The Africa Report
HUNDREDS OF JIHADISTS HAVE BEEN FLOCKING INTO NORTHENRN MALI
The Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt has not only toppled long-serving dictators or shown the extent of the power of beleaguered people, it has given birth to a plethora of jihadist groups with diverse missions.
Predicted to bring liberation, freedom and secularism to conservative African and Middle-Eastern countries, the Arab Spring appears to have given Jihadists the liberty to establish and operate, as new government’s struggle to establish authority.
Although Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise across Africa and the Middle East, post Arab Spring Jihadist groups are peculiar and unique from the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular and the Islamic Maghreb, Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Al-Shabaab, Islamic Jihad of Yemen, and Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Some new Jihadist groups have their own local objectives. The Salafists in Egypt, Liwaa al-Umma in Syria, Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, Libya, Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah, Libya, Ansar al-Sharia group in Tunisia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Ansar Dine in northern Mali have mostly veered from al-Quaeda’s international terrorist agenda.
Salafists in Egypt have gained strength in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, just across the border from Israel and they say their true fight was with the “Zionist enemy” Israel. Liwaa al-Umma in Syria have expressed that they are not necessarily global jihadists or al-Qaeda sympathizers; they subscribe to a more orthodox understanding of Islam.
Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, Libya says its main concern is instituting Islamic law based on their own interpretation. Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah, Libya and Ansar al-Sharia group in Tunisia have been accused of provoking the recent destruction of Sufi mosques and graves.
Boko Haram has attacked and killed Non-Muslims, and state security personnel in its struggle to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state. Ansar Dine Jihadists now control Mali’s vast north. However, experts say they are more criminal than ideological, focused on kidnapping and drug smugglings.
According to New York Times Robert Worth, post Arab Spring Jihadist groups have local agendas, and very few seek to attack the United States. Although post Arab Spring Jihadist groups utilize similar rhetorical framework as Al Qaeda, they have struggled to follow Al-Qaeda’s global war on the West. The reason is that would-be Jihadist groups have sought change in countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria, and the United States too has stood on the side of change.
As a result, these new Jihadist groups forming across these countries are mostly focused on projects within their own countries, replacing their own governments with theocracies, than seeking the destruction of the West. Hundreds of jihadists have been flocking into the northern Mali towns of Timbuktu and Gao, where where Islamist groups have been in control since March. The towns’ historic sites dating hundreds of years have been destroyed after the Islamists said they were not in line with their beliefs.
Although these groups appear to have local missions, the international community cannot be complacent of their potential for terrorism, human right abuses and radicalism.
Tags:Arab SpringEgyptGaoIsraelJihad
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