Actually it's Kenya. Walt is trying to get a final body count from the al-Shabaab [rough translation = "young guys". Ed.] terrorist attack on Nairobi's Westgate mall, but official sources keep telling different stories. One minister says the army has everything under control. Another says there "may" still be terrorists (and hostages, and maybe some more corpses) inside the building. SNAFU.
It's now the fourth day of the Islamic extremists' occupation of the mall, the purpose of which was to kill a bunch of non-Muslims in retaliation for the Kenyan army's incursions into the failed state that was Somalia. The connection between an upscale shopping centre and the fighting in Mogadiscio is as clear as anything ever is in Africa.
The attack has come at a time when several violent Islamist groups from Mali to Algeria, Nigeria to Kenya -- tapping into local grievances but all espousing an anti-Western, anti-Christian creed -- are striking at state authority and international interests.
And of course it's not just Africa. "Forens" and "infidels" aren't safe anywhere in the Middle East. Especially places like:
Afghanistan -- 3 western "military advisers" killed on the weekend by someone in an Afghan army uniform
Syria -- local Christians imploring the USA and UN not to give help or support to the anti-Assad rebels, who they call Islamic extremists masquerading as democracts, and
Pakistan -- death toll in the suicide bombing at All Saints Church in Peshawar now holding at 85.
The Muslims have declared jihad -- "holy war" -- on the rest of us. True Christians would turn the other cheek. But not all those being killed or threatened are such Christians... or are they?
Further reading: 7 things you should know about Somalia's al-Shabaab militants, from CBCNews.
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