by Penny Nama

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: March 03, 2009

As long as there have been conflicting religious beliefs there has been violence and war. Beliefs about God and salvation are so powerful that many people are willing to kill and die to forward those beliefs. One place where these conflicts can be clearly seen is in the horn of Africa. For hundreds of years the people who live in what is currently Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia have been pushed around, conquered and re-conquered by the differing belief systems of Christianity and Islam.

Islamic influences came across the Straight of Bab-el-Mandeb from the Arabian Peninsula and south from Egypt. Colonial powers and missionaries brought Christianity. For a time, while there was tight political control, both religions existed side by side, but with the end of colonialism, the creation of Israel, and the rise of radical Islam, all tolerance ceased.

The violence here is much more than a fight for souls; rather it is an all out territorial war for power and an extension of the jihad against the West we see in the Middle East. The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan is just one example. On one side is the military and the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed tend to be Arabic in culture and Islamic in religion. Ethnically, they are no different than the tribes that make up the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, but their differences in religious beliefs and ideology are more than enough reasons to kill each other.

A number of intelligence reports suggest that Al Qaeda is actively supporting efforts by the Janjaweed. This support includes vehicles and monetary support, as well as Al Qaeda operatives to train fighters. They fight to keep the Sudan free of "infidels" and the influence of Western culture. The fighting here has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions, but Darfur is not the only only place on the horn of Africa where influence from the Middle East can be seen.

Al Qadea is expanding all over Northern Africa, preaching jihad and recruiting new warriors. These groups strongly oppose the creation or maintenance of secular governments in their countries, and have no place for alternate ideas or world views. Al Shabab is one such terrorist group in Somalia. They have wagged war against the government using suicide bombers and land mines to assassinate government officials. These conflicts are not really about religion; religion is merely an excuse. It is about power. Power that will be gained and kept by any means possible and at any cost. Truly it is a new form of colonialism, but this time the colonizer is Al Qaeda.

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