AL SHABAB´S OPERATION NAIROBI: FROM AN ETHNIC BASE TO GLOBAL ARENA?

The 9/21 attack on a Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya by the terrorist group, Al Shabab, demonstrates that we share a particular concern with Russia. While they worry about Chechens  returning to savage their homeland after learning military tactics in Syria, Americans ponder if U.S. citizens fighting for Al Shabab in Kenya may return to attack soft targets here. 

While some believe that the three day’s long siege at the Westgate mall was purely focused on territorial disputes in Africa,  questions have been raised  over recruitment efforts that indicate more of an  international  scope.  The group is also an Al Qaeda affiliate. In a February 2012  joint video, al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane  “pledged obedience” to al-Qaeda´s leader,  Ayman al-Zawahir.   Al Qaeda, of course, is involved with global Jihad. 

The group itself has addressed this issue.  After bitter, ideological infighting, which included the physical elimination of some nationalist-minded members, Godane and his transnationalists triumphed.    According to Abdi Aynte, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a Mogadishu-based think tank, Godane, has now unified his group and aims to pursue at an international jihadist agenda.

Al Shabab´s leadership is Islamist and practices Sharia law.  The group, numbering 7,000 to 9000 members, was once the youth section  of the now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts in 2006.  Despite its draconian laws, it initially had genuine support as a hoped-for antidote to the crime and lawlessness rampant in the country.

Since 2008 however, drought and famine have weakened the organization.   Thousands of people have fled from other areas to the capital, Mogadishu.  Following an offensive by government and African Union troops from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi,  Al-Shabab– was forced to  withdraw from Mogadishu suburbs  it controlled.  The mall attack was primarily aimed at causing Kenya troops to withdraw from Somalia, but also to reassert its force and strength.

 There were also religious motivations, however.  The militants chose a shopping center owned by an Israeli. They vetted hostages, freeing those who could name the prophet, Muhammad´s mother, executing  others.  The planning of the attack indicated  they had inside help. Had they rented a store to position their weapons beforehand?  They clearly studied the layout and exits. They were thus unusually successful at holding off law enforcement aided by Israeli advisors. 

It is the foreign recruitment pattern that most worries  the U.S. government, however. According to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) the Somalia-based Al Shabab now claims to have 50 American members, raising "grave concern" it might someday attempt an attack in this country.  The group has  recruited  both fighters or financial backers from expatriate communities here as well as in Britain and Canada   This year, A l-Shabab, honing in on the 80,000 Somalis in Minneapolis-St. Paul,  even posted a 40-minute recruitment video, Minnesota's Martyrs: The Path to Paradise. It follows three Americans on their way to training camps in Somalia and martyrdom in the service of their cause.

 The group also bears animus towards  the U.S., which has been active in hunting down Al Qaeda by various means including drone attacks.  America has also backed the group´s traditional enemy, Christian Ethiopia, which  sent troops in 2006 and 2011 to fight the Islamists.   

A hopeful sign in the U.S. is that the great majority of Somalis who have moved to the U.S. are peace-loving, hardworking , share our values and seem to be aware that the teachings of the prophet, Muhammad have often been misinterpreted and distorted.  This provides the possibility of outreach to downtrodden youths most susceptible to the call of Wahhabi style Islamism. Perhaps they can even be told about the G.I. bill that one can acquire --  fighting  for the U.S. rather than against it.