Islamism = Ebola

There is an outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa, with many states closing their borders and the epidemic spreading through contact in Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Nigeria, with over 1,000 dead so far.  The plague of Islamism seems like a deadly plague similar to the Ebola virus.  It is very easily spread, it is deadly for those who come into contact with it, and it is very hard to stop and treat.  Certainly there is no easy cure.  Is it coincidental that precisely at the time that Ebola has become a deadly threat to Nigeria, that Boko Haram, the local version of the Islamist terrorist threat, has announced their affiliation with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria?  Likewise the Al Shabbab group in Somalia is battling the Kenyan military to establish Muslim hegemony in East Africa.

SImilar to Ebola, the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism has overtaken the whole of the Middle East, from Libya to Iraq, and is already threatening western Europe, with huge Muslim populations in Denmark, Sweden, Germany France, Belgium, Holland and Britain.  The fact is that where ever there are Muslim populations there is a minority who are actively recruited by Islamist groups and radicalized and trained.  There was recently a scandal in Birmingham, England, where it was discovered that in 25 Muslim schools there was indoctrination in Islamist beliefs going on under the guise of religious instruction.  One can expect that this is true throughout the world, with such training being financed by the State of Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, as well as other conservative Islamic States.

Although Hamas, the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), have not to my knowledge similarly announced their affiliation to IS, their covenant includes not only the destruction of Israel and murder of all Jews, but the aim to found an Islamic Caliphate, which is the same aim of these other Islamist terrorist organizations. Although the MB in Egypt, which was the first of these Islamist organizations, founded in 1928, did not emphasize this aim, it was implicit in the writings of their founders Hassan al Banna and Sayyib Qutb. In fact, Osma bin Laden of Al Qaeda criticized the MB for not actively pursuing the aim of establishing the Islamic Caliphate.  This is one reason why the Egyptian military decided it was necessary to defeat the MB and declare it illegal.

You may say that this comparison of Islamism and Ebola is purely propagandistic or metaphorical, but, there are numerous Islamist parties throughout the world that are working towards the same aim, here is a partial list: Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt), Jamaat-e-Islami (Pakistan);   

Hamas (Gaza); 

Hizb-ut-Tahrir

 (UK, Syria)   

Salafism (Qatar, Saudi Arabia); 

Taliban

(Afghanistan);

Islamic State (Iraq, Syria); Boko Haram (Nigeria); Al Shabbab (Somalia); Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (Libya); Al Qaeda in Arabia (Yemen); Al Nusrah Front (Syria); also the Shia Hizbollah and Iran.  Yes, its a plague!