Although Jihad and other types of Islamic aggression are a problem for Western nations, more so since our politicians started to forget the long conflict between the West and Islam, we should never forget that there are other places that also suffer from these Islam derived problems. The ongoing and worsening problem of Jihad in Africa is a very good example of the death and destruction that radical Islam has brought to societies and nations, many of which were already struggling with other social and economic problems.
Countries such as Burkina Faso, a nation that was formerly known as the Republic of Upper Volta, is just one among many African nations that are suffering from the violence brought to their nation by Islamic fundamentalists. The country, which is currently dealing with a legacy of post colonial mismanagement and ongoing problems of corruption, is also being plagued by Jihad aimed at Christians who, along with agnostics and those who follow indigenous beliefs, make up 39.5% of the population. The followers of Islam make up the other 60.5%. The spread of Islam in Burkina Faso and its rise to its current demographic level stems from the influence of Islamic cultures from the North of Africa and the impact of the Islamic slave trade. This Islamic influence is felt by those from Burkina Faso not just by way of the violent jihad, but also by the fact that slavery is still a problem in this nation.
Christians have become a favourite target of ISIS aligned jihadists in Burkina Faso as they have in nearby Nigeria to the South. According to a report ( h/t ROP) being carried on the website of the British Christian radio station Premier Radio, 2000 Christians have fled from their homes recently because of increased jihad activity from radical Muslims, which includes a number of violent attacks.
The Premier Radio site said:
According to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), 2,000 villagers from Hitté and Rounga in Burkina Faso’s Loroum Province, fled their homes following violent attacks by Islamist extremists earlier this month.
Speaking about the attack on Hitté, ACN’s source said: “At the beginning of September, 16 men arrived in the village, intercepting the villagers who were returning from the fields.
“Some of the men forced the people to enter the church where they threatened the Christians and ordered them to leave their homes in the next three days, while others set fire to whatever they found in their path. Now Hitté is empty of any Christians and any catechumens.”
7,000 people reportedly sought shelter in the provinces’ capital, Titao.
The nearby city of Toulfé was the first town in the region to be targeted when jihadists murdered five people in May, before moving on to the town of Babo.
The Catholic Church is organising social and pastoral support, including medical care for the sick and the elderly – as well as counselling for those suffering trauma.
It is difficult for many in the West to comprehend the damage that has been done by these Jihadists to ordinary people. These people were quite clearly ethnically and religiously cleansed by Muslims by being told to leave under the threat of violence and death. One way for British readers to imagine the level of harm these Jihadists have done and the manner in which they did it would be consider two British towns of similar size, say Porlock in Devon or Polperro in Cornwall, having this done to them? Imagine coming home from work to find armed Islamic savages at your door and patrolling the streets, committing acts of random religiously inspired violence and forcing you out of your house. This scenario should give you some idea of what the Christians displaced in Burkina Faso have gone through.
However, unlike in places like Syria where the Islamic population seemed to turn en masse into a hostile entity for the Christians, Muslims in one of the major towns that the Christians have fled to are said to be giving a lot of practical support to the displaced Christians. We at least should be thankful that there are at least some Muslims in Burkina Faso who have not surrendered all their humanity to the death cult to which they belong.
I tend to think that the African jihad is very much the forgotten jihad and is seen by some in the West as merely another tragedy heaped upon a continent that has seen more than its fair share of political, social, economic and violent trauma. But, we in the West would do well to not forget about the plight of non Muslims in places like Burkina Faso. This is not just because standing up for the oppressed is the right and moral thing to do, but because the violence that Jihad causes in Africa is likely, in future to be similar to the jihad that Islamists will bring to the streets and to the ordinary people of the West. What Burkina Faso’s Christians are going through now, could be what we end up going through tomorrow, unless of course our politicians wake up to the danger posed to us all by the woefully misnamed ‘religion of peace’.
