Islamists in Mali: funding and ideological ratlines linking Saudi Arabia and Qatar
Islamists in Mali: funding and ideological ratlines linking Saudi Arabia and Qatar
Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
In Mali radical Sunni Islamists are destroying the rich heritage of their country in Timbuktu and in other areas under their control. The ideology and hatred behind this follows the usual channels linking Saudi Arabia and Qatar alongside the usual terrorist players. Therefore, just like Buddhist statues had survived in Afghanistan until the emergence of the Taliban. The same process of destruction is being used and this is being replicated in Somalia and parts of Pakistan.
Currently armed men are now threatening the Sidi Yahia mosque in Mali which was built in the fifteenth century. The Sunni Islamic group behind this is called Ansar Dine and apparently they have links with al-Qaeda. However, al-Qaeda is being over-used because the real issue is the ratlines which links finance from Saudi Arabia and Qatar with this group of radicals.
In Syria the nations of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supporting Sunni Islamic terrorism against secular Syria and not surprisingly Christian minorities, mainstream Sunni Muslims, Alawites, and others, have much to fear. After all, in the land of Saudi Arabia all apostates from Islam to Christianity face the death penalty and no non-Muslim places of worship are allowed. Therefore, it is abundantly clear that many wealthy individuals and organizations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are intent on spreading their “puritanical version of Islam” when it applies to other faiths and within Islam itself.
Robert Tilford, reporting in the Examiner, comments that “It seems Mali has become a “magnet for foreign fighters”, who are flocking into that country to train new recruits to use weapons recently misappropriated from Libya in the confusion and mess of the U.S. backed regime change.”
“Islamic militants associated with Ansar Dine, and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM] are “recruiting” young Tuareg boys with promises of food to eat ( a luxury for some in Mail) and money, are teaching them to hate the West and use weapons in a network of madrassas or religious schools, funded by our friends in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.”
Sadly, it matters not if it is Afghanistan, Bosnia, Libya, Iraq, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and a host of other nations, because the United States, France and the United Kingdom will either join forces with the same evil when appropriate – or try to contain when deemed against national interests and this is currently happening in Afghanistan and Yemen. This schizophrenic approach to international relations is extremely worrying. However, the same reality continues time after time whereby so-called allies in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are also fermenting terrorism. Yet, when it suits the Western agenda like it did in Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, and now Syria, then Western powers will join forces with radical Sunni Islamic terrorism and encourage and assist covertly via the CIA and other international agencies.
In the same article by Robert Tilford it is stated about US foreign policy towards Qatar that “In the end, when you support a supporter of terrorism, you become a supporter of terrorism yourself.
“It is a vicious cycle.”
“The best thing the United States can do is link continued U.S. aid to Qatar with it cooperation on the fight to end its financing to Islamic terrorists, such as Hamas, AQIM, and Jihad in West Africa – something the U.S. appears incapable or unwilling to do.”
Ansar Dine is extremely proud of destroying the Islamic heritage of Mali because in their world they are following the path of conservative Islam which deems these monuments to be forbidden in Islamic Sharia law. Sanda Ould Bamana, a spokesman for the militant Ansar Dine, stated that “…his movement had now completed nearly 90% of its objective to destroy all mausoleums that are not in line with Islamic law.”
Timbuktu is witnessing the mindset which is normal in Saudi Arabia. However, while the world is upset about the destruction of architecture in Mali, it is ironic that the same nations which hate diversity in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now being supported by America, France, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, against secular Syria. Therefore, while the destruction of monuments is hitting the headlines in Mali the same fellow ideologists are killing and maiming in northern Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, and other parts of the world. However, when it comes to Syria the very same Sunni Islamic terrorist network systems are being utilized in order to enhance the influence of America and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
http://www.examiner.com/article/qatar-suspected-of-supporting-al-qaeda-mali
