Dozens of college students massacred in Nigeria by Boko Haram

[jimmy olsen]

Just terrible

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/09/gunmen-storm-nigerian-college-201392910646471222.html

Students massacred in Nigeria attack
Raid on college dormitory in Gujba in Yobe state is latest in a series of violent incidents blamed on Boko Haram.
Last Modified: 29 Sep 2013 19:36

As many as 50 students are reported to have died after armed men stormed a college dormitory in Nigeria's northeast, shooting at them as they slept, according to the Nigerian military.

Sunday's attack, believed to be carried out by the armed group Boko Haram, targeted the College of Agriculture in the town of Gujba in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, the area military spokesman, said.

"There was an attack at the College of Agriculture in Gujba this morning by Boko Haram terrorists who went into the school and opened fire on students" while they were asleep, Eli said.

Boko Haram is a Nigerian armed group that claims to be fighting Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state.

The literal translation of Boko Haram is "Western education is forbidden".

Molima Idi Mato of the College of Agriculture told AP news agency that classrooms were torched in the attack, which occurred at about 1am local time.


"They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels, they opened fire at them," he said.

He said security forces were still are recovering bodies of students mostly aged between 18 and 22.

The assailants rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military camouflage uniforms, Ibrahim Mohammed, a surviving student, told the AP.

He said they appeared to know the layout of the college, attacking the four male hostels but avoiding the one hostel reserved for women.

"We ran into the bush, nobody is left in the school now," Mohammed said.

The college is about 40km from the scene of similar school attacks around Damaturu town.

Northeastern Nigeria is under a military state of emergency to battle Boko Haram fighters who have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010 in their quest to install an Islamic state.

Half the country's 160 million citizens are Christian.

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from Abuja, said  that after the country's president declared a state of emergency in May, the military launched a crackdown on armed groups and the situation seemed to have calmed down in the north.

"Then all of a sudden, during the past three or four weeks, incidents started popping up all over the place. Since then, more than 300 people may have been killed by suspected members of Boko Haram," he said.

[Camerus]

Not sure whether the students killed in this attack were Christians, but very sad what is happening to Christians in general in the Muslim world.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/david_suissa/article/the_silent_killing_of_christians

The Middle East may be a raging wildfire, but the eyes of the world are on the revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace dance — that all-too-familiar game where the Jewish state makes concessions (such as releasing terrorists) for the privilege of talking to an enemy who demonizes Jews, glorifies terrorists and has already rejected three peace offers.

It's a testament to the general success of the Israeli state that after returning from 10 days there, I am a lot more concerned with what's happening in the rest of the Middle East.

After the heady promise of the Arab Spring two years ago, the situation in the Middle East is now more like the Arab Volcano — with sectarian violence erupting in many areas and the Iranian nuclear threat hovering like a dark force. Instead of unleashing the power of democracy, the Arab Spring has cooked up a lethal brew of festering hatred, economic misery and vicious power struggles.

In contrast to that chaos, Israel feels like Club Med.

But hidden in all the chaos is a monstrous injustice that has received very little media attention: The rampant persecution of Christians.

"Few people realize that we are today living through the largest persecution of Christians in history," Bruce Thornton, research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, wrote on the institute's Web site. "Estimates of the numbers of Christians under assault range from 100 [million] to 200 million. According to one estimate, a Christian is martyred every five minutes."


It's odd that prominent Christians like President Barack Obama and Pope Francis have been utterly silent about this humanitarian tragedy.

As Kirsten Powers wrote recently in USA Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel asserted late last year that "Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world," while former French President Nicholas Sarkozy warned in a 2011 speech that "Christians face a particularly wicked program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing."

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg told Powers "he is shocked that American Christians aren't regularly protesting outside of embassies drawing attention to this issue," and he called the persecution of Christians in the Middle East "one of the most undercovered stories in international news."

One Christian who is certainly not keeping quiet is Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow of the Middle East Forum.

In a review of Ibrahim's new book, "Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians," Thornton writes that Ibrahim, who is fluent in Arabic, "has been tracking what he calls 'one of the most dramatic stories' of our time in the reports and witnesses that appear in Arabic newspapers, news shows, and websites, but that rarely get translated into English or picked up by the Western press."

Most of this persecution, according to the book, is by Muslims: "Of the top fifty countries persecuting Christians, forty-two have either a Muslim majority or have sizable Muslim populations."

By documenting "hundreds of specific examples from across the Muslim world," Thornton adds, Ibrahim "shows the extent of the persecution, and forestalls any claims that it is a marginal problem."

Muslim attacks, Thornton writes, "result not just from the jihadists that some Westerners dismiss as 'extremists,' but from mobs of ordinary people, and from government policy and laws that discriminate against Christians. ... These attacks reveal a consistent ideology of hatred and contempt that transcends national, geographical, and ethnic differences."

The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, for example, announced that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region," which prompted Thornton to ask, in the wake of Western silence: "Is there no limit to our tolerance of Islam?"

"Tragically," Powers of USA Today writes, "Christians have been forced to abandon homelands they have occupied for thousands of years. Up to two-thirds of Christians have fled Iraq in the past ten years to escape massacres, church burnings and constant death threats."

According to Powers, in Iran, U.S. pastor Saeed Abedini has been sentenced to eight years in prison for preaching Christianity. In Egypt, Amnesty International blasted the recently deposed Islamic Brotherhood government for its failure to protect Coptic Christians from discrimination and violence. And in Lebanon, once a majority Christian country, the former president complained of a "genocide" against Christians. 

"The future of Christians in the Middle East is very bleak," Neil Hicks of Human Rights First told Powers.

The world media is perfectly OK covering Muslims killing Muslims, as is happening now in Syria. But why does it clam up when Muslims persecute Christians? Are we afraid to appear "Islamophobic" or bring back memories of the Dark Ages?

As a people who know all too well about "dark" ages, Jews should not stand idly by. We shouldn't shy away from unpleasant truths, just because the media does. Jews who believe in social justice should shine a light on the tragic plight of persecuted Christians.

Maybe if we make some noise, the president and the pope will follow.

[mongers]

The clue is in the name. 

Some of these suicide death cults certainly have their branding sorted.   

[KRonn]

Not sure whether the students killed in this attack were Christians, but very sad what is happening to Christians in general in the Muslim world.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/david_suissa/article/the_silent_killing_of_christians 

Agreed, very sad. In response there are bi-partisan efforts in the US Congress to create a special envoy for religious freedom in South Central Asia and the Middle East. Now it goes to the Senate. This was tried a few years ago but failed in the Senate, but given the increased danger and visibility now I would think it has better chances of passing the Senate. It passed by a huge margin in the House.

[Neil]

At least Ide can take comfort that a few of them were probably humanities majors.

[derspiess]

Time to hit them back at their muslim schools.

[Ed Anger]

Time to hit them back at their muslim schools.

Look for the camels. Drivers Ed AND Sex Ed!

[Grey Fox]

Religion of Peace.

[Sheilbh]

It's grim.

I think the in the Middle East it's part of a general sectarian conflagration, but in other parts of the Muslim world I think it seems far more targeted at getting rid of Christians.

It'll be a tragedy if the Oriental Churches especially end up becoming Churches of the diaspora

[Caliga]

At least Ide can take comfort that a few of them were probably humanities majors.

More of them were probably scamming majors.

[Camerus]

Besides, Procol Harum should have just stopped at Whiter Shade of Pale.

[Syt]

At least Ide can take comfort that a few of them were probably humanities majors.

More of them were probably scamming majors.

Future MBAs and lawyers?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Time to hit them back at their muslim schools.

Not as straightforward as that in Nigeria, there are vigilante groups forming there which include muslims who seem just as pissed off with Boko Haram as the rest of Nigerian society :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23409387

[Valmy]

It's grim.

I think the in the Middle East it's part of a general sectarian conflagration, but in other parts of the Muslim world I think it seems far more targeted at getting rid of Christians.

It'll be a tragedy if the Oriental Churches especially end up becoming Churches of the diaspora

It is rather sad and bizarre to see people eradicating part of their own culture but I suppose we have seen plenty of this in Eastern Europe over the years as well.  I am not sure the big prize a country wins by being 100% homogeneous ethnically and religiously but it seems really valuable for some reason.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It's grim.

I think the in the Middle East it's part of a general sectarian conflagration, but in other parts of the Muslim world I think it seems far more targeted at getting rid of Christians.

It'll be a tragedy if the Oriental Churches especially end up becoming Churches of the diaspora

It is rather sad and bizarre to see people eradicating part of their own culture but I suppose we have seen plenty of this in Eastern Europe over the years as well.  I am not sure the big prize a country wins by being 100% homogeneous ethnically and religiously but it seems really valuable for some reason.

when the wife and I were in Egypt our guide (an Egyptian who had studied at Leuven University) told us that the arabs/muslims of egypt don't really view the pre-islamic period/heritage as their own. it's haram after all.

Sending envoys to talk about the issue is not going to help though. Unless the envoy carries a giant stick and is willing to use it plenty.