Thought Provoking but Wrong

It has recently been said that Africa may be the next big stage for Al Qaida, القاعدة‎.

That is thought provoking and therefore probably very wrong. Al Qaida will never get a strong grip of Africa, as it is an organisation which claims to be Islamic, and the vast majority of Africans are not Muslims. And the vast majority of the ones who are Muslims, are sensible and peaceful people, just like most Muslims elsewhere in the world, when they do not feel threatened.

However, let the thought experiment go on a little. One of many complicated reasons why Africa economically is the poorest continent today, is probably the past influence of the Soviet Union. Not only did the Soviets encourage a non working economic model, they did so with such a fervor that the scared West did not have much choice but to fight back, supporting guerillas and stirring up a lot of civil wars in the continent. And as the West fought back, the Soviets got scared and had to fight back even stronger, stirring up more civil wars.

The base mistake here was when people believed in an economic theory which was rubbish. And the subsequent mistake was when people could not handle the people who were wrong.

Let us now assume that Al Qaida succeeds getting a lot of influence over Sub-Saharan Africa. The consequence could be that another misled belief in something replaces the decaying belief in communism. And the consequence could be that Africa's problems are prolonged even more.

As said before, it is not very likely. But if it happens, let us hope that the West finds other weapons of fighting it than it did against communism. Africa is worth a better fate.