A 4-day siege in a Nairobi shopping mall appears to be drawing to an end.
Muslim terrorists associated with Somalia- based Al Shabab (Arabic for ‘The Youth’) stormed the Westgate Centre in Nairobi’s up-market Westlands area on Saturday at noon local time. At least 62 people are dead with more than 170 injured. The dead and injured include Kenyans and many of other nationalities. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nephew has been killed in the attack. The Mall itself is owned by an Israeli businessman.
Eye-witnesses say the attackers freed shoppers who could identify themselves as Muslims and shot at others. The Somali ambassador immediately denied this, despite not being there, while David Cameron said:
‘These appalling terrorist attacks that take place where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion – they don’t. They do it in the name of terror, violence and extremism and their warped view of the world. They don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world.’
To which Douglas Murray in the Spectator replied:
‘I don’t think any sensible person would argue that the perpetrators represent all Muslims. But it seems strange to say that a separation of people — and massacre of them — based solely on their religious identity can be said to have nothing to do with religion.’
It has emerged that there was what the Kenyan authorities described as a ‘multi-national’ element in the terrorist group. Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told US PBS network that one of the militants was a British woman who had “done this many times before” and “two or three” Americans were also attackers.
Attention is focusing on the possible involvement of Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of one of the men who carried out attacks on London’s transport system on 7th July 2005.
Postings on social media site Twitter in fluent English lend support to the theory that residents of the UK or US are heavily involved with the militants.
Al Shabab supporters commonly refer to ‘Brave Mujahideen’. It must take some quality to shoot defenceless men, women and children in cold blood, but courage does not immediately spring to mind.
Al Shabab aim to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and some factions within it want to export a Caliphate to the rest of East Africa, including Kenya and Uganda. All however, have taken exception to Kenyan army encursions into the country following attacks on Kenyan border towns. Last month Al Shabab murdered four policemen near Garissa in Eastern Kenya.
Nevertheless, a pan-African force including Kenya has succeeded in driving Al Shabab out of some of the areas it once held, and it may well be that the grenade and AK-47 attack in Nairobi is a sign of Al Shabab’s current weakness.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in Kenya are generally good. Christians represent some 80% of the population and Muslims 10%. There has been a strong Arabic influence for centuries from the trading centred on the Kenyan Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. Consequently, almost 50% of the population in the Coastal region is Muslim, tailing off the farther one moves from the south-east strip.
Yet even in Mombasa the two faiths manage an element of mutual respect, helped by the fact that Kenyan Christians hold their faith very strongly indeed, and never back down when standing up for the cause of Christ. On occasions, Christians and Muslims have stood together against secularist influences coming in from Europe and the US.
Public prayer is commonplace, and politicians are not afraid of talking in Christian terms. Both the President and vice-President dedicated their offices to Christ after being elected in March this year, with Vice-President William Ruto’s speech especially forthright.
Despite the Nairobi attack, Kenya is a by-word for stability in East Africa, with many migrants from Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The Government will have to continue to address the Somali problem, but life will return to normal.
Please pray for those grieving for lost loved ones in Kenya and across the world. Pray that the perpetrators of the Westgate massacre will be brought to justice. Thank God for the Christian faith of the President and Vice-President. Pray for courage and wisdom for the Government of Kenya. Pray for the Church in Kenya, to stay resolute and preach the Gospel in season and out of season.
David Cameron is exercising his leadership from an outer galaxy. It is partly because world leaders like him can’t/won’t see the truth and speak the truth that this terrorism against innocent civilians and others continues. he is part of the problem, not part of the answer. i suggest epople read melanie Phillip’s analysis on her blog of this terrible event and DC’s opinion.
As one who was brought up in Kenya colour of skin was never a problem and I still have many friends there. i pray for the peace of Kenya and the surrounding countries.
As a Christian do you believe in the whole Bible? If not can you be called a Christian? Surely one cannot be selective about what one likes or doesn’t like in the Bible and cut it out of ones’ belief? I believe that every word in the Bible is the infallible, inspired word of God especially what Jesus said and commanded us to do.
When moderate Muslims ( and Western leaders) claim terrorist acts do not represent Islam do they then not believe the whole Koran was given to Mohammed and all that is in it? ARE they selective to the point of denying their own faith? The Koran calls them hypocrites if they do not agree with killing infidels. Who then are the true Muslims?
See: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
for a good evaluation of the Koran and Bible on violence.
These Islamic inspired terrorist atrocities will continue because this is the implementation of their religion as commanded by Allah and brought to them by Mohammed and the Koran.
Final thought: Islam grew by coercion and conquest – Christianity grew by conviction.
David Cameron as prime minister of a country with so many Muslims is in a difficult position. He is saying that although the terrorists think they do in in the name of religion, their acts are not really in accordance with the true teachings of Islam (which is a view everybody needs to take if we are to survive comfortably in this country, condemning other interpretations of the teachings which may be possible).
Douglas Murray, who isn’t responsible for the welfare of this country in the same way, is unhelpful with his
“But it seems strange that …………[it] can be said to have nothing to do with religion.”
Cameron did not say it had nothing to do with religion. He said they “claim they do it in the name of a religion “.
But the vital point, which no doubt has been analysed and recommended by his advisers , is that nobody must believe that it is an essential part of Islam, or even a true part of Islam. If this takes hold any more that it already has, we are all doomed, christian, muslim, and non-believer in either alike.
So again, I would say that Cameron is sensibly doing his best, and Murray (fortunately with a much smaller audience) is being unhelpful.
David, if every word of the Bible is the infallible word of God, and every word of the Koran is the infallible word of Allah , what is going to happen ? Quite a lot of trouble is brewing, I would say. Do you really want this, or would it be better to have some “hypocrites” on both sides ?
There were problems with these opposing views in the Middle Ages, but eventually they got sorted out somehow and civilisation continued both in the West and in what became mostly the Ottoman Empire.
It is possible, you know, to “believe” the Bible but interpret it differently. There is a large number of different Christian denominations, based mainly on different interpretations of what God really wants.
Islam is also split, presumably for similar reasons.
A lot of Christians and Muslims don’t believed that indefinite war between Christians and Muslims is what God and Allah want, I’m very glad to point out. Moreover, not everyone in countries with some Christians and/or Muslims is affiliated to either. Spare a thought for Jews, Hindus and atheists, to name just three.
Yes, quite a lot of trouble is brewing.
Islam split into Shia and Sunni because of personalities, not doctrine.
There are however doctrinal differences now, which are backed or condemned by differing interpretations of what is permitted.
As a very brief and imprecise summary of this, the Shia are the “Catholics” of the Muslim world, revering saints and shrines which the more puritanical Sunni disapprove of.
The BBC persistently referred to these murderers as ‘militants’.
Three major slaughters carried out in Allah’s name in a fortnight: The Peshawar church bombing which killed over 70 and wounded 200, the Nairobi massacre and in Nigeria the Boko Haram Muslim murder gang slaughtered 50 agricultural students. They invaded the college at night and shot the unarmed students in their beds. Boko Haram were responsible for many bomb and gun attacks on churches on Christmas Day 2011. Their goal is to impose strict Sharia law on all of Nigeria.
It s difficult to imagine a more depraved crime than to deliberately murder young people who were training to be farmers in a country where food poverty is a major cause of ill health and early death.
I believe that in these last days God is allowing the whole world to see what Islam really is. Those who follow the Dawkins line that all theistic religions are equally bad are being given some evidence to inform their views, if they have eyes to see. Whether they will learn in time that when you drive out good religion you don’t get no religion, you get bad religion, remains to be seen.
I really don’t think you can blame Richard Dawkins for murdering agricultural students in Nigeria, which I agree with you is a particularly depraved crime. I’m sure that if Dawkins bothered to read Christian Voice, he would have a very good reply to this insinuation.
What might he say ? He might say that a lot of Christians happen to have been killed by Muslims this time, but even 70 + x + 50 isn’t all that many when we have forgotten about it. He might say that there have been very many Muslims and animists killed by Christians in the past, the Christians usually very much better armed. He might say that there are just as many good kind Muslims horrified by these killings as there are good kind Muslims, or atheists, or Hindus.
Also, he might add that while Muslims are very good at killing each other for slight differences in belief, Christians have been very good at this in the past as well. At the moment religion in the Middle East does seem more bad than in the West, but it could swing the other way if Christian fundamentalists with guns were to turn against somebody in 100 years time. Who knows ?
Of course Mr Hayes did not blame Dawkins for Boko Haram, he said that those who follow the Dawkins line can see for themselves that there are differences between religions.
If you listen to the God Delusion Debate where Richard Dawkins is taken to task by John Lennox you find that Dawkins actually says that all religion is terrible (which is the stand he has to take) but the only supporting examples he gives are from Islam. Dawkins has been ‘mugged by reality’ but he cannot or will not recognise it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t97VkSnDjg