’s reign of terror.
After Biya’s call to employ witchcraft against Boko Haram in January 2016, hundreds of militia fighters rushed to sorcerers, commonly called “marabouts,” to obtain lucky charms and talismans to protect them in battle.
“Since I have this gris-gris, I have no problem,” said Mohamad Ahmed, a gym teacher and member of a local militia in Mora, referring to a small cloth bag typically worn around the neck or wrist.
Filled with supposedly magic objects and paper inscribed with verses from the Koran, Bible or other holy scriptures, gris-gris originated in Africa but are common among voodoo practitioners in the Caribbean as well. Women often don them for contraception.
“It is so powerful,” said Ahmed. “I put it on at the moment I go into the field of fighting. The fetish protects its wearer. If someone shoots at you, the bullets have no effect. They fall on the ground like small pebbles.”
Ahmed noted that he has not been shot to test the charm, however.
In the past two years, more than 1,500 Cameroonians have died in the war against Boko Haram, while the violence has displaced 155,000 people, according to the government….