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Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
THIS year’s G-20 Heads of State summit held at Turkey’s Antalya seaside resort from November 15 to 16 came a few days after an atrocious attack on two places in the French capital, Paris, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Media reports say 129 people were killed and some 200 plus were injured, 99 of them very seriously by seven Islamic suicidal bombers.

The atrocity occurred on Friday the 13th and the ISIL claimed responsibility.

The Heads of State in Turkey discussed the matter either bilaterally or as any other business as the incident took place after the summit’s agenda had been finalised.

The incident happened less than a year after Garise in Kenya where scores of Christian university students were massacred by highly armed Islamic fanatics affiliated to the Al Shabaab wing of al-Queda founded by the late Osama bin Ladin.

Kenya has had similar attacks in the past, and so has Tanzania.

Somalia is actually at war with some of its own nationals as is Nigeria with the beastly Boko Haram which is now a part of ISIL.

In 2001, al-Queda wreaked havoc in the United States. Its affiliates are presently operating in Syria and several other Middle East countries, including the Sinai Peninsula where a Russian aircraft carrying 224 tourists exploded in the air, killing everyone aboard two weeks ago.

In Tunisia, scores of defenceless people have been killed in a similar way by people who profess a radical brand of Islam as that of the late Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001, American attacks that resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people.

He was later cornered and killed by US security forces in Pakistan where, incidentally, several attacks have been made on Christian churches and schools, causing the death of literally hundreds of utterly innocent souls.

In Syria, Libya, Iraq, Tunisia, Niger and a few other North and West African countries, millions of people have been displaced by this wave of intolerant, radical and hateful brand of Islam.

In parts of the Horn of Africa, particularly Eritrea and Somalia, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in Europe especially, including France where the latest atrocity has occurred.

While the world is mourning the most recent loss of human life in Paris, we must give a thought to those parents and relatives of children who were killed at Garise in Kenya and the women and girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s north-east two years ago.

Mourning and grieving cannot revive those who have been murdered in this wave of terror, nor can our deep feeling of outrage expressed at every available opportunity change the inhuman thinking of those responsible for those atrocities.

They have caused more than enough suffering for the normal, responsible world to allow them to continue. Assuming that we know the basic cause of this murderous religious radicalism, it is vital to deal ruthlessly, and the word is “ruthlessly” (repeat “ruthlessly”) with that causative factor.

If it is of an economic nature, the world has adequate resources, brains and effective technology to deal with it.

If it is cultural, and it appears to be, the world should sharpen and use its international organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and others to identify and eliminate that anti-social factor or factors from society at large.

If the cause is political, it is the duty of all normal thinking people (leaders) to put their heads together and hammer out an ideology that is conducive to peaceful socio-cultural co-existence.

The above observations may sound academic, so did the Magna Carta, the League of Nations founding document, and later the UN Charter, and, indeed, so did the OAU Charter.

However, principles enunciated in those historic documents have made the world a better place to live in.

While these directly affected by the al-Queda, Boko Haram and other anti-social Islamic radical groups should beef up their security measures, it is important to impose a global control over arms of war, from AKs to grenades.

Weapons captured from suicidal agents of any of those fanatical religious bodies should be traced to the manufacturer, who would then be required to explain, if not justify, the circumstances in which the weapon or weapons got into the hands of the murderous and suicidal fanatic.

The government of a country from where the weapon or weapons was or were procured should be subjected to some kind of sanction or sanctions by such international organisations as the UN, the African Union and the Arab League.

Meanwhile, it is a very curious development that many European and American governments are giving refuge to people from Syria, Libya, Iraq, Niger, Eritrea, Sudan, Mauritania, Chad, Pakistan Afghanistan and other predominantly Islamic nations.

How do they make sure that among those refugees there are no agents of the radical Islamic sects, including those of ISIL, al Queda and Al Shabaab.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cellphone 0734 328 136 or through email. [email protected]