While France burns and Iraq smolders and the Philippines quiver, and Russia recoils, and Afghanistan shakes and Sudan buckles and Thailand mourns, we witness yet another example of radical Islam’s march across the globe. That march, however, is not restricted to land. Over the weekend Islamic pirates, that’s right we said pirates, attempted to attack a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia. God only knows why a cruise line would regard the coast of Somalia as safe cruising waters. The pirates, spotted the ocean liner and saw it as an easy target, the radicals loaded two cigarette style speedboats and sped out to engage the ship, not unlike their Islamic brethren from the late 18th and early 19th century when the Barbary pirates of North Africa attacked western ships in the Mediterranean, these modern day Barbary pirates equipped with machines guns and rocket- propelled grenades, sought to capture a western prize.

These terrorists, and that’s exactly what they are, fired on the ship and launched grenades as well. Fortunately, none of the grenades detonated and the quarry was eventually able to escape. Much of the credit for the cruise liners escape must go to the captain, who first attempted to ram one of the pirate ships before making a dash for the open sea. Fortunately, his vessel was far too speedy for the under matched pirates and the cruise ship, known as the Seabourn Spirit was able to effect an escape. Perhaps, no one is more upset by this unrest, than Kenya.

Kenya has already been the site of two Al Qaeda inspired terror attacks in 1998 and 2002 and unfortunately shares a border with Somalia. Kenya receives hundreds of millions in tourist dollars every year and is one of the most popular tourist sites in Africa, the country can ill afford an interruption in tourism precipitated by Islamic radicals in Somalia. The fact of the matter is, one can turn to practically any spot of the globe and will find examples of Islamic radicalism. But this trend is not new, as many leftists would have us believe, even Islamic piracy, and one needn’t look back to the Barbary Pirates of the 18th century. One can look to the Malacca Strait off the coast of Indonesia. This region is a vibrant shipping channel and it is also a hotbed for piracy, most of which has been perpetrated by Islamic radicals. So fearful is Singapore of Islamic pirates, that they have significantly boosted funding for their navy to patrol waters in an around the area. And who can forget the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean? Indeed, this is a global war; the only problem is some of the combatants don’t realize it yet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4413782.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3908821.stm