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Kenyan
Muslims fear a backlash
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KIKAMBALA,
Kenya, December 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Kenyan Muslims
living near an area where an Israeli-owned hotel was blown up expressed
growing fears their large minority community would suffer a backlash.
At
the Islamic institute of Kikambala, a short drive from where three
Israelis and ten Kenyans were killed in the bombing, students were wary
when two Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists showed up.
“You
are American police, you have nothing to do here,” the students
shouted, refusing to be interviewed or to permit entry.
There
was a similar cool reception two kilometers (one mile) down the road at
the Qur’anic school for girls, Umm ul Mu’mineen Aisha.
A
young woman, her eyes peering through the small slit of her black face
veil, replied shyly to questions.
“We
heard about the bomb but we don’t know anything about it,” said the
woman who did not give her name.
“Those
people are not Muslims because Muslims are taught not to kill like that,
especially during the holy month of Ramadan. Now we are scared of
retaliations,” she sighed.
Kenyan
government officials are not ruling out that the bombing of the hotel,
plus an aborted missile attack on an Israeli plane taking off from
Mombasa airport, was the work of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
But
Internal Security Minister Julius Sunkuli said that none of the six
Pakistanis and four Somalis still being held for questioning had yet
been directly linked to the attacks or to the Al-Qaeda network.
Khelef
Khalifa, who heads the Mombasa-based Muhuri, Muslims For Human Rights,
said the attack was a horrible surprise for his community which accounts
for an estimated 25-35 percent of Kenya’s 30 million people.
“This
is outrageous, it was a shock for us,” he said.
“But
this is not our war, this is Palestinian, Israeli and the American
war,” he added.
“But
I fear that Kenyan Muslims will once again become the scapegoats, like
in 1998,” he said.
On
August 7, 1988, a massive bomb blew up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi,
killing 213 people and injured some 5,000. It was later blamed on the
Al-Qaeda network.
“After
the 1998 bombing, many Muslims’ houses here were raided by the Kenyan
police together with the FBI, without the minimum of human rights basis,
without search warrants or anything,” Khelef Khalifa said.
“They
detained a lot of people without giving any reasons. Kenyan police were
clearly under the orders of the FBI people who could never act like that
in their own country because of their constitution,” he said.
“We
just hope it doesn’t happen this time. If they really get Muslim
houses searched without warrants, we shall stand and defend ourselves
this time,” he said.
“We
are peaceful people and we condemn terrorist acts but we feel a lot of
resentment towards” U.S. President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he said.
“Muslims
are very angry with the Bush, Sharon and Blair administrations because
of their policy towards Muslims,” he added.
Meanwhile,
outspoken Kenyan Muslim preacher Sheikh Ali Shee repeated denials of
charges by a French intelligence journal, Intelligence Online, that he
was probably linked to Thursday’s attacks.
“I
am not involved in any terrorist act, I never supported any terrorist
act and will never support any criminal act in my life,” the
Yemeni-born imam said.
“But
we don’t want Kenyan Muslims to be victimized again,” he said.
“The
Kenyan police was used by the FBI to violate human rights here,” said
the imam known for his anti-American sermons at the Sakina mosque.
“The U.S. is using its allies to impose its new world order.
“If
we are targeted again, we’ll know what to do, through legal
procedures,” he said.
“The
government of Kenya should be suspending all relations with the
Palestinians, the Israelis and the Americans. This is their war, they
should not transfer their war (to) our country.”
Shee
on Friday also denied any links to or knowledge of Al-Qaeda, except
reading about them in the news media.
In
another development, the U.S. said Saturday, November 30, it had
received information that attacks similar to the anti-Israeli strikes
this week in Kenya could be repeated in Djibouti and Yemen and urged
U.S. citizens there to boost their security precautions.
In
separate statements, the State Department warned that the potential for
Kenya-like terrorist attacks throughout East Africa, particularly in
Djibouti, and in Yemen was high.
The
statements did not identify the source of the threats or the attacks in
Kenya, but said that in Yemen there were signs associates of the
Al-Qaeda network were planning new strikes.
