HOW AL-SHABAAB PICKS ITS VICTIMS
SOURCE
Editor's note: Peter Bergen is a director at the New America Foundation and the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad."
(CNN) -- Al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda's brutal Somali affiliate, has claimed credit for the attack by multiple gunmen at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya that has already killed at least 59 people.
This should not be a surprise. For Al-Shabaab, the mall was an attractive target because Westerners, including Americans, frequented it. The mall is also in the capital of Kenya, a country that Al-Shabaab has good reason to dislike, as the Kenyan military played a major role in handing their forces a defeat last year when they liberated the key Somali port of Kismayo from their control.
Al-Shabaab ("the Youth") tweeted Saturday that "all Muslims inside #Westgate" -- referring to the mall that was attacked in Nairobi -- "were escorted out by the Mujahideen before" the armed assault commenced.
Members of Al-Shabaab use Twitter frequently to communicate their messages to the world. The group has recruited around 40 young American men and also dozens from Europe and has shown that it is comfortable with Internet technology, despite the fact that Somalia is one of the poorest and most anarchic countries on the planet.
More than 10% of the Kenyan population is Muslim. So it is interesting that Shabaab took the precaution of evacuating Muslims from the Nairobi mall they were attacking, suggesting a greater sophistication in the tactics of this attack than the group has shown hitherto in Somalia, where they have killed large numbers of civilians indiscriminately in a country that is almost entirely Muslim.
Before he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs two years ago, even Osama bin Laden had scolded members of Al-Shabaab, telling them to try to avoid killing Muslim civilians.
TRUNCATED
NOTE:
This was an act of war because terrorists from one country (Somalia) attacked people in another country, (Kenya)
The Muslim population of Kenya is only 10%, according to the article.
Therefore, since this was an war against people who looked "western" meaning that they were not Muslims. This therefore is a coordinated attack thought out well in advance of the event because there was a second group, the Mujahideen which made sure that Muslims were not in the mall because they were granted a "safe passage" before they started killing westerners. Another CNN news source states "attackers have killed at least 68 people, injured 175, and are believed to still be holding about 10 people hostage "
AS A RESULT OF THIS ACT OF KINDNESS FROM A "SECT FROM A PEACEFUL RELIGION" THERE ARE 253 KNOWN VICTIMS, POSSIBLY MORE .
Their "crime" was to go shopping. Think about that the next time you go to Wal-Mart or to a local mall to shop for Christmas presents.
Anyone who can say that the sects of their religion DOES NOT ferment evil, or that their religion does NOT has a looooong history of killing people who have a different religion than Islam is not looking at the facts. There is no other religion on this planet, excepting Islam, which tells its adherents in its holy book to kill others because they do not believe as you do.
Where is the world-wide outrage at such an event? Why is it that the "peaceful Muslim communities" around the world are not vocally and visibly upset at these sorts of continued atrocities? Their collective silence does create questions as to the message of toleration, and indeed abetting by silence these atrocities.
Where are the acts of compassion towards the victims of the MANY atrocities that are mentioned in this thread (and we all know that there are many, many more more) from the followers of Islam?
Yes, indeed, I am outraged by these acts. Yes, indeed I am outraged by the apologists of Islam who cover their eyes, refusing to see evil, and to call it evil.
THIS POST IS NOT AN ANTI-ISLAM RANT. (which would be a violation of the tos.) It is a worldwide call to common sense. The analogy of going to a dentist to have a tooth drilled, and a cavity removed, and replaced by a filling is apropos. The sooner that the world wide Islamic community gets its head out of the sand and takes effective action against these who do evil, the more we westerners will respect their religion. All we can do is pray against evil, and call attention to the fact that by their collective silence and inaction, they are supporting the terrorists.