Bought, Sold by Militants Near Mine, Tanzanite Ends Up at Mideast Souks

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, November 16, 2001 | ROBERT BLOCK and DANIEL PEARL

[TroutStalker]

MERERANI, Tanzania -- In the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, miners with flashlights tied to their heads crawl hundreds of feet beneath the East African plain, searching for a purple-brown crystal that will turn into a blue gem called tanzanite.

Many of the rare stones chipped off by the spacemen, as the miners are called, find their way to display cases at Zales, QVC or Tiffany. But it's a long way from these dusty plains to U.S. jewelry stores, and the stones pass through many hands on their journey. Some of those hands, it is increasingly clear, belong to active supporters of Osama bin Laden.

[jimtorr]

After prayers, the mosque's courtyard becomes an open-air gem-dealing space, where Sheik Omari and other mosque leaders trade tanzanite with small-time miners. In between haggling, the elders preach the virtues of suicide attacks as a way to defend their faith.

Religious leaders or business men using religion to control a valuable commodity? You decide.

[LouD]

Boycott time...