By Ahmed Dirie
Friday, September 27, 2013
It is time for Somali communities in the diaspora, including Somali-Americans, to speak out and condemn the recent ruthless and inhumane actions of Al-Shabaab in the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi.
There are some 3,000 Somali-Americans in the greater Bay Area, a majority of them clustered around San Jose and Oakland. Most sought refuge here during the Somalia civil war in early 1990s, and a sizable number passed through refugee camps in Kenya on the way. Our communities have a moral obligation to openly express our solidarity with the global community on any terrorist act, but particularly with the people of Kenya.
Kenya is, and has been, a generous host to over a million Somali refugees and entrepreneurs who fled the prolonged Somali war, recurrent famines, and atrocities committed by the terrorist group Al-Shabaab for the past 22 years.
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is a hub and safe posting for international development organizations operating in the troubled Horn of Africa region, especially the humanitarian agencies assisting war-torn Somali communities. Unfortunately, many of those who lost their lives or were injured in this latest terrorist attack are humanitarian professionals, diplomats, tourists, law enforcement agents and ordinary Kenyan and global citizens, including innocent women and children.
The aim of Al-Shabaab is to inculcate fear, show no pity and discourage the Kenyan government's involvement in the African Union peacekeeping troops in Somalia. However, the Kenyans have resolutely shown their commitment to the stabilization of Somalia, which means defeating Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda operations in the Horn of Africa.
There is nothing either Islamic or nationalistic about Al-Shabaab's inhumane actions. It starved a quarter of a million Somalis to death in the 2011 famine and destroyed fragile ecosystems through the illegal charcoal and ivory trade in Somalia and East Africa. The terrorist group is affiliated with Al-Qaeda and espouses its distorted transnational agenda. But Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Al-Shabaab of Somalia and Boko Haram of Nigeria, do not stand for the interests of Somalis or other African peoples. These terror groups impede the stability and socio-economic progress of the African continent.
Moreover, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates seed hostilities and distrust between the Somali diaspora and their generous host communities and countries by recruiting diasporic Africans. Eventually their terror acts will hamper the socio-economic contributions of the African diaspora to the African continent.
We, the diasporic Africans, need to collectively stand for the interests of the continent. We need to stand with the global community in preventing Al-Qaeda and its affiliates from establishing sanctuaries in Africa for their global agenda. The African continent is plagued by wars, poverty and high illiteracy rates. It cannot afford the effects of this distorted ideological war any longer.
Somalia, while poor, seems to be emerging from its protracted war of 22 years with the help of African and global communities, especially its neighbor, Kenya. This latest attack on innocent civilians in the Nairobi mall is one of several terror attacks Kenya has borne because of its humanitarian acts and sacrifices.
Somali-Americans must come forward to collectively denounce the terrorist acts and ideologies besetting the African continent. My personal sympathies and support go out to the Kenyan people and to other nations that lost citizens in this latest inhumane attack. As a Somali-American and staunch advocate of the interests of the African diaspora, I express my sincere solidarity with the Kenyan and global community.
Dr. Ahmed Dirie is an independent research scholar, an advocate for Somali immigrants and an adviser to the Silicon Valley East African Diaspora Project (www.sveadp.org) under the African American Studies Department of San Jose State University. He wrote this for this newspaper.
This article was originally published in the Mercury News