AS TERRORISM VISITS ORLANDO

After it became public that it was a Muslim that shot, killed fifty and wounded fifty-three at a gay club in Orlando in the United States, in what's now known to be the worst terrorist act in the States since 9/11, coupled with the fact that the suspect, American born Omar Saddiqui Mateen had called 911 pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, the narrative has once again turned to Islamic Fundamentalism, as it is wont to, save for the fact that in recent times the frequency has become a source of concern for many watchers of world events. I decided not to let this pass without dropping a word or two, when something gnawed at my innards as I read the chat shared between a victim (of the gay club shooting incident) and his mother, as the event unfolded.

PULSE NITECLUB WHERE THE LATEST SHOOTING HAPPENED IN ORLANDO

President Barack Obama aptly put it when he said the act involved "terrorism" as well as "hate", and if I might add "intolerance", a recurring decimal as we've found in Nigeria in recent days in the killing of a septuagenarian in Kano for blasphemy, a man in Niger State for same, another man in Kaduna who barely escaped with his life, for eating during Islam's holy month of Ramadan, even though he is Christian, amongst many others. Then you think of the killing of bloggers in Bangladesh, with extremists there looking to outdo Pakistan in extent of terror they can unleash on those with whom they disagree on religious basis mainly. At a time a state, an ally of the United States from where Wahabism was born, detains a blogger, which it routinely flogs in public, besides doing everything terrorist groups and Islamic religious extremists and fanatics do to people in areas under their control legitimately, it is hard to see how international terrorism will abate without a change in how things are done in Saudi Arabia.


The sad thing for me however is unlike an Obama who rallied Americans against the terrorists, warning that an attack against one American is an attack against all Americans, Nigeria's president couldn't care less about people killed by Fulani herdsmen, his kinsmen, and would be quick to urge people to respect the religion of others after an old woman was killed on trumped up charges of blasphemy in Nigeria's north, by people who share the same religious beliefs as his, probably acting up vigorously now that he's in power, which he rode onto on the premise (not necessarily by the president, but his campaign team mainly in the north) of elevating Islam to state religion. Interestingly, some so called "moderate" Muslims think it was wrong for the mob to have killed the woman, when she could've been charged to court, and I ask which court? Could she have been taken to a Shari'a court as a non-Muslim? Is blasphemy a crime under Nigeria's constitution? When I hear so called moderates talk like this I find it hard to fault Mosab Hassan Yousef's assertion in his "SON OF HAMAS" where he said "A moderate Muslim is actually more dangerous than a fundamentalist, however, because he appears to be harmless and you can never tell when he has taken that next step toward the top."


It was after the incident in Kaduna, that a friend wrote on Facebook, that he decided not to eat groceries he bought at the market while there, to avoid unnecessary brouhaha from fasting Muslims, though not necessarily because if push comes to shove he couldn't defend himself, but then it brings me to the question of what Muslims actually want. You can't have a church or synagogue in Saudi Arabia or in Muslim majority regions the world over, yet Saudis and Muslims in the west will fight the state hands down for a mosque to pray, spill over into the streets and block traffic like they do in Nigeria, shutting down  economic activity on the affected road even in places where they are the minority. I feel now, that there's nothing that can be done from the outside to change the growing radicalism in Islam. The target for change definitely can't even be ISIS and those aligned to them in thought, word and deed. Even the opportunity with moderates may also have been lost, but they remain the only hope over Muslims who are just so in name only. It is their voice of condemnation of these acts of intolerance that we must constantly hear over the din of the fanatics, in updates on Facebook, in tweets on Twitter, on social media and several other media at their disposal, rather than the disappearing act we observe with them after incidents like that in Orlando, or elsewhere in the world. The narrative about Islam has gotta stop being about, and associated with terror and terrorism, or else they shouldn't blame passengers when they ask a bus conductor to return their fares just because a bearded man, with trousers defying gravity joined them on the bus.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.CNN.com

RUSSIA'S NECESSARY EVIL IN SYRIA

But please, what would the Americans have the Russians and indeed the world do? America had all the opportunities to mould Syria anyway they liked in the early days of the crisis but opted to play the ostrich. Even when it appeared that President Assad crossed the RED LINE Obama set, the latter still balked against what many in his party as well as in the opposition Republican Party, saw as better advice to go into Syria, with the British having developed cold feet he jettisoned the idea, leaving the Russians to take the initiative in spearheading a United Nations process of ridding Syria of Chemical Weapons.

Russia's President Putin leveraged on the statesmanly popularity the above earned him internationally and most importantly at home to pursue other agendas in eastern Europe, Ukraine to be precise to the anger of the United States of America and her allies, for which the latter activated as many sanctions against Russia as they can muster, which hurt Russia's economy so badly, that Putin had to strengthen further relations with China and other economic blocs opposed to America's superintendence, even sometimes negotiating from a point of weakness just to stay afloat.

We had begun living with this new state of affairs until out of the blues, Russia reactivated it's engagement in Syria, though many see it as more like making overt what was already covert, or escalating what was at a lower level, with bombing raids which Putin said was aimed at degrading the capacity of the ISLAMIC STATE, IS to continue to make war in Iraq Syria. This move not only angered the Americans whose indecision on Syria many tend to blame for the rise of the Islamic State, but led to a campaign in the media it controls in the west to go on a lampooning spree against the airstrikes, hardly seeing any good, except a Russian Evil in Syria, by showcasing the destruction allegedly left behind by the strikes in civilian areas, while Islamic State held areas appear largely unscathed, neither accepting that there had been any form of degradation of ISIS' capabilities.

It became so bad that they kept on reporting the "harm" the Russian airstrike was doing to Syria's innocent populations, especially those in regions in opposition to Assad's rule that they conveniently ignored (except for some speedy mentions, or tiny scrolls at the bottom of the TV) the event of an American airstrike on a Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF run hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in which some doctors and patients lost their lives, while many more survived with varying degrees of injuries, and only began to regularly mention it when the MSF remained unrelenting in asking for an independent investigation into the incident.

BURNING MSF HOSPITAL IN KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN AFTER IT WAS HIT BY AMERICAN FORCES

Atleast, we know what Russia wants in Syria, but definitely not what the Americans want, and by implication what the American foreign policy is, concerning the middle east at large, especially with this Obama government, which claims it detests Islamic State's activities, and would do all it takes to wipe the scum off the surface of the earth, yet the only thing it appears to have done in the case of Syria is train and arm groups opposed to Assad's government in Syria, who then go on to avail the Islamic State American weapons and expertise earned in their interactions with special forces. Even bombing raids by America and her allies in Iraq have done little to dismantle the group, even as Obama refuses to send boots on ground to bouy the government in Iraq.

The Americans claim that the sort of peace they would welcome in Syria is one that does not accommodate the status quo at the helm of affairs, the rest of the world wants peace there at any cost, especially if it will put an end to the migrant crisis bedevilling mainly Europe, and then to some extent the United States, Australia and others. Interestingly, Russia has been spared the nightmare of Syrian migrants at her borders and hence seen by many as doing the world a favour. I will rather this than nothing, and if peace is hopefully procured by Russia's military intervention with possible wiping out of ISIS, then I don't mind. We may begin to talk about what should happen to Assad (of whom I am not fond) once this elusive peace is miraculously found there. This Putin's "evil" in Syria may just be a necessary one in the long run.

'kovich

PICTURE CREDITS:
- http://www.edition.cnn.com
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk