Brite - You cannot expect the international community to keep quite and watch the rebels take over smaller nations one byn one. The governments of these countries are not equipped to handle such situations. The Islamist rebels get external support - financial and hardware to wage wars against their governments so it is only right for the governments of these countries to seek help from the more powerful nations.

I believe the countries like France,UK and Germany have a lot of responsibility in Africa with regards to saving the weaker countries from the religious rebels.