Tuesday 29 April 2014
Saturday 26 April 2014
Al-Qaida chief urges Westerner kidnappings
In new tape, Ayman al-Zawahiri says kidnapped Americans could be exchanged for jailed jihadists.
By Reuters | Apr. 26, 2014 | 4:26 PM | 
4
4Al-Qaida chief urges Westerner kidnappings - Middle East Israel News | Haaretz
Friday 25 April 2014
Thursday 24 April 2014
Kenya's Worst Enemy Nairobi's Losing Battle Against Militant Islam
Over the past several months, the Somali military, in
cooperation with local, regional, and international forces, has managed
to put the Islamist militant group al Shabaab on the run. Nearly every
week, there is a new report of another Somali town winning its
liberation. Officials in Mogadishu have aimed to completely annihilate
the group, and they predict that soon the al Qaeda–affiliated
organization will no longer have any significant presence in their
country.
But if al Shabaab is losing its foothold in Somalia,
it is working assiduously to gain another one next door. Kenya is on its
way to becoming the world’s next hotbed of extremism as a result of al
Shabaab’s active and growing presence there. And so far, the Kenyan
government has been its own worst enemy in attempting to reverse this
trend.
Al Shabaab’s membership is still primarily Somali, but
the group has long wanted to export its ideology to Kenya and establish
a physical presence there because of the country's geographic proximity
and growing susceptibility of its Muslim population to radical thought.
Since 2012, al Shabaab militants have been aggressively producing propaganda videos, social media campaigns, and slick e-magazines
in English and Swahili, Kenya’s primary languages. Al Shabaab is also
using its social media expertise to win new sympathizers; militants
present their own hardships in Somalia as analogous to the plight of
marginalized Muslims in Kenya.
The strategy seems to be working. Hundreds, if
not thousands, of Kenyans have been recruited by al Shabaab over the
years. The group's efforts have taken on a greater sense of urgency
since its operational space in Somalia has been shrinking. Sectarian
and terrorist incidents in Kenya are now on the rise. Attacks on
Christians are commonplace, and disquieting incidents, such as a thwarted car bomb plot in Mombasa in March, are likely precursors of far worse things to come.
Kenyan government's policies and actions have clearly aided al Shabaab’s recruitment efforts. Muslims make up only around ten percent of Kenya’s population,
and the group has a legitimate reason to feel disenfranchised. For
years, Kenyan authorities have used ethnic Somalis as a scapegoat,
blaming them for virtually any terrorism-related incident or unsolved
crime. Earlier this month, for instance, in response to a spate of
terrorism incidents in Nairobi, Kenyan forces indiscriminately arrested
an estimated 4,000 Muslims, mostly ethnic Somalis. This type of
finger-pointing has seeped into Kenya’s public consciousness; it has
been a core reason for the country’s endemic ethnic profiling, and fuel for many violent riots against the embattled group.
The Kenyan police have earned a reputation for
corruption, incompetence, and brutality, in particular against Muslims.
This has created fertile ground for further appeals from radical
Islamists to ethnic Kenyans. In the coastal city of Mombasa, for
instance, which has become the epicenter of Kenya’s home-grown radicalization problem,
the police have a reputation for throwing due process out when it suits
them. Over the last year and a half, a number of firebrand Islamic
clerics have been gunned down in high-profile drive-by shootings, but
the police have never conducted serious investigations into the
incidents. That has led many Muslims to assume that the police either
tacitly approved or covertly supported the killings. Ever since, violent protests against security forces have shaken Mombasa. Things got much worse this February when officers stormed the city’s restive Mussa mosque, citing evidence that a “jihad convention” was underway. Hundreds of worshippers, several of whom were under the age of 12, were dragged into the streets, beaten with batons in full view of the public,
and hauled away to prison. Not surprisingly, protests erupted once
again. This dynamic has played right into the hands of al Shabaab.
Militants have also taken advantage of the central government’s inability to control its border with Somalia. A Kenyan parliamentary report released in January
went so far as to say that al Shabaab had overtaken the northeastern
border town of Mandera, with security forces essentially ceding control
of the area to the militant group. According to a National Intelligence Service report leaked last October,
al Shabaab also controls two-thirds of Garissa County, which the
group’s top operatives have declared as their preferred base of
operations. This has proved to be a strategic location; it has allowed
al Shabaab to target the half million Somali refugees sandwiched between
Garissa and the Somalia border as potential recruits. These refugees,
who fled Somalia’s civil war, have been languishing in a state of
perpetual uncertainty in dismal refugee campus for years or even
decades.
The Kenyan government’s hard-line response to these
recruitment efforts has proved self-defeating. The refugees had
previously been permitted to work in neighboring towns, but on March 25,
following a series of sectarian attacks attributed to al Shabaab
sympathizers, Kenya’s interior ministry demanded that all refugees stay
permanently in the camps and threatened to force the Somalis back to
their homeland. It is common knowledge that some Somali refugees do
sympathize with al Shabaab, but the experience of being scapegoated by
the Kenyan government has won even more converts to the cause. Al
Shabaab has been able to depict the government as eager to inflict more
suffering on the already disadvantaged.
Al Shabaab is slowly creating a lawless border region
in Kenya, akin to the Taliban-held land in Pakistan. Regional and
international officials are clearly worried. On March 24, UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay
warned that al Shabaab may be looking to move to Kenya as a result of
the AMISOM offensive. One day later, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
formally asked Washington for help in monitoring and securing its border
with Somalia, and U.S. ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec confirmed the indefinite deployment of FBI agents to Kenya to assist in terrorism-related matters.
The Kenyan government, unlike its Pakistani
counterpart, does not support the militants, nor does it have any
interest in their survival. In this case, the creation of an extremist
safe haven will depend largely on the degree of support from local
populations. And since Nairobi seems bent on pursuing short-sighted
policies that push its Muslim citizenry into the arms of the extremists,
that possibility is turning into a reality.
Although it might be necessary for Kenya to use force
against the most extreme elements of these groups, recent history
testifies that force alone does not convince or compel radicalized
individuals to abandon violence. Absent a fair and conciliatory
political environment, the disadvantaged will remain susceptible to
extremist ideologies, and radicals will remain a permanent fixture in
the region, growing ever more separated from the idea of borders and
national identity.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141357/paul-hidalgo/kenyas-worst-enemy?cid=soc-facebook-in-snapshots-kenyas_worst_enemy-042414
Monday 21 April 2014
Egypt to 'escalate' Ethiopian dam dispute - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
By acting unilaterally, "Ethiopia is now, ironically, following the same path as Egypt did before" when it constructed the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, Rahaman noted. "Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan should all agree on the principles which they agree on before trying to take refuge or shelter from the principles of international water law."
Egypt to 'escalate' Ethiopian dam dispute - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Sunday 20 April 2014
Is the EU legitimising Sisi's coup? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Does monitoring presidential elections support a stable Egypt at the expense of human rights and democratic values?
Is the EU legitimising Sisi's coup? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Is the EU legitimising Sisi's coup? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
More barrel bombs hit Syria's Aleppo
Dozens killed in barrel-bomb strikes in rebel held Aleppo, activists say, as Assad visits Christian town to mark Easter.
More barrel bombs hit Syria's Aleppo - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
More barrel bombs hit Syria's Aleppo - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Saturday 19 April 2014
Al-Qaida chief blesses attacks on Egypt security
Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri has given his blessing to attacks of
Egyptian jihadis on the police and army, but said they should avoid
harming civilians.
In
an audio interview with al-Qaida media arm as-Sahab posted early
Saturday on a militant website, al-Zawahri advised jihadis that any
armed confrontation should be popularly supported and that victory
cannot be achieved without this support.
Al-Zawahri said the jihadis should choose their targets very carefully and explain the aims of each operation to the people.
He
also harshly criticized Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist al-Nour
Party, accusing it of deceit and deception by supporting the military
backed interim government and secular constitution, which he considers
void.
Al-Qaida chief blesses attacks on Egypt security - Middle East Israel News | Haaretz
Thursday 17 April 2014
Monday 14 April 2014
Dozens killed in Nigeria bus station bombing
Suspicion falls on Boko Haram after rush-hour blast - the first attack on the federal capital Abuja in two years.
Dozens killed in Nigeria bus station bombing - Africa - Al Jazeera English
Dozens killed in Nigeria bus station bombing - Africa - Al Jazeera English
Friday 11 April 2014
US says G7 open to more Russia sanctions
Strong support within the G7 on increasing sanctions against Russia if it escalates crisis in Ukraine, official says.
US says G7 open to more Russia sanctions - Americas - Al Jazeera English
US says G7 open to more Russia sanctions - Americas - Al Jazeera English
Jewish state and egalitarian Zionism - Opinion Israel News | Haaretz
The demand that the Palestinians recognize
Israel as a Jewish state adds yet another humiliation to all those they
experience on a daily basis.
Jewish state and egalitarian Zionism - Opinion Israel News | Haaretz
Israel as a Jewish state adds yet another humiliation to all those they
experience on a daily basis.
Jewish state and egalitarian Zionism - Opinion Israel News | Haaretz
Tuesday 8 April 2014
Epicenter of Holocaust now fastest-growing Jewish community
And this upsurge in the Jewish population — believed to be more than 40,000 — has also spurred tourism to an array of monuments, synagogues, museums and workaday places related to Jewish history and present life in Germany's capital.
Epicenter of Holocaust now fastest-growing Jewish community - Jewish World News Israel News | Haaretz
Monday 7 April 2014
The new world order? Part 2
To have a world order based on international law, which The Economist and the West abstractly favour in this context, these advocates should be prepared to live by a similar set of rules and agreements in other situations. Putin referred to the precedent of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia as a quasi-legal justification for seizing Crimea - and this has some plausibility, although there was a strong argument that Serbia had forfeited its sovereign rights in Kosovo by committing crimes against humanity in the course of resisting the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
When done by Russia, such behaviour is criticised as disruptive. But when done by the US, the use of force is benignly described as "the aggressive pursuit of American values". Such a pattern, it seems to me, sets a worse precedent than Putin's worldview in regard to Ukraine.
The new world order? Part 2 - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Sunday 6 April 2014
Nigeria becomes Africa's largest economy
Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy after a
rebasing calculation almost doubled its gross domestic product to more
than $500bn, data from the statistics office showed.
GDP for 2013 in Africa's top oil producer was 80.22 trillion naira,
or $509.9bn, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday, up from
the 42.3 trillion estimated before the rebasing, according to the
Reuters news agency.
Nigeria becomes Africa's largest economy - Africa - Al Jazeera English
rebasing calculation almost doubled its gross domestic product to more
than $500bn, data from the statistics office showed.
GDP for 2013 in Africa's top oil producer was 80.22 trillion naira,
or $509.9bn, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday, up from
the 42.3 trillion estimated before the rebasing, according to the
Reuters news agency.
Nigeria becomes Africa's largest economy - Africa - Al Jazeera English
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