Terrorism, Extremism, and the Future of Africa

Given the perturbing nature of the crimes that made international headlines in Benghazi, Libya today, I decided now would be a good time to explore terrorism and citizen unrest in African.

First, it is necessary to pay respect to recently-deceased US Ambassador Chris Stevens; in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi, Libya on September 11th / 12th protests broke out in front of US embassies protesting a YouTube video that I will not post here; it can be reached by searching "Muhammad Movie Trailer" but doesn't merit the creation of a hyperlink. The video itself isn't all that offensive from a Western perspective; it satirizes the foundation and principles of Islam in a crude fashion, to be sure, but a number of exploitative movies exist about most religions. This video specifically exploits the hatred that Islam has for personifying a religious figure, and then implying that religious figure was involved in various different socially unacceptable situations including but not limited to open warfare, uncalled for torture, rape, marriage out of wedlock and numerous other crude actions. In short- the movie was created to exploit numerous things that are nearly guaranteed to draw a reaction from known Islamic extremists in the world. I'd almost say it was tailored specifically to draw a reaction, given historical events and the debacles that have ensued after them.

Anyways, to return to the situation. Crowds gathered outside each embassy, and protests ensued. As far as the West has been able to tell, these protests in and of themselves were peaceful. In Benghazi, Libya however, tragedy struck; while few likely know what exactly happened due to the chaos of combat, one recounting can be found here. Now that some of the smoke has cleared, the upshot is fairly simple- Chris Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya is dead, and as CNN Wire Staff has put it, "We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act," President Barack Obama said. "And make no mistake, justice will be done." The US has stated that it believes the attack was orchestrated by a small group of extremist militants who chose to take advantage of the visual unrest that the protests signified. Demonstrations broke out in Libya to show solidarity and compassion for the victim, and the US stated political bonds would not be broken with Libya. US Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney offered brief comment. Al Jazeera, a Qatari news network that is common throughout the Arab world, is running the ticker "U.S. PENTAGON SENDING TWO WARSHIPS TO THE LIBYAN COAST FOR "CONTINGENCY PURPOSES" FOLLOWING ATTACK ON CONSULATE IN BENGHAZI." It might be worth noting that some in the West don't particularly trust Al Jazeera. 

So the simplest way to describe the events of Libya is to state that terrorists took advantage of Islamic protests outside of the US Embassy to carry out a 'complex' attack and assassinate the Ambassador, which has placed the US on red alert and led to a vow of vengeance, which generally speaking precedes violence and intervention.

So that is the Islamic Maghrib. Now, to move to other parts of Africa.

Next, we have an article from Reuters that discusses Islam in Africa. In particular, it discusses Kenya's actions in Somalia and their consequences from Al Shabaab and Nigeria's Boko Haram. Essentially it proposes that Kenya is struggling to repel a force that it can ill afford to be fighting against, and that Nigeria's north is "arid, poor, less well educated, lacking in resources and facing the decline of its few industries."

Somalia, as immortalized in the film "Black Hawk Down" is still a disaster zone. It has recently elected a President, but he will have to deal with Al Shabaab as well as prove himself to numerous warlords and small city-states that have developed.  (a rather fascinating article, "Somalia at the Tipping Point?" by Ken Menkhaus, is available in the May 2012 Current History journal available at NDNU's library)

Various West African nations are apparently dealing with general chaos, and Mali (as outlined by my previous blog posts) doesn't have a strong government at this point, with the North offering haven to local terrorist organizations.


When it comes to how to deal with them, I somehow doubt there is any single answer. I also doubt that violently eliminating them as the US has attempted to achieve against Al Qaeda is possible, which forces one to wonder: how can one reason with organizations that care so little for human lives that they will kill innocents to get their point across?

I see no rational response, but I suspect this is going to be the question of at least the next Century.