Terrorism and piracy

I recently read an article that discussed how the Somalia pirates are not like terrorists. This article describes how the pirates and terrorists have a close relationship at times. I believe the relationship is closer than what the author believes. Terrorists don’t carry arms openly, use military tactics and weapons to prey on civilians. No government support or nation is responsible for any actions that they take. The same can be said about pirates. About the only difference I can see is supposedly a political aim for terrorists and money for piracy. Please note that it is expensive to wage war. In other words, terrorists need money to operate, and lots of it.

In 1804 the pirates operating out of North Africa were demanding Tribute from the United States. The U.S. had in fact been paying them for years, but finally tired of it. Tribute is an Islamic law that requires infidels paying the Muslim authorities to live in an Islamic governed area. These pirates in 1804 were demanding Tribute from infidel ships passing through Muslim ‘waters’. This is an Islamic concept and it has been enforced for centuries. It would appear that this could apply in Somalia as well. Hence, the close ‘relationship’ that the Islamic terrorist organizations have with the pirates of Somalia.

One of the major problems I have with Islam is the fact that ‘authentic’ Islam is a nation-state. Wars are fought over issues of this type. Muslim ‘land’ and ‘waters’ cannot be defended by anything except a nation-state. The Catholic Church can’t just send men out to kill because some people ‘occupied’ land that belonged to a Catholic. The meeting of Islamic leaders at the end of March actually declared war and even called upon the "Nation" of Islam to sink warships passing through Muslim ‘waters’. Without an actual nation or government to be held accountable for any of these acts of war, this group fits one of the distinctions that define the act of piracy.

Islam has been fielding an army since 610 AD. The crusades were actually a short lived, ineffective response. The Islamic version of crusade (Jihad) continued and is still going. "For most of the fourteen hundred years of Islamic history, jihad has been most commonly interpreted as armed struggle for the advancement or defense of Muslim power."(Bernard Lewis) This crusade today is expressing itself as terrorism. Many wars have been fought for far less important reasons that this.