No end in sightIsraelis have an increasing interest in developments in the Sahel region, given that thousands of African migrants uprooted by conflicts, droughts and impoverishment continue to infiltrate from Sinai. The situation in Mali continues to deteriorate in the aftermath of the coup that split the country in March, when radical Islamist militias asserted control over the northern twothirds of its territory, declared the independent state of Azawad, and imposed Shari’a law in several cities. Al- Qaida militias have forced Christians to flee Timbuktu under threat of violence.Meanwhile in East Africa, similar campaigns of Muslim violence against Christians and others are taking place in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the failed state of Somalia.In early July, the Somalia terror faction al-Shabbab struck several churches in the northern Kenyan village of Garissa, killing nearly 20 Christians and wounding dozens more. The attacks took place as parishioners were attending Sunday church services, with the assailants cruelly tossing hand grenades into the midst of the congregations.James Mwami, a legal scholar in East Africa, was quick to accuse the Kenyan government of not doing enough to stop the terrorists. Several other experts have decried the increasing radicalization of Islam in Africa, warning that events are heading towards a Somalization process throughout the region.
Breakaway fever At the recent Knesset briefing, a similar warning was sounded by Maiga, a native of Mali, who began by describing how his mother was recently forced to flee Timbuktu due to the conquest of the city by the al-Qaida-linked Touareg militiamen and the radical group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Islam).“The radical Islamist agenda in the Sahel of Africa not only includes terrorism against civilians and persecution of Christians, but also the increasing danger of secessionism. Following the precedent of Mali, more and more Muslim-majority areas will now demand to separate and form their own countries, which will be Islamist controlled and oriented,” warned Maiga, a respected Bible teacher and scholar in West Africa, who was in Israel to complete a course in conflict resolution at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.“If we fail to find a solution to the Malian crisis, the very foundations of all the states in West Africa are in danger. It goes without saying that poor management of this crisis would have repercussions beyond secession.”“If the Touareg of Mali gain their independence and receive international recognition of their new state of Azawad, other African separatist movements could follow suit, take up arms and fight for their independence. This would open a Pandora’s box that may lead to the creation of various micro-states across the continent,” Maiga stressed.Maiga also noted the role of fellow West African states in the crisis, assessing that they could do a better job of sending a strong and unambiguous signal of solidarity to the embattled citizens of Mali.
The myth of moderation Meanwhile, Mulinde from Uganda outlined for the Knesset panel recent developments in East Africa and stressed the importance of focusing on the roots of the growing threat of radical Islam.“The terrorism and persecution we see across Africa today are the symptoms of a deeper illness. In order to defeat this disease, we need to fight the evil ideology behind it. The terrorists just don’t wake up in the morning and start to act like terrorists. They are the results of a great ideological agenda that is going on all over the world. Whether we kill all the terrorists doesn’t matter, since tomorrow there will be more of them. The real issue is therefore how to deal with the ideology,” he explained.“We must confront this ideology if we want to defeat the terrorism and violence in Africa,” added Mulinde, who has a growing Evangelical church in Kampala, Uganda and is in Israel receiving special treatment at Sheba Medical Center for severe facial burns suffered in an acid attack carried out by radical Muslims last Christmas Eve.Mulinde insisted that the notion of a moderate Islam in East Africa or elsewhere is a myth.“In the West, it is politically correct to speak of Islam as being a religion of peace. But the moderates have already lost to the radicals within the Muslim faith, because the radicals have gained control over the mosques in Africa and elsewhere, from which they propagate their militant message of world domination. They are educating the younger generation to hate Christians, Israel and our democratic freedoms,” he declared.Mulinde explained that radical Muslims have managed to manipulate African government officials through bribes and corruption and to exploit the dire poverty in Africa, all as part of what he described as a six-pronged strategy used to enlarge their influence on the continent. This includes efforts to gain control over each nation’s religious, economic, political, constitutional, societal and media power bases.As host of the special Knesset session, MK Robert Ilatov responded that the dangers posed by radical Islam described by the two African pastors were very familiar to Israelis, but they spoke with added credibility, due to fact they were both raised as strict Muslims.“It’s important that, together, we bring these issues to the forefront of the public debate and start putting a light on these atrocities,” stated Ilatov.He added that many Christian countries have been quiet regarding the radicalization of Islam in Africa.Ambassador Avi Granot, director of the African Division at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, lamented the lack of media interest in the radicalization of Islam in Africa. He also urged that Mulinde and Maiga be given the opportunity to tell their stories to the parliaments of other Western democracies.ICEJ executive director Dr. Jürgen Bühler added a positive note to the meeting by citing pastors Maiga and Mulinde as examples of former devout Muslims with an ingrained hatred of Israel who are now Christians with a deep commitment to standing with the Jewish state.“It is important that the Israeli Knesset and the government understand that there are now up to five million people in Iran supporting Israel,” he said in reference to the growing Evangelical movement in the Islamic Republic.“We see the same occurring in African nations. For example, Uganda is known as a country of great Christian revival, despite a strong Islamic presence there. We also see some encouraging signs in countries like Mali, Chad and Senegal, and both pastors Abdou Maiga and Umar Mulinde can testify to this.”