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Working with Islamists to marginalize the Jihadists

We know now that the attackers at the Nairobi mall were planning something for weeks, if not months. But even as officials try to decipher the path of Al-Shabaab, others are looking at the path of the politics that created them, pointing to missed opportunities....
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The Current17:29Working with Islamists to marginalize the Jihadists - Sept 25, 2013
We know now that the attackers at the Nairobi mall were planning something for weeks, if not months. But even as officials try to decipher the path of Al-Shabaab, others are looking at the path of the politics that created them, pointing to missed opportunities.

Was there a missed opportunity to stop al-Shabaab for the massacre in Nairobi?

It was days of gunfire - The New York Times is reporting the attack on shoppers in a Nairobi mall had been worked on for weeks or months ahead of time.

Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based militant group with ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the massacre. Somalia and its neighbours have tried to contain al-Shabaab, and in fact Kenya had pushed it out of its base but it retains some control  in parts of Somalia. Al-Shabaab is a harsh master. It bans sports and music. Thieves face amputation, women are lashed if they uncover their faces.

  • Abdi Samatar is the President of the African Studies Association and a Geography Professor at the University of Minnesota. He was born and raised in Somalia and returns a few times a year. He says that six years ago, the West -- Canada included -- had a golden opportunity to push al-Shabaab to the margins. Abdi Samatar was in Minneapolis.

There's disagreement about whether and how to engage with Islamist political groups. And for the purposes of our discussion, we're going to make a distinction between groups whose politics are shaped by their religious beliefs -- and Jihadist groups -- groups which refuse to participate in electoral politics and use their beliefs to justify violence.

  • Adnan Khan is a Canadian journalist who's normally based in southern Turkey. He feels the West needs to learn how to deal with more moderate Islamist political groups because if it continues pushing them aside, the only groups that survive will be the radical Jihadists. Adnan Khan was in Toronto.

  • Zuhdi Jasser is the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and the author of A Battle for The Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save his Faith. He says the west is rightfully cautious of Islamist political organizations because those groups have shown a wavering commitment to democratic politics. Zuhdi Jasser was in Phoenix, Arizona.

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This segment was produced by The Current's Gord Westmacott.

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