Re- Analysis: The Rise of Hezbollah in Africa
It all started with twin write ups last month in a Nigerian news magazine, and in a foreign news site with similar tone and intention, Tell Magazine (“Insecurity: The Middle East factor”) and CNN Worldblog (“Nigeria’s Hezbollah Problem”).
Now JerusalemPost has joined the band wagon, if not the initiator. Like its partners in the global conspiracy against the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and its revered spiritual Leader His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, the JerusalemPost based its “analysis” on the arrest of three Lebanese in Nigeria allegedly “trained by Hezbollah and accumulated enough military hardware to wage a war on local Israeli and American institutions”. It went dangerously further to suggest that, the rusty and obsolete weapons, obvoiusly planted for the campaign, were enough “to sustain a civil war.” JerusalemPost correspondent, Benjamin Weinthal, in haste to actualize this global conspiracy had his facts upside down. He writes that the three accused Lebanese had just confessed their crime, when they have already been released by court and are currently seeking redress.
Like the others, JerusalemPost correspondent echoed statements by Dawit Giorgis, a visiting fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who had set the fireball rolling to buttress his points. This is what he has to say: “Nigeria will continue to be a hub of pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iranian activity, mainly because the country is home to Sheikh Zakzaky, an advocate of the revolutionary Iranian Shi¹ite ideology who serves as a key Muslim leader in Nigeria”. Why? “His office contains a photo of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini”. Ridiculous!
This is not the first time JerusalemPost engaged in a campaign of calumny against Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky. In 2010 the Islamic scholar was in London on invitation by the Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Universal Justice Network along with other internationally renowned scholars and academicians for a meeting and a conference to discuss the major challenges to the revitalization of faith and practice in the modern world. Prior to Sheikh Zakzaky’s presentation the Zionist’s newspaper on Wednesday October 6, 2010 posted on its website this caption: “Anti-Semetic preacher to address London conference.” The writer, Jonny Paul, who also writes for The Times of Israel, described Sheikh Zakzaky as “Anti- Semetic” and “hate- preacher”, who should be detained or banned from international trips. He also pedaled back in time and ascribed false statements to Sheikh Zakzaky during a seminar organized by Resource Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in May 2008 titled, “Sixty Years of Illegal Creation of Israel.” The story by JerusalemPost provided an opportunity for former Israeli ambassador to Nigeria Moshe Ram, to respond in a Nigerian daily, Daily Trust of July 4, 2008 with heavy criticisms on the personality of Sheikh Zakzaky and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
It is becoming crystal clear that, the Zionists through a hub of so-called Think-Tank based in Washington, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is hatching up a hidden agenda to suppress the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and its spiritual Leader, His Eminence Ibraheem Sheikh Zakzaky. The intention of the series of the campaigns of calumny is not far fetched, to force the Nigeria government take drastic action against Sheikh Zakzaky and what he stands for. This is how Weinthal puts it, “The open question is, will African nations follow the growing list of countries that have either banned Hezbollah or cracked down on the organization¹s financial transactions? Nigeria might very well be the litmus test for a modernized counter-terrorism posture toward the Shi’ite group”.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a group of retired US officials, CIA agents and neutralized US citizens formed after September 11, to focus on the Middle East politics and African countries dominated by Muslim, which they prefer to call “Flash Points”. Out of the current 23 scholars in the payroll of the Foundation, 13 are branded “experts” in Iran and Hezbollah, the rest in Al-Qaeda, Islamism, Arab Spring and even Nigerian Boko Haram. Dawit Giorgis and Benjamin Weinthal are among those described as “experts” on Iran and Hezbollah. The latter’s “analysis” is too simplistic, mechanistic and clearly unrealistic, even in an inexpert eyes.
