The White Gold of Jihad (NER)
You might think this will be about heroin. Or sex slaves. Islam grows fat on both these. And here’s a third. Elephant ivory.
From the New York Times and Quartz
How is the carnage at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi linked to a surge in the poaching of wild elephants in Africa? The connection goes back to the old Watergate adage that is critical to all anti-terrorism efforts: Follow the money. Elephants are being slaughtered in record numbers in Africa. As reported in The Washington Post last summer, more than 30,000 elephants were killed by poachers last year, the largest number in decades. Over the last five years there has been a huge spike in poaching that threatens the extinction of one of the planet’s most intelligent and iconic species.
Rebels and militias islamic supremacists across Africa have discovered the illegal trade in elephant ivory. Coveted in Asia, their tusks bring in handsome sums that are funding wars across the continent. Many game wardens hardly stand a chance against the slaughter. (Spiegel)
Al-Shabaab finances as much as 40% of its operations this way. The supply of ivory for al-Shabaab and other militant groups is, obviously, dead elephants. As demand for ivory continues to surge in China and other Asian countries, the slaughter is growing industrial in scale and efficiency, fueling a trade worth $7 billion to $10 billion a year. It no longer seems, if it ever was, to be poaching by poor locals, hoping to make enough to feed their families and pay school fees.
Al Shabab is financing a significant portion of its military operations by poaching elephants. AÂ 2011 report by the Elephant Action League, whose mission is to fight elephant exploitation and wildlife crime, dubs elephant ivory “the white gold of jihad.”
