Great lessons from Gaza for African leaders

RECENT ATTACK ON ISRAEL by the Hamas armed militia of Palestinian stock in power from the Gaza Strip and the subsequent counteroffensive by Israel hold some significant lessons for nations on diplomacy, security and hostility management on the need to avoid putting the unarmed in harm’s way by those holding the reins of power. More countries are increasingly embroiled in cross-border hostilities and armed skirmishes. Recently there was flare-up of ethnic and territorial conflicts involving the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region lingering over three decades between two proximal countries, namely Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former independent republics that were conquered and integrated into the Soviet Union and later broke away after the Soviet Union disintegrated. The latest was a de-escalation following Armenians’ withdrawal from the disputed region. Of concern is how far that will go in bringing lasting peace between the warring parties over the months and years ahead.

From the outset, this write-up does not take side with any party to the hostilities involving Israel and Palestinians in Gaza Strip. However, a combination of nuanced and overt sentiments on Israeli-Palestinian relations in general and those between Israel and Hamas movement will become more obvious in impact anytime soon. It is counterintuitive to downplay the perspective that ideologies relating to religion, lurk behind many conflicts, including this one between Gaza and Israel. Reports from many countries of the world provide a basis for affirmation that, considering the increasing complexities of social, political and economic challenges, the adoption of state religion is incompatible with modern secular governance and it is a recipe for disaster.

Egypt provides an interesting case in point, where a government was toppled by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi because of the concerns about its extremists’ tendency and insensitivity to the things that matter to the daily lives of Egyptian populace. That led to the downfall of the government led by President Mohamed Morsi, elected on the platform of Muslim Brotherhood that rode on the back of the popular uprising of 2011. Its ultimate fall and the break-up of the Muslim Brotherhood since its removal from power in 2013 had much to do with its own political disagreements as well as internal ideological and organisational failures. It had to grapple with many problems and challenges, especially those involving “balancing its Islamic principles with popular demands for democracy and socioeconomic reform and ended up failing both as ‘conservative democrats’ and as Islamists,” according to a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.

According to the Carnegie centre, the Muslim Brotherhood’s conservative, closed-minded worldview was the result of a process of “ruralisation” in which leaders from rural backgrounds influenced the group’s ideological development. In reality, the Brotherhood’s ideological deficiencies were more fundamental, having at the root the puritanical dream of an “Islamic state” that would resuscitate the Islamic caliphate and lead members of the Brotherhood toward the realisation of their Islamic identity, salvation, and empowerment. Ideology, which remained the Brotherhood’s greatest motivator, collapsed when confronted with bureaucratic and economic realities. It marked the end of the utopian idea held by some that “Islam is the solution.”

Variants of experiences from various countries can shed some light on the subject. The populations of Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim-dominated. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with an estimated 229 million Muslims which, in 2023, was approximately 87 percent of the Indonesian population, accounting for the highest share of Muslims in any Southeast Asian country. Muslims are India’s second largest religious community, accounting for 14.2 percent of its 1.2 billion people. In Malaysia, with a 2023 population estimated at 34.3 million, Muslim population as a percentage of the total population varies with the source of data. Total population of those with Islam as the most professed religion was approximately 20.6 million Muslim adherents, or 63.5 percent of the population as of 2020. By contrast, a 2023 Pew Research Centre report gave a higher share of 75 percent of Malaysia’s adults self-identifying as Muslim.

However, the serenity and economic progress of Malaysia and Indonesia correlates positively with their secular state status and refusal to be tempted to adopt Islam as a state religion. By contrast, Iran, which adopted Islam as a state religion since the forced exit of the Shah, has been both an internally unstable country and a sponsor of instability elsewhere by its promotion of hard line islamism. Afghanistan and Pakistan are neighbours. Pakistan’s fundamentalists are giving their government a hell. The prominence gained by the Houthis in Yemen since the Arab Spring has plunged the country into a seemingly endless crisis with the loss of over 150,000 killed in the war and over 227,000 dead resulting from an on-going famine and lack of healthcare facilities due to the war. These have reduced the economy into tatters, bearing an imprint of Iran’s financial support.

These further lend credence to the fact that fundamentalist ideologies cannot contribute even minimally to any country’s development as such ideologies – when promoted through state power – tend to limit human freedom, opportunities for self-development and access to knowledge and information as they are mostly fed with jihadist sentiments, propaganda and hate. Afghanistan has twice been under the Taliban. The extent of damage it has done to the lives and economy in Afghanistan since its second coming in August 2021 is worth the attention. Qatar’s involvement in the negotiations with the Taliban in the build-up to the latter’s takeover of government, when juxtaposed with Qatar’s historical and present role in support of Hamas, raises some questions, particularly when viewed against the backdrop of its air, land and sea blockade from 2017 to 2021 imposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Does Qatar provide a safe haven for all these having state capture and establishment of Islamic State utopia at the core of their agenda? Are local populations in those countries so incapable of resisting these fundamentalists’ ambitions?

India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents a flip side to the promotion of state religion. His ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has been variously and severally accused of trying hard to impose Hindu religion on the populace. There are reported cases of aggression and attacks against non-Hindus in an apparent bid to stamp the authority of the Hindu religion through state power, raising concerns about official and unofficial policy of religious nationalism and India’s future in which Hindu is the religion of the majority, potentially and effectively conferring Hindus legal superiority and making non-Hindus second-class citizens. At domestic and foreign affairs levels, such a policy discountenances the interest of millions in the minority, tilting the balance of power against them.

Particularly dangerous is the propensity of people in power – or those desperate about seizing power – to use religion as a bait. Militias, particularly those operating across national borders, have put African countries under siege, as many risk falling into the hands of fundamentalists. Tanzania, for instance, faces existential threats of state capture as there have been – this year, 2023 alone – reported cases of terrorist attacks in villages, involving the killing of people, looting, and leaving trails of destroyed property. In general, terrorist groups attack with little or no warning, often choosing targets such as schools, hotels, embassies, restaurants, malls and markets, police stations, places of worship and sports venues where there are crowds to elicit maximum impacts. In Nigeria, the United Nations building in Abuja was hit by terrorists in August 2011. In East Africa, Kenya has been identified as having attractive targets to terrorists planning to conduct potentially destructive attacks. Last August, over 60 terrorists reportedly killed two and injured 10 civilians in Lamu County by the terrorist group suspected to be al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab. Somalia has been a breeding ground for terrorists for the past three decades. In a recent attack by al-Shabaab militants, several people were killed in a hotel siege in Mogadishu in June. Last month, Ethiopia suffered an al-Shabaab attack on a military convoy of African Union (AU) peacekeepers. These attacks are not just sporadic and unplanned. They are done with purpose and some goals.

Northern Mozambique has not been spared the destruction by the fundamentalists. The first attacks in Cabo Delgado in Mocímboa da Praia in 2017 were followed by more vicious attacks and severe violence. In August 2021, members of a non-state armed group that took over the town in 2020 were repelled by Mozambican and Rwandese armed forces who took control. That region now has to face the arduous task of rebuilding most public buildings, including the schools, hospitals and health centres and water infrastructure that were destroyed during the terrorist invasion in addition to humanitarian challenges that have been spawned.

Terrorists, particularly those with state-capture and promotion of religious fundamentalist agenda, are adept at manipulative tactics. They orchestrate and spin narratives that appeal to strong emotions and sentiments. In Gaza, they hide behind the civilian buildings to launch rocket attacks on Israel and use the same civilians in Gaza as human shields to avoid being attacked in return. Beyond the idea of Israel’s overreaction in its counteroffensive, analysts and mainstream media ought to think through the deliberate efforts by Hamas to control the narratives, realising that truth is usually the first casualty in any war. The case of the hospital bombing and the misleading narrative stand out. If Israel had been unable to show satellite imagery and geo-spatial evidence, Hamas version of the story would have taken over and could have been sustained for long.

African countries have been grappling with the threat posed by fundamentalist ideologues seeking to overthrow and supplant governments. They attack the people first and move on to attacking the government. The Sahel region of Africa has been their hotbed plagued by terrorism, covering countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and even Sudan. There are undisputable signs that the operators are aiming at state capture. Although their incursions into the Sahel region were the main excuses given for military takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry and Niger, it is clear that such daring and audacious moves are motivated by the prospects of pushing their ways through to acquiring state power. Their consequences are usually disastrous.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s left a shattered country in which the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, seized control, later providing Osama bin Laden Laden and al-Qaeda a sanctuary for operations. It remains to be ascertained if Christians too have a state-capture agenda. A Christian state is a country that recognises a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church, which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government. Many countries officially identify themselves as Christian states or have state churches. These countries include Argentina, Armenia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Denmark, England, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Samoa, Serbia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vatican City and Zambia. Yet, these states are not known to be as hostile, nor are they associated with the ideas of sponsoring armed militias in any attempt to take over power.

Another religious state that does not allow religion to get in the way of secular governance is the Jewish state of Israel. In its continued military campaign against the Gaza Strip, it was not led by Judaism insurrectionists or fundamentalists, unlike in the Hamas fighting on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza. Going by what Hamas has done so far, it has become clear that Palestinian state capture by armed religious militiamen will end in catastrophe. Politicians who provide a platform for them are setting the stage for future calamity as in the case of Hamas, a notorious terrorist group that contested and won election which gave it the reign of power. So, it can be argued that the Palestinians in Gaza propped up Hamas by voting to elect it to lead them. African countries can, and should, learn from this rather unfortunate decision, resist any form of it and avoid enacting it anyway.