Nuruddin Farah, the Somali novelist whose country became a failed state at a point due to terrorism and activities of dare-devil warlords, was in Nigeria on Saturday, 27 October 2018. He came for and spoke at the Ake Arts and Book Festival held in Ikeja, Lagos. He lamented about activities of insurgents in Africa and blames it on the society.
He argued: “Who is to blame? Society is to blame because people who are educated, who are employed, who are serving their countries well will not listen to these terrorists. It is the under-employed who usually fall victims to their machinations, and that is very important. The reason is they cannot convince someone like me that they are not telling the truth about Islam.”
Farah revealed that many rich Arab countries pay terrorists to keep off their territories. That is why, according to him, Boko Haram and Al Shabab thrive in Nigeria and Somalia.
In his words: “the Arabs pay some of these terrorists monthly stipends to keep them away from their countries and keep them in Muslims areas where they fight and kill their own people or other people of other faith.
“Mention the countries that are suffering greatly from Islamic terrorism, these are Afghanistan, which is not an Arab country; Somalia, Boko Haram of Nigeria and a number of other Muslim nations and they kill more Muslims than they kill Christians and they specialize in terrorizing and killing poor people.
Below is the full story as published by TheNEWS magazine:
Why Terrorism Thrives in Africa…
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Somali novelist, Nuruddin Farah has blamed the society for upsurge of the dreaded terrorist groups, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and others in Africa.
Farah spoke on Saturday at the Ake Arts and Book Festival held in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria as he was being interrogated by veteran journalist, editor and author, Kunle Ajibade on his books, feminism, terrorism in Africa, his background, among others.
He said people who served their nations with their whole heart would not become tools in the hands of terrorists and their machinations.
“Who is to blame? Society is to blame because people who are educated, who are employed, who are serving their countries well will not listen to these terrorists. It is the under-employed who usually fall victims to their machinations, and that is very important. The reason is they cannot convince someone like me that they are not telling the truth about Islam.
When asked what was true bout Islam that terrorist twisted to suit their whims and caprices, Farah added: “They are insisting that the only way of worship in Islam is to go back to the 13th century way of worship. Number two, they insist that if they kill any number of people and they die, they go straight to heaven; no, they go to hell, I can tell them, because if you kill one innocent person, you cannot present yourself to God, to Allah and say you have done well. Such people can’t expect anything than hell.”
Watch the video here: https://www.pscp.tv/akefestival/1vAxREQQdmjJl
The popular novelist blamed the Arabs for religious madness and excesses being witnessed these days, opining that some of the rich Arab countries normally paid terrorists stipends so that they would not attack them.
“It will be very hard for you to find the rich Arab dollars countries being attacked by terrorists. The terrorists, this is my thought about it, I can’t share my thoughts about it and tell you these are the facts, but my feelings is that the Arabs pay some of these terrorists monthly stipends to keep them away from their countries and keep them in Muslims areas where they fight and kill their own people or other people of other faith.
“Mention the countries that are suffering greatly from Islamic terrorism, these are Afghanistan, which is not an Arab country; Somalia, Boko Haram of Nigeria and a number of other Muslim nations and they kill more Muslims than they kill Christians and they specialize in terrorizing and killing poor people.
“While the Arabs should pay them their monthly stipends to halt resistance wherever they are, this is the kind of distorting things that enable some of these people to create havoc in the lives of these people and regardless of how you see it, Islamic terrorism causes the death of more Muslims than anyone else.
“And then for Europeans complaining about Islamic terrorism that they are going to take over the world; they are not going to take over the world, what they want to do is to destroy the space so that they could take over the areas they want to propagate these distorted faith,” he said.
Farah also said he was deeply affected by the death of his sister, Basra Farah Hasssan, who was killed by terrorists in Afghanistan in a restaurant.
According to him, his sister was a nutritionist working in Afghanistan with UNICEF and that on a certain day she went to a restaurant to have launch because she would be coming to the United States before she met her Waterloo.
Read the full story here: https://www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2018/10/why-terrorism-thrives-in-africa-nuruddin-farah-somali-novelist-tells-thenews/
