July 25, 2007:
Eritrea's
hatred of its neighbor, Ethiopia, nurtured by a nasty border dispute, has led
to Eritrea becoming a base for Islamic terrorists. Eritrea provides sanctuary
for Islamic terrorist groups from Somalia and Ethiopia. About half the
population of Eritrea is Moslem, but not the radical kind. That's partly
because the other half of the population is Christian. Not only that, but the
only active armed rebel movement in Eritrea is an Islamic terrorist outfit,
Eritrean Islamic Jihad. This group is based in Sudan (which is basically run by
an Islamic conservative dictatorship) and wants an Islamic dictatorship back
home. One reason Eritrean Islamic Jihad
has been quiet for the last few years, is because Eritrea has helped Sudan to
broker peace deals with rebels in southern and eastern Sudan. But Eritrea is
now on the Western counter-terrorism radar because the country has become
hospitable to Islamic radical groups that hate the same people the current
Eritrean government does.