The Kenyan jihad
While I was away, reading about the appalling atrocities in Kenya in which churches were torched and dozens of Christians burned to death, I wondered whether any mainstream media would get the point. They didn’t. As far as I could see, the violence was universally ascribed to ‘tribal conflict’. But this isn’t the first time churches in Kenya have been torched, as you can read here (date unknown):
On 13 June, Muslims rioting over the arrest of one of their clerics torched five churches in Bura, Tana River district, not far from Mombasa in Kenya… As impunity equals permission, this is a serious issue of national significance at a time when Muslim tensions are rising to boiling point.or here from 2001:
Anglican Archbishop David Gitari and an interfaith team confronted rioting Muslim youths armed with swords and clubs on December 1 in Nairobi, Kenya. In response to this attempt to quell Kenya's worst outbreak of violence between Christians and Muslims, the rioters pelted the archbishop and his team with rocks. Moderate Muslim leaders plucked Gitari from the mob and rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for head injuries. ‘I survived only because Muslim leaders formed a human shield around me and in the process got more injured than myself,’ Gitari later said in local media reports.Or here from 2003:
Muslim leaders in Kenya are threatening armed conflict if the new Kenyan constitution does not enshrine Islamic courts (known in Kenya as Kadhi courts).For years, Kenya has been subjected to creeping Islamisation and jihadi violence by elements within the country’s ten per cent Muslims against the Christian majority. Yet unaccountably there was no mention of this key fact in the media coverage of the post-election violence. Well, fancy!
In the Christian Post, this article, (which was picked up by Stephen Pollard) written before the disputed election which led to the violence, put events in a rather more accurate context. Raila Odinga, it said, who was then the current presidential frontrunner, had promised to implement strict Islamic Sharia law if he received the Muslim vote and was elected president. Odinga had signed a secret memorandum of understanding with Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi, chairman of the National Leaders Forum, in which Odinga had allegedly stated his intention, if elected, to
‘within six months, rewrite the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Sharia as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions’.The Evangelical Alliance of Kenya released a statement in which church leaders said Odinga
‘comes across as a presumptive Muslim president bent on forcing Islamic law, religion and culture down the throats of the Kenyan people in total disregard of the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of worship and equal protection of the law for all Kenyans.’The Africa regional manager for International Christian Concern, Darara Gubo, said the agreement
‘undermines the secular nature of Kenya and opens a Pandora’s box of chaos and conflict similar to what happened in Nigeria and Sudan. This is not a stand-alone incident; rather, it is part of strategy to Islamize Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa, through the introduction of Sharia law’.Subsequently Joshua Hammer wrote a piece in the New York Times which, without going so far as to join up all the dots (please, this is the NYT!), nevertheless provided a hint of the same, ahem, context. Writing about sitting Kenyan MP Joseph Lekuton, he described his challenger, Godana Harugura, as
… a convert to fundamentalist Islamwho had reportedly raised money from Muslims along Kenya’s volatile border with Somalia by promising to
‘reclaim’ the region for Islam — and by attacking Lekuton for inviting Christian development groups into the area…Indeed, in the view of some of Lekuton’s supporters the election was shaping up to be a proxy confrontation between the West and Islam — a clash of civilizations in the Kenyan bush…Apart from that, I have found plenty of worthy hand-wringing in the mainstream media about tribal violence between equally bloodthirsty Kenyan sectarian groups, but diddly squat about the Kenyan jihad and the remorseless creation of Africastan.A sizable, largely poor Muslim population concentrated along the coast — and proximity to the volatile states in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Sudan — have made Kenya especially vulnerable, in the views of counterterrorism experts, to the call for jihad. Since the early 1990s, the mosques of Mombasa and other towns have resonated with militant Islamic rhetoric. Radical imams have preached violence against Westerners, attacked the Kenyan government as the lackey of the United States and Israel and called for the implementation of Shariah. Members of the Qaeda cells that blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998, were recruited in mosques near the Indian Ocean beaches where hundreds of thousands of Western tourists flock each year.
Raila Odinga has, in his own words, a 'close personal friendship' with Barrack Hussein Obama Junior.When Obama went to Kenya in August of 2006, he was hosted by Raila and spoke in praise of him at rallies in Nairobi: Obama's bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenya government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila's ‘stooge.’Oh dear. Maybe this is what Obama means by being the candidate of ‘change’.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.
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Abdullah
January 7th, 2008 12:13amAnother copy and paste job from the new expert in Kenyan politics Melanie Philips. I am a Kenyan myself and dont see your simplistic, unnuanced and sometimes laughlable view of muslim-christian relations in Kenya. Islam predated the spread of Christianity and the Kadhi courts have always existed in one form or the other for a long time. They are a non issue in Kenya as they have been enshrined in the constitution since independence and their existence has never been questioned having predated the Kenyan state itself. They only apply to Muslims in certain areas of domestic life and even Muslims who disagree with their judgements go to the secular courts as seen in a recent high profile divorce case of Azzam.There was no effort to extend their influence in the new constitution but a promise to gurantee their exisiting status. Furthemore they are were a result of agreement by the British and Zanzibar to protect the minority status of muslims and without them we may have seen an independent Muslim majority state on the coast and and and inland state not Kenya of today. The tragic occurence of violence in Kenya was nothing to do with religion where is your evidence to the contrary? That particular church as you failed to mention was burnt down by Kalenjin youth in the Rift Valley which has been party to ethnic clashes over land and resources for 20 years between the encroaching kikuyu and the Nandi and Kalenjin both christians. Kenyans of both religions were rightly disatisfied with the conduct of the elections and Muslims participated in the elections on both sides. The fact is there is no 'muslim block vote' doesnt convienently fit into your neat thesis of 'Islamisation'. Muslims like all Kenyans voted for change, better governamce and more important matters of health education etc. They are active and having been margnialised in recent history have discovered the power of the ballot box. The Memorandum was also agreed to in the previous election and is nothing more than a group lobbying for its interests and concerns to be heard as in any democrary you are a fan of that?. The archbishop of Kisumu himself criticised those so called 'evangelical leaders' who for futherance of their own agenda characterised the memorandum as imposition of 'sharia' no doubt with the intention of garnering publicity and factless drivel in articles such as these. President Kibaki himself assidously campaigned for the vote of Muslims celebrating Eid in Mombasa having realised the error of his ways and those 3 million Muslim votes up for grabs. The NY article although more sophisticated than this was also based on a false premise the fact is Lekoton the Laisamis MP was an all to commom Kenyan MP out for personal enrichment to the detriment of his constituents. Kenyan Muslims live in harmony with fellow Kenyans and 'tribal loyalties' although overplayed somewhat are the primary reason for the violence incidentally between Christians. I guess i should'nt hold by breath for serious or even wikipedia journalism from Melanie. Its all the fault of those Muslims!! :)
Spencer de Vere
January 7th, 2008 12:17amMelanie, I saw no mention on Mainstream Media TV (here in Australia) about the church- burning murder of dozens of Kenyans last week. I guess it doesn't fit in with their agenda. They much prefer endless repeats of, "gunman shoots 3 dead in Las Vegas McDonalds".
Dalmar
January 7th, 2008 1:27amMs Phillips, please stop making a fool of yourself by commenting on crisis stories—such as this one—of which you have absolutely no-clue about! The current Kenyan crisis was created (even before we got to the polls on Dec 27, 2007) by greedy political elites who ‘tribalized’ Kenyan 42 tribes—by perfecting the art of 'divide-and-rule' that was learnt from former colonial masters. Blaming every crisis around the world on 'jihadis' completely trivializes the true Jihadi-war we face. Here's a link to the genesis of the Kenyan crisis, written by a local Kenyan Kikuyu (President's Kibaki's tribe)--who is a PhD Political Security student in London. http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News%5Cnews070120086.htm
Frank Pulley
January 7th, 2008 1:35amYour co-panelist Michael Gove seems to have completely missed this angle in his piece last week: http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/427686/an-act-of-evil-that-recalled-the-atrocities-of-the-ss.thtml Perhaps, if he reads this blog, as I'm sure it is his duty to do, he might be persuaded to comment on your observations here. No doubt he could pen a seamless conflation, if he agrees. A very interesting, alarming and original post Melanie. Welcome back.
Frank Pulley
January 7th, 2008 2:33amDalmar I wonder if you are in anyway connected to the following website: http://www.dalmar.org/profile.php# If so, it might explain your desire to minimise the effect of Islamic input into the Kenyan upheavals. In any case it seems to me that Melanie, Michael Gove and your Kenyan PhD 'Political Security' student could all be essentially accurate in their analyses and merely emphasising different aspects of the power struggle in Kenya. Axe-grinding is not confined to infidels. And why should it trivialise the jihad to suggest yet another theatre of its global operations?
Muslims Against Sharia
January 7th, 2008 2:58amMost of the Western Muslim establishment is comprised of Islamist groups claiming to be moderates. True moderate Muslims reject Islamic supremacy and Sharia; embrace religious equality and democracy. What is a moderate Muslim? According to a dictionary, a moderate is a person who is opposed to radical or extreme views or measures, especially in politics or religion. Yet, majority of the public seem to be struggling with the definition of a moderate Muslim. Perhaps we can make this task easier by defining a radical Muslim and then defining the moderate as an opposite of the radical. Muslims Against Sharia compiled a list of issues that differentiate moderate Muslims from Islamic radicals. Hopefully you can help us grow this list. http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/ 2008/01/what-is-moderate-muslim.html Poll: Who is a moderate Muslim? http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/ 2008/01/poll-who-is-moderate-muslim.html
Martina
January 7th, 2008 9:44amIn this blog one can see that Muslims are always very fast in apologizing the atrocities committed by their fellow Muslims around the world. They donīt like if somebody like the courageous Mrs Phillips tells the truth.
BJ
January 7th, 2008 12:06pmWell done Abdullah for both skewering Melanie's arguments and her usual blogging technique of just cutting and pasting an article from a nut website in the US
elixelx
January 7th, 2008 12:25pmabdullah, if these "ethnic clashes" led to a burning down of a mosque or two, with Imams, Muslim women and Muslim children inside, would it then qualify as a religious crime rather than an 2ethnic clash"? Also, don't start your rants by saying "I am a Kenyan, myself..." First, the "myself" is redundant, and second being a native gives you no privileged insight into your country's problems; rather the opposite is true! There are 400 dead and counting in that civilzed oasis that was once called Kenya; and over what? The dead don't understand your desire for "nuance"! Finally, to deny that the tactics used to protest an unfair election is typical of jihadists, is to be disingenuous if not untruthful!
N. Simon
January 7th, 2008 12:37pmAbdullah says "Islam predated the spread of Christianity".
Islam is about 1500 years old and Christianity is 2007 years old. An idiot can work that out.
As for Muslim against Christian violence, it's not just in Kenya, it's in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Congo, Ethiopia, etc.
Melanie presents us with overwhelming truth, and according to the copy of the actual document dated 29th day of August 2007, Mombasa, Kenya, signed by Chairman Abduallah Amdi, and the Hon. Raila Odinga, it promises that the candidate, who "recognizes Islam as the only true religion" will institute shariah law.
http://eakenya.org/newsevents/article.htm?id=8
Ed Witcomb
January 7th, 2008 3:47pmThis is a complete disgrace. The church was burnt down by Christians, not Muslims.
Gordon Neil
January 7th, 2008 5:15pmNot quite true to say that all the mainstream media ignored the influence of jihadists on the crisis in Kenya. A Newsnight piece did give half a nano second to the relevant BBC World Service Africa corespondent and he listed it amongst others, but Newsnight left his single comment hanging. Welcome back.
Rev H Oliver
January 7th, 2008 8:54pmThis article is complete hypocrisy. It is a spit in the face of all those who were murdered when the church was set on fire. The people who set the fire were Christians! Why is this idiot mentioning Muslims? Why? Why is he using the murder of Christians by Christians as an excuse to attack Muslims? What is wrong with him? Has he no shame? Well the only person with less shame than the author is the so called anti Shariya Muslim who is trying to publish his websites, using this as an excuse! Muslims have as much right to be ruled by their religion as Christians have to be ruled by theirs. Some on who claimed to be Christian and burned down churches is no Christian. Some one who claimed to be Christian but refused to believe in the laws of the bible, is not Christian. And some one who claimed to be a Muslim but refused to believe in the laws of the Quran, the Shariya, is no Muslim.
Abdullah
January 8th, 2008 10:10amFirstly Islam predated Christianity in KENYA!! N Simon(if you read the article you would have figured that out) before you had a pop at my comment. As any idiot would tell you (i guess i am one according to you) colinisation spread Christianity in Africa. An Idiot can work that out! The fact that I am Kenyan! is essential having lived, breathed and discussed these issues with my fellow Kenyans as opposed to the armchair hectoring practicised by philips et al. Who seemed to be experts in every new 'crisis' and FINALLY THE CHURCH WAS BURNT DOWN BY FELLOW CHRISTIANS! SIMPLE FACT! but I guess that is not an important consideration to some????? e.g MARTINA? who sadly are duped into some war bunker mentatility oh the brave Miss Philips exposing lies! or more accurately spreading misconceptions but it is sad so many are readily and willingly taken in by them. Back to the point the clashes were caused by fradualent election resukts and anger at the corruption and growing inequality in Kenya. Not everything has to do with those wicked Muslims.
Abdullah
January 8th, 2008 10:24amand N Simon there is no use just drawing a list of Muslim attacking Christian in x no of Countries! Somalia: No history of Christianiy less that 2 families according to Amercian missionaries and no conversions in a 60 year coloisation by Italy/Britain. So no Christians to attack sadly its muslims against each other. Eritrea: An Atheist State with guranteed rights for Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim communities the Christian Gov tolerates no missionary activity such as Jehovah Witnesses where are these mysterious Muslim attacks? Ethiopia: A Christian state persecuting Muslims not the other way round! especiallly in the Somali region documented by several human rights groups. Congo: Muslims constitue are tiny minorty less than 1% in an oerwhemlingly christian country so who are they persecuting? Again stop the ludricous machievalian scenarious and Elie most of the dead were christians killed by christians not by your so called 'Jihadis' again simple facts! incidentally the calmest part of the country with no violence were the somali/muslim majority provinces of NE and most of Eastern.
elixelx
January 8th, 2008 11:37amI've googled and googled and found no reference to the religious leanings of those who set fire to a church with women and children inside. This subtends 4 possibilities: 1) Christians set fire to a Church with Christians inside.... 2) Christians set fire to a Church with Muslims inside... 3) Muslims set fire to a Church with Muslims inside.... 4) Muslims set fire to a Church with Christians inside... Hmmm....let's seeeee....
elixelx
January 8th, 2008 4:26pmSo, Abdallah, I suppose that being Kenyan AND MUSLIM, gives you exactly the same point of view as Kenyan CHRISTIANS, and a more viable POV than any NON-KENYAN in this world. When will you people learn that the Koran is only YOUR distorting prism!
Dalamr
January 8th, 2008 5:17pmFrank Pulley, for the record, I am not in anyway, shape or form connected to the website you quoted—hope this calms down your paranoia! The current Kenyan crisis is a backlash against one elite tribe (the Kikuyu) that has been monopolizing the power & hence the resources of the country over the years—by a grouping of 40 plus smaller marginalized tribes (including some Muslim tribes). If you care to research or follow the local Kenyan & regional press (instead of following your paranoia)—just like the Rwandan genocide, the root causes of the current Kenyan crisis is land or resource-related. The Kenyan crisis erupted after the party representing a grouping of these 40 plus smaller tribes was ‘allegedly’ rigged out of their victory by the party representing the powerful Kikuyu tribe. The Press, local & international observers have confirmed that the Kenyan election was not free & fair and that the opposition has a reason to be disgruntled. Similarly, the killing is Christian-on-Christian. As much as you might not want the world to hear, the Church burning was unfortunately done by Christians & not by Muslim— Frank Pulley can you hear or see? No wonder …there are none so blind as those who are paranoid. All I am trying to say is this: the current Kenyan crisis has nothing to do with Islam or Jihadis except in your mind and that of Ms Phillips. On this issue, armchair Google experts, like you, Frank Pulley, claiming to know more than the local Kenyan people who are suffering, breathing & living the current crisis does not only trivialize the true Jihadi war we face but it’s also the height of hypocrisy—that only succeeds in unfolding how paranoid you are! If you’re very concerned about Jihadis, did you know that the worst Jihadis we face today are from Saudi Arabia & Pakistan—yet both countries are the West’s best friends—go figure!
Abdullah
January 9th, 2008 5:58pmElie X the fact that I am Kenyan in this instance means I a more informed!I dont have to rely on google. Lets assess the evidence: The church was set on fire by Kalenjin youths. The Kalenjin are the majority in the Rift Valley province FACT! Eyewitness the Kikuyus who survived identified them as such and What religion are the Kalenjin and Nandi tribes oh???CHRISTIAN! FACT! the killing was tribal and nothing whatsoever to do with Religion. However many times you wish it to be true Muslims did not burn down the Church! Elementary my Dear Watson.
Deepan
January 10th, 2008 10:24pmIt is true Melanie, you take every oppurtunity possible to attack Muslims. Christians are the people who set the church on fire. Why are you bringing religion into something that is mostly a tribal issue?
Beatrice
May 4th, 2008 7:47pmWow, this is the worst lie I have ever seen on the internet. I am a Kenyan and you couldn't be more wrong.The churches were not burnt by muslims...Few Muslims even live in Eldoret. They live in Mombasa...wow this is a bunch of bull for real. Just get our hands off Kenyan politics. You have no idea what you are talking about
Zacq
May 25th, 2008 6:25pmBlatant lie this is.
The MOU signed was not secret.
Kadhi courts are enshrined in the present kenyan constitution.
There has been, is, and will be no jihad in kenya as all religions are constitutionally guarateed.
What you are refering to in this article was simply a triba conflict than religious as you want us beleive.
Get facts squarely and acurately before hitting your keyboard to propagate your agenda whatever it is.
Lastly i am KENYAN. Meza wembe.
Ann Kelly
July 22nd, 2008 3:47pmI would like to know how a serious journalist could use a forgery as their main source. Furthermore, a source that is so obviously false. Did you just skim it?
Wikilieaks did an analysis of the rumour long before your piece was published, so there is no excuse for such bad journalism.
Ann Kelly
July 22nd, 2008 3:52pmI would like to know how a serious journalist could use a forgery as their main source. Furthermore, a source that is so obviously false. Did you just skim it?
Wikilieaks did an analysis of the rumour (http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/MOU_between_Raila_Odinga_and_Muslims) long before your piece was published. The real agreement is here: http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Kenyan_PM_Raila_Odinga_2007_secret_MoU_with_Muslim_leaders_and_Extraordinary_Rendition_in_East_Africa
This is just an example of smear campaign NOT journalism