Africa is the new frontier for Muslim extremism
The Somalis are no longer setting up camp in Canada. One of their humanitarian efforts was silently squished this weekend:
Canada will list al Shabaab — a Somali-based Islamist militant group which recently pledged allegiance to al-Qaida — as a “terrorist group” to prevent it from operating or seeking funds, the Canadian government said Sunday.
This is on the heels of the British government banning the group as well. The group has been disrupting UN aid in Somalia, and is effectively at war with the Somali government, having committed acts of suicide bombings in recent years. This is likely an import of some of their Middle Eastern cohorts, who have been increasing their presence on the continent. There are also indications of North American young men recruited into the fight, with a recruiting ring in Minnesota recently disrupted. (The al Shabaab group is linked in the story.) How shrewd are the al Shabaabs? They declared gold and silver fillings “un-Islamic” last summer in one Somali village and patrolled to grapple them from peoples’ mouths. Anyone glad that their “fundraising” efforts were curbed in Canada now?
Meanwhile, Nigerian politics rears its ugly head once again. An estimated 500 were killed in what is usually called “sectarian” violence, but what they really mean is religious war:
Witnesses said gangs armed with guns and machetes rampaged through three mostly Christian villages, firing shots to draw people from their homes and then running them down and killing them.
Yemi Kosoko, a reporter with the independent Nigerian news network Channels, told The Associated Press most of the bodies appeared to be women and children killed by blows from machetes.
The official count is in the dozens, but then the initial Haiti earthquake death tolls were also incredibly small as well.
The late 1960s sparked a radicalization of Islamism which spread to almost all parts of the world. (Imagine how many young black men see reverent pictures of Malcolm X in America, and which of either “black empowerment” or “Muslim domination” seem more realistic to them.) One of the results of this political and religious Frankenstein was the short-lived creation of the nation of Biafra, a Christian-dominated state that would have insulated from attacks of the Muslim north. After a protracted war over almost three years, Biafra was captured and one million Nigerians were dead.
Africa will eventually Muslim-dominated based on average population growth worldwide, with Muslims outpacing Christian-dominated countries by nearly 50%. They also have the appearance of strength, which causes people to convert at nearly twice the rate as to Christianity. But does the poverty factor into this more than Muslim domination?
Let’s look at the Human Development Index (HDI), the most reliable means we have of determining stability, economic development, and overall well-being of the population. Even the Muslim-dominated countries of the world such as Saudi Arabia and Algeria have high HDIs, but Muslim-dominated Niger has the worst recorded. (Somalia is recorded as “no data” much like everything else in their nation.) Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where HDI has stagnated since 1975.
This might also exacerbate the problem. The greatest area of conflicts in Africa are not where Muslim majorities exist, but where there is that transitory, near 50/50 mix of the two populations. There have also been extreme cases of HIV/AIDS in the southern Christian nations, where many of those countries did not have such a strong view of sexual matters, and as a result have elevated HIV rates. Botswana has nearly a third of all adults infected, South Africa nearly a quarter, and Zimbabwe nearly 15%. Compare that to Libya at 0.3%, Algeria at 0.1%, and Tunisisa at less than 0.1%. HIV will be a natural decimator of the population of these countries as it is.
Between the lifestyle choices that save lives, the military dominance, and the increased proselytizing, Africa will become almost entirely Muslim-dominated over the next century. If your idea of an Islamic nuisance is the little fundraisers held here now and then, it’s about to affect how Canadians live their lives much more in the distant future.
