... out of a struggle from oppression came a movement that splintered from it's understanding as it still today didn't resolve the problems that beset it.
The Islamic groups of South Africa are now a problem. For many reasons, the least of which is that Muslim faith, when out of context, lends itself to violence. In the USA, The Nation of Islam was able to empower it's members to overcome oppression. It would seem in Africa there is still unrest ...
... YET ...
... still a very strong drive to become a brotherhood. All members of all radical organization came to a man's funeral. It didn't make front page headlines, but, it did get noticed.
The challenge to all governments, including those of South Africa, is to recognize the needs of these people while still unorganized and struggling before violence kills unnecessarily. Mother Teresa did it in Calcutta. She found a mission and the world took notice.
Civil War has it's heros and it's violence, it's inflammatory nature and it's ridicule, but, events such as this which lends itself to the development of terrorist networks is resulted directly from oppression and struggle. In the case of South Africa, nation building caused Apartheid.
The natural analogy I will make here is that the nation building pursued by the Bush Executive Branch of the USA government has caused the same if not worse radicalism.
There is a civil war in Iraq. The USA is occupying that nation for it's own purposes while Iraq is of no threat to it.
We don't belong in Iraq.
We never did.
The USA is oppressing the natural progression of developments in Iraq. Without us there would still be a civil war but with the inflow of arms and chronic confrontation of Iran, it would stop and there would be a government in place to settle the issues of sharing the wealth and providing provisional authority. The chance is that once the USA is out of Iraq it will find itself dividing into independant nations. I don't see that is bad so much as the people of that nation find their way to stability and self governance.
The people of South Africa want a nation of prestige they can find safety and life style. They have yet to achieve it but it appears they are well on their way. We need to offer the same chance to the people of Iraq. The course the Bush Administration is on now won't ever resolve the violence there.
