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Stop Beating the Drums of War where there is no War.

Another article appeared yesterday (20/08/2020 written by Tali Feinberg, in the South African press which seems to be chronicling the impending war to our shores waged by ISIS against South Africa. The article is titled “ISIS Training Camps in Our Backyard”. In this article, allegations of  the existence of training camps on farms and small holdings in this country are mentioned.  The so called “terrorism experts” speaking on the SA Jewish Report’s webinar exploring ISIS in Africa, allege that such training camps do exist, but not in the form we think.

What these so-called experts are not telling the public is exactly “in what form do these camps really exist”. They want the public to guess it is happening on the farms, houses, or smallholdings. It seems like these experts are also not sure about what they are telling the people. Firstly they are peddling a narrative that they are not so sure about and getting away with it without a challenge. Willem Els, a senior training coordinator at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria is quoted as saying “The government admitted as far back as 2007 that their “MIGHT” be training camps in South Africa”. the question that I need to ask my learned friend is “what then happened to the perpetrators of those crimes? I do not recall anyone being arrested in this country for the crime of training terrorist on their farms. Besides, government does not work on “there might be training camps in South Africa”. This is a very serious allegation that requires the national government to move in swiftly and investigate and arrests made immediately.

Second, they allege that “Conditions in South Africa are conducive for radical groups to move and operate due to policies adhered to by government”. My question again is “what conditions are these? My learned friends are not doing justice to academia. Tell the public what these conditions really are. They should not leave room for speculation or assumptions.  And who are these radical groups who are only known to my learned colleagues at ISS? Please can you name them? We want the public to know. Could you please  let us know which policies the government has adhered to that make it conducive for radical groups to move and operate freely in South Africa.

Furthermore, Els draws our attention to the story of the Desai brothers, Nazier and Cleric Ahmed Sadek Desai of Port Elizabeth who were accused of running and financing a training camp outside Port Elizabeth. Can my learned friends from ISS please tell me what was the outcome of that investigation? Was there any conclusive conviction by a court of law in South Africa?  He quotes the then head of National Intelligence Coordinating Committee at the time, Barry Guilder, whom he said, “conceded that there “could” be training camps operating in South Africa”. Again, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that even the head of National Intelligence Committee was not sure if the training camps really existed. It leaves us within the realms of speculation and guesswork. In intelligence you do not speculate, you establish facts upon which you build a case and have people arrested or eliminated. I wonder if I ask my learned friends from ISS to show me where the graduates of these camps are. Would they be willing to do so?

At a press conference in 2007, the self-same Barry Gilder,  claimed that South Africa was the ‘training ground” for Muslim “terrorists”. Xenophobic statements such as these, fuelled  the climate of Islamophobia in our country, contributing to the false and wicked image of SA Muslims as “terrorists” and being supportive of “terrorists”. Other Islamophobes and “terror experts” like Hussein Solomon, prospered in such environments.

The other concern comes from Jevon Greenblatt, the head of operations at Community Security Organization (CSO) in Gauteng who states: “For the first time in the history of our region, this highly destructive and radical ideology has an established base in Southern Africa”. The CSO is a Jewish security agency specifically set up to protect Jewish communities and their community infra-structures. What is this ideology that he is talking about? Where is this base he refers to? The majority of people in South Africa do not even know what ISIS is about, let alone embracing its ideology.  I repeat what I said earlier; the people of South Africa are never taken by this idiotic ideology of ISIS which is all about creating an imaginary and meaningless  “caliphate” and the ushering in of the so called “New Islamic World Order”.

This seems like it has all to do with unsubstantiated fears within some sections of the South African community, who fear they will be targeted by ISIS. If the truth be told, ISIS has killed many more Muslims in the world than any other terrorist groupings. Remember, the biggest casualty from the ISIS wars has been Islam. Muslims have lost millions of people since the advent of ISIS. Muslims should be most concerned about the “imminent” presence of these thugs and gangsters in the southern tip of Africa.

By:

Dr Mustafa Mheta

Researcher/Head of Africa Desk

Media Review Network

Johannesburg

011 837 3220

 

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