There is more to al-Shabaab militants than meets the eye

By Awel Uwihanganye

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Sunday July 11, will be a day we shall remember in Uganda for a long time to come. The terrorists, who traumatised Nairobi, Dar-es-saalam, New York, and many other places around the world, brought the fight to our doorstep.

With deadly outcomes, the ugly head of radical terrorism, informed by fundamentalist Islamic ideology, reared its head among groups of innocent young people, out to celebrate the World Cup.

To say al-Shabaab attacked us because we have troops in Somalia, and therefore should withdraw, is too simplistic. The ideological orientation of this group needs a better understanding than that.

Whereas this attack could have been prompted by the frustrations Ugandan peacekeepers have presented to al-Shabab in their quest to take over Mogadishu, a Somalia under the al-Shabaab would produce worse attacks, because the conflict with these groups is not limited to taking over power in Somalia.

Uganda cannot and should not withdraw troops from Somalia. When al-Qaeda killed hundreds of innocent Muslims and Christians on the streets of Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in 1998, they did not have troops stationed in Somalia.

When ADF, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, and al-Shabaab burnt hundreds of students at Kichwamba technical institute in 1998, we had no troops anywhere close to Somalia.

The radical Islamic fundamentalist ideology is not about controlling a particular territory, but to bring in a new order in the international system.

Uganda, as a key player in regional, and international affairs would be a target regardless. Somalia is just a target base for spreading their mission in the region and around the world.
In the face of corrupt and compromised regimes in the Arab-Islamic world, the jihadists found ground among a discontented population.

The radical movement emerged and sees itself as an alternative to capitalism, communism, and other ideologies which have shaped society’s arrangement along social, economic and political realms.
It seeks to dominate and replace the dominance of Western liberal democratic systems which they see as exploitative, and is eroding their cultural identities.

This fight has extended to include areas beyond those of Western influence, but with connections to the West, hence Uganda.

In what Samuel Huntington called the clash of civilisations, he predicted that Western democratic systems which have been dominant in international relations, will be challenged by the resurgent Islamic civilisation which had dominated the world between the 8th and 13th Century.

Unfortunately, main stream Islamic thinking has been overshadowed in this process. Driven by globalisation, capitalism, an exploitative economic system became the vehicle that benefited the West at the expense of whoever they dealt with.

In this process, the West supported and protected unpopular governments in the Middle East who allowed them access to oil resources they badly needed. Over time, some in the Islamic world started looking at ways of altering existing arrangements, to protect their oil resources from further exploitation, and stop the erosion of their cultural identity.

This background produced the jihadist fundamentalist movement symbolised by al-Qaeda today.
At the heart of the crisis of identity, Muslims are faced with all over the world, is the perception that Islam is under attack from Western forces, and therefore should be defended.

The plight and loss of dignity of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, with American support, and American aggression, occupation of Muslim countries, has led Muslims regardless of background, into soul searching.

To achieve success, the fight against Islamic fundamentalism should include international pressure on Israel to stop the injustices towards the Palestinian people, and a rethink of Western-Islamic relations. Therefore the terrorist ideology that informs al-Shabab followers is rooted in radical Islamic ideology that has emerged from the soul searching process.

It is important to note that, religious fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon in Uganda, and neither is it limited to the distortion of Islam as a religion.

For the last 20 years, we have been fighting an extremist Christian terrorist group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, which continues to kill, maim and abduct thousands of innocent people in the name of God.
In march 2000, we experienced the Kanungu tragedy, where a Christian-oriented cult, led by a Catholic priest and others killed over 1,000 people with a promise of heaven.

Another example, of one Muslim preacher called Jamil Mukuru who in the early 1990s embodied the Ugandan form of this extremist ideology.

Muslims in general, and Islam as a religion should not be identified with this terrorist act. A distinction has to be made. July 11 presents a dawn of new reality. Life as we knew it has changed. The first line of defence will be individual persons.

Our security agencies have to be vigilant and should give us more confidence than what they have presented so far. We need to know that smart and effective strategies have been put in place to avoid future tragedies.

The decision to send more peacekeeping troops to help stabilise the country, and free it from extremist forces, is both our duty to our Somali African brothers and sisters, but also in our national security interest.
The writer is a public relations and communications consultant