Jihadists,
Islamic extremists, Islamic fundamentalists, or whatever label you
want to apply to them, are again headline news due to increased
activity, this time in northern Mali where French troops, with the
help of Malian troops, have been given the unenvious task of
liberating towns from Al-Qaeda occupation. As each town falls to
French forces we learn of the brutality handed out by these
terrorists to the native populations, particularly the black
residents, where torture and murder seems to have been used not just
to keep order, but in a self-righteous sadistic manner synonymous
with Al-Qaeda.
Whether or
not you think European involvement is the correct course of action,
there is little doubting the possible threat to peace these
terrorists could cause, not just to the region but, the world as a
whole. Having said that, as always happens, the only thought is how
to eliminate the threat and there is no discussion on why this threat
exists in the first place. Why is it that these Islamic extremist
groups seem to have an endless pool of enthusiastic recruits that are
frothing at the mouth at the thought of carrying out such despicable
acts, particularly in regards to the West and their supporters? Why
is there so much hate and resentment aimed at the West? The main
stream media finds the answer to these questions too uncomfortable so
chooses not to ask them.
Mali, like
many other African and Middle Eastern countries, all have two
relevant common characteristics: They are oil producers and they have
mass poverty. Then there is a third factor that comes into play: Many
of them have corrupt governments that allow Western multinationals to
make ridiculously large profits from their oil reserves. How must
this look to the native populations? Often living in dire poverty,
lacking food, water, housing, employment, eduction, and probably most
importantly – hope, it's enough to turn anyone bitter. They have
practically nothing, yet through stealing their natural resources
Western multinationals turn over huge profits. It's not hard to see
the link between terrorism, poverty and the theft of resources.
If we want
to reduce terrorism we have three options, along side the use of
force. One, stop profiting from other countries resources, which I
think we can all agree is unlikely to happen. Two, eradicate or
reduce poverty in those countries. Three, continue to exploit their
resources but use a fair amount of the profit to fight poverty in
their respective countries by funding housing, education,
infrastructure etc. If we ignore these options, and I'm sure we will,
global terrorism will not go away.
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