The United States has contributed to the mess in Somalia by failing to grasp the nuances of the Muslim world.
By Frankie Martin
While the world looks elsewhere, Somalia is in flames. The nation
just topped a list of the world’s most unstable countries by Foreign
Policy magazine, and the United Nations has declared the humanitarian
situation there “worse than Darfur.”
In the next three months the number of people requiring immediate food
aid will reach 3.5 million. Over one million refugees have fled their
homes. Due to a raging insurgency against the current transitional
government – which has support from both the West and Ethiopia –
Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has earned the nickname, “Baghdad on the
sea.”
In Somalia, there are no diplomatic superstars like Condoleezza Rice or
Kofi Annan, who rushed to Kenya to settle its election crisis; there
are no celebrities like Mia Farrow or Jim Carrey to urge international
action and awareness as they did in Sudan and Burma.
Instead, Somalia’s crisis has elicited a collective yawn of
indifference. Just mentioning the country’s name is enough to cause
even the most dedicated diplomat or aid worker to throw up their hands
in desperation.
Ironically, unlike the above conflicts, the current crisis in Somalia
has developed in part due to America’s "war on terror" and failure to
grasp some of the nuances of Islam.
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Source:
Washington Post
