Considering Piracy

I have not been able to surf much lately.  So I found this interesting tidbit on Dr. Mohler’s blog.  He quotes from Stephen Prothero, a Professor of Religion at Boston University (NCAA Hockey champs, my friends).

The late spate of piracy off the coast of Somalia has been analyzed so far almost entirely in political and economic terms: Somalia is lawless and impoverished, so Somali men are taking world trade for a ride. Religion comes up in this analysis only in terms of fears about potential ties between Somali pirates and Islamist groups such as al Qaeda and al Shabab.

But according to Boston University’s World Religion Database, the Somali population is 99% Muslim, and the last time the U.S. was menaced by piracy, in the late 18th century, the so-called Barbary pirates of north Africa also operated out of Muslim havens. For those who know something about Muhammad and the origins of Islam, more than coincidence is at work: Religion, it turns out, should be factored into the piracy problem.

Mohler argues that the pirates are just doing what Islam has done from the beginning as it spread from Arabia.  They are just doing it on water instead of land.  Could it be that the media is neglecting this fact, lest we see that the problem is a particular religion (people like blaming religion in general- but this particular seems central to many of the international problems)?  President Obama, like President Clinton, sees all this in terms of crime- not terror.  But the seeds of piracy may be the same as those for militant Islam, just manifested in a slightly different way.  Instead of destroying the West, they seek to plunder the West.  But their religion provides the basis for both sets of actions.  They believe they have a divine right, even obligation, to do so.  There is just no reasoning with people with such a mindset.  Or, it seems, with politicians who think their own nation is the problem.