Kenyan Muslims shield Christians in Mandera bus attack

[jimmy olsen]

That's the Christmas spirit.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35151967

Kenyan Muslims shield Christians in Mandera bus attack

5 hours ago

From the section Africa

A group of Kenyan Muslims travelling on a bus ambushed by Islamist gunmen protected Christian passengers by refusing to be split into groups, according to eyewitnesses.

They told the militants "to kill them together or leave them alone", a local governor told Kenyan media.

At least two people were killed in the attack, near the north-eastern village of El Wak on the Somali border.

The Somali based al-Shabab group says it carried out the attack.

The group often carries out attacks in Kenya's north-east.

The bus was travelling from the capital Nairobi to the town of Mandera.

When al-Shabab killed 148 people in an attack on Garissa University College in April, the militants reportedly singled out Christians and shot them, while freeing many Muslims.

Last year, a bus was attacked near Mandera by al-Shabab militants, who killed 28 non-Muslims travelling to Nairobi for the Christmas holidays.


"The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other," Mandera governor Ali Roba told Kenya's private Daily Nation newspaper.

The militants decided to leave after the passengers' show of unity, he added.

The passengers on the bus showed great bravery, but there was another quality revealed by their surprising decision to stand up to the gunmen: Frustration.

The majority of the local population in the north-east are Kenyan Muslims of Somali descent, and they have been hit hard by the consequences of al-Shabab attacks, even if non-Muslims are supposedly the main target of the Somali militant group.

An attack last year in Mandera, in which Christians were killed after being separated from Muslims, caused the departure of more than 2,000 teachers, as well as many health workers who had come from other parts of the country.

Perhaps the passengers felt that the region could simply not afford another such attack.

It will be interesting to see if their actions embolden local populations to increase their resistance to al-Shabab, which has attacked the area several times.


An employee of the Makkah bus company, who had spoken to the driver involved in the attack, confirmed to the BBC that Muslims had refused to be separated from their fellow Christian passengers.

One of the victims was shot dead after trying to run away from the militants after passengers had been forced off the bus, the same employee told the BBC's Bashkas Jugsodaay in Nairobi.

Al-Shabab has been at war with Kenya ever since Kenyan forces entered Somalia in October 2011 in an effort to crush the militants.

Kenya's north-eastern region has a large population of ethnic Somalis.

[alfred russel]

Fascinating headline choice by the BBC. Is there a second article titled, "al-Shabab carries out Mandera bus attack, two killed", or is that the less newsworthy aspect of this story?

[Jacob]

Fascinating headline choice by the BBC. Is there a second article titled, "al-Shabab carries out Mandera bus attack, two killed", or is that the less newsworthy aspect of this story?

I think you answered your own question there.

[Valmy]

It is just a reminder not to go out and murder all Muslims because most of them aren't so bad. Pathetic we have to keep reminding people of that.

[Admiral Yi]

It is just a reminder not to go out and murder all Muslims because most of them aren't so bad. Pathetic we have to keep reminding people of that.

Way more than that.  This is a story about Muslims heroically confronting Islamic terrorism.

[alfred russel]

Fascinating headline choice by the BBC. Is there a second article titled, "al-Shabab carries out Mandera bus attack, two killed", or is that the less newsworthy aspect of this story?

I think you answered your own question there.

When there was the abortion clinic shooting in Colorado Springs, sometime after the attack I went to the Fox News website to see how they would cover it, and the headline story was about one of the hero cops that was killed fighting the guy, who was apparently a conservative christian. It struck me as being in bad taste with a propaganda motive. Basically what Valmy posted imposed in different circumstances.

I tend to see this similarly, although it is different because a terrorist attack in that part of the world really may not be such a major news story, and also what Yi posted.

[Martinus]

I like to think the Kenyan Muslims would have reacted in the same way if the other group were not Christians but atheists or gays.

[Razgovory]

I like to think the Kenyan Muslims would have reacted in the same way if the other group were not Christians but atheists or gays.

What an odd things to say, neither Atheists or gays are a religious group.

[Syt]

Kenyan Muslims shield Christians in Mandera bus attack

Thanks, Obama!

[The Brain]

I thought Nerson was dead?

[Eddie Teach]

I like to think the Kenyan Muslims would have reacted in the same way if the other group were not Christians but atheists or gays.

I'd like to think the atheists and gays weren't foolish enough to volunteer that information under this circumstance. (The Christians are probably a different ethnic group).

[11B4V]

It is just a reminder not to go out and murder all Muslims because most of them aren't so bad. Pathetic we have to keep reminding people of that.

Way more than that.  This is a story about Muslims heroically confronting Islamic terrorism.

Exactly