Some may claim this is not relevant to the Israeli-"Palestinian" conflict but I say it is at the core.
West African Muslims are fleeing their homes as their armed co-religionist extremist "brethren" circulate to enforce the new order.
That order?
The version of Islam those extremists would shove down the throats of anyone who doesn't see things their way. So far some 90,000 have fled to avoid having Shariah stamped on them like the branding most cattle faced in the wild west.
Fear Stalks Malis Refugees Despite Escape to Safety
FASSALA, Mauritania A column of 30 pickup trucks crammed with people fleeing Mali snaked through this border town early Wednesday, a replay of a much-repeated scene as the refugees desert homeland collapsed further into factional chaos.
There were over 1,000 in Wednesdays procession, joining more than 90,000 who have already fled through this mud-brick village, the closest haven to the armed free fall on the other side. They were on their way to the United Nations refugee camp at Mbera, 20 miles away.
Still, it was the newest arrivals first taste of release from a nightmarish world across the border where Islamist extremists preaching Shariah flog nonbelievers publicly in the ancient town of Timbuktu, armed men circulate to enforce the new order, and other factions threaten to take the vast and rapidly emptying territory back.
At the Mauritania-Mali border, refugees were too tired, hungry and ragged to celebrate their departure from the turmoil. All they could speak of was the fear that had pushed them out of the Islamists who have taken over, and of the simmering civil war that appears to loom.
They had seen men with guns over the last days, circulating in the backs of trucks whether it was the long-bearded Islamists of the Ansar Dine group or the Tuareg rebel movement the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known as the M.N.L.A., who first conquered the territory, defeating the Malian Army in March.
Africa - International News - The New York Times
West African Muslims are fleeing their homes as their armed co-religionist extremist "brethren" circulate to enforce the new order.
That order?
The version of Islam those extremists would shove down the throats of anyone who doesn't see things their way. So far some 90,000 have fled to avoid having Shariah stamped on them like the branding most cattle faced in the wild west.
Fear Stalks Malis Refugees Despite Escape to Safety
FASSALA, Mauritania A column of 30 pickup trucks crammed with people fleeing Mali snaked through this border town early Wednesday, a replay of a much-repeated scene as the refugees desert homeland collapsed further into factional chaos.
There were over 1,000 in Wednesdays procession, joining more than 90,000 who have already fled through this mud-brick village, the closest haven to the armed free fall on the other side. They were on their way to the United Nations refugee camp at Mbera, 20 miles away.
Still, it was the newest arrivals first taste of release from a nightmarish world across the border where Islamist extremists preaching Shariah flog nonbelievers publicly in the ancient town of Timbuktu, armed men circulate to enforce the new order, and other factions threaten to take the vast and rapidly emptying territory back.
At the Mauritania-Mali border, refugees were too tired, hungry and ragged to celebrate their departure from the turmoil. All they could speak of was the fear that had pushed them out of the Islamists who have taken over, and of the simmering civil war that appears to loom.
They had seen men with guns over the last days, circulating in the backs of trucks whether it was the long-bearded Islamists of the Ansar Dine group or the Tuareg rebel movement the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known as the M.N.L.A., who first conquered the territory, defeating the Malian Army in March.
Africa - International News - The New York Times
