Two thousand Muslims killed in Nigeria

[Abu Juwairiya]

"Two thousand Muslims (mainly women and children) were butchered in Nigeria on Friday and Christian militia in Central African Republic (CAR) butchered a few hundred more Muslims over the weekend. I remained silent on purpose, as I wanted to see how many people would publicise this news on social media, especially since some mainstream news outlets covered the stories. But there was nothing...

Where were the statuses on social media publicising this news? Where were our Muslim... leaders, Imams and Shuyookh who have been quick to condemn and apologise for the acts of terror instigated by Muslims?

The silence has been deafening. The hypocrisy and double standards have been evident for everybody to see. When the attacks against children happened in Peshawar, Pakistan, most Muslims had their say about what happened and many were falling over themselves in condemning the crime. But where are these people today?

When the media made a big issue of the Peshawar attacks, everyone jumped on the bandwagon without realising that they had an agenda to further demonise Islam. I do not blame them because what is now becoming evident is that Muslims cannot think for themselves anymore. When the media asks us to jump, we do exactly that and condemn acts of terror when we do not have to, simply to please the powers that be.

It is about time we started thinking for ourselves and started having an objective thought process independent of the emotions the media expects us to exhibit.

So why have we not made an issue of what happened in Nigeria and CAR? When we talk about one Ummah, are our black Muslim brothers and sisters from Africa not included in that group of people, because it seems like that is exactly the case." (Source: Amar Alam, Blogger)

 

[saif]

Do you mean the following news? Dawn news, quoting an african newspaper claims, that it was done by Boko-Haram. So, yes it is again something to mourn about. Again muslim terrorists killing innocent civilians.

I am Charlie, but I am Baga too: On Nigeria’s forgotten massacre

Simon Allison
Published about 9 hours ago

A grab made on July 13, 2013 from a video obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau, dressed in camouflage and holding an Kalashnikov AK-47. - AFP/File
If you thought 17 dead in Paris was bad enough for one week, you were wrong. In Nigeria, more than 2,000 people are feared dead after Boko Haram launched it’s deadliest-ever attack on a strategic north-eastern town.

But, where are the solidarity marches, the passionate editorials and the international condemnations?

Some lives, it seems, are more valuable than others.

There are massacres and there are massacres. The Paris massacre was tragic, but it was hardly the worst thing that happened last week. Not even close.



Editorial: Bloodshed in Nigeria



For that, we must head to Nigeria, and to the town of Baga – or at least to the spot on the map where Baga once stood, because there’s not much left of it now.

Reports of the massacre are necessarily hazy; the nearest journalists are hundreds of kilometres away (even there, they are not particularly safe), and information comes almost exclusively from traumatised refugees and unreliable government sources.

Still, enough facts have emerged to know that something terrible happened here; something apocalyptic.

Baga, in north-eastern Nigeria on the border with Cameroon, is no stranger to massacres.

In April 2013, nearly 200 people, mostly civilians, were slaughtered by the Nigerian armed forces in a military offensive designed to push out Boko Haram. This, however, was just a teaser. A taste of the horror that was to come.

Over the course of five days, beginning on Saturday last week, Boko Haram fighters entered the city with Nigerian soldiers fleeing before them, and destroyed it and anybody that was too slow in escaping – men, women, children.

“The whole town was on fire,” said one eyewitness, while others speak of roads lined with corpses. The body count varies, but Amnesty International puts it at over 2,000 deaths – or the rough equivalent of 133 Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Whatever the exact number, it was Boko Haram’s deadliest attack yet. And one of its most significant: by taking charge of Baga and its important military base, Boko Haram effectively controls the Borno state in its entirety. These aren’t just terrorists: they are becoming a de facto state.

The Baga attack wasn’t the only man-made tragedy in the country, either.

This Saturday, a young girl – first reported to be 10 years old, but now thought to be mid- to late-teens – approached a busy marketplace in Maiduguri, the capital of the north-east. She was strapped with explosives, and as security approached her the device detonated, killing at least 16 people. It’s unclear whether she set off the bomb herself, or even whether she knew she was wearing a suicide vest.

Although Boko Haram have not directly claimed responsibility for this attack, there are no other credible suspects.

In normal circumstances, we could describe this as an act of astonishing brutality. But there’s nothing astonishing about it.

Instead, it’s all wearyingly familiar, and demonstrates yet again how little protection the Nigerian state is able to offer its long-suffering citizens.

Nor are the Nigeria attacks even particularly newsworthy.

Worldwide, the Baga massacre barely merited a mention alongside the flood of coverage devoted to Charlie Hebdo. It certainly didn’t generate any special edition front pages or passionate editorials.

Even in Nigeria, to the media fraternity’s shame, the 17 deaths in Paris got more press than the hundreds and hundreds at home, according to media analyst Ethan Zuckerman, who also pointed out that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan expressed sympathies to the French government but said nothing about Baga.

It may be the 21st century, but African lives are still deemed less newsworthy – and, by implication, less valuable – than western lives.

There are plenty of excuses for this, of course:

• There are no dramatic visuals from Baga.
  
  
• It is difficult to understand, and the situation doesn’t fall neatly into the clash of civilisations thesis that makes for such a compelling narrative (it’s inconvenient to acknowledge that, overwhelmingly; Muslims are the biggest victims of Islamic fundamentalism).
  
  
• It was not an attack on journalism itself, as Charlie Hebdo was, and therefore didn’t tug at the heartstrings of editors everywhere.

Still.

Still. More than 2,000 people died, and the world stayed silent.

Worse, Africa stayed silent.

There’s plenty of hypocrisy on this continent, but the worst egregious example of recent times was the presence of Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba at the massive solidarity march in Paris on Sunday.

Here was an African dictator campaigning for freedom of speech in France, while vehemently and at times violently clamping down on a free press at home.

Here was an African leader taking the time to stand in support of the French victims, while ignoring the many more on his own continent.

Where are the African leaders condemning the Baga massacre?

Where are the African journalists obsessively analysing and reporting it?

Where are the African solidarity marches?

So, yes, we are Charlie. But we are Baga too, our outrage and solidarity over the Paris massacre is also a symbol of how we, as Africans, neglect Africa’s own tragedies, and prioritise Western lives over our own.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1156565/i-am-charlie-but-i-am-baga-too-on-nigerias-forgotten-massacre

 

[Abu Juwairiya]

Yes, I am referring to that particular massacre in addition the one carried out by Christians on Muslims in Central African Republic last Friday. My point is not so much on who the killers were, but on the scale, the numbers, the place of attack and the people killed; namely dark skinned Muslims in Africa and the silence that ensued both from Muslims worldwide and the social media.

Their crime, even in death, was that they were not white, did not warrant even a scarcity of attention from Muslims for condemnation and did not need to be apologised for to the West, compared to the Non Muslims at Charlie Hebdo in France.

Even the singular Muslim slain in France was not a civilian, but a guard. His death still provokes more outrage among Muslims than the 2, 200 African Muslim civilians killed in two separate countries who did not deliberately insult and attack the Prophet (SAW). That is real hypocrisy from Muslims worldwide.

 

[cabdixakim]

Yes, I am referring to that particular massacre in addition the one carried out by Christians on Muslims in Central African Republic last Friday. My point is not so much on who the killers were, but on the scale, the numbers, the place of attack and the people killed; namely dark skinned Muslims in Africa and the silence that ensued both from Muslims worldwide and the social media.

Their crime, even in death, was that they were not white, did not warrant even a scarcity of attention from Muslims for condemnation and did not need to be apologised for to the West, compared to the Non Muslims at Charlie Hebdo in France.

Even the singular Muslim slain in France was not a civilian, but a guard. His death still provokes more outrage among Muslims than the 2, 200 African Muslim civilians killed in two separate countries who did not deliberately insult and attack the Prophet (SAW). That is real hypocrisy from Muslims worldwide.

subxanal'Lah! So eloquent and relevant analysis of you Brother.

May Allah bless all those who stand for His cause and forgive our sins and those of all Muslims...aamiin

 

[Abu Juwairiya]

Jazakallah Khayrun Brother. Ma'shallah if I have anything to boast about [we all do, the greatest boast is to have been accepted by the Creator as Muslims], it is all from Allah. I owe everything to Him and to Him alone.

In respect to the article itself, I will add we, starting with myself, need to learn our religion from scratch. Assume we know nothing and educate ourselves to the best of our abilities first in knowledge of Our Creator [Tauheed], second in His Prophet [Seerah], third in His Message [Shariah] and Revelation [Qur'an and Sunah], fourth in His Justice [Fiqh] and finally once we have some knowledge in those fields to expand into other areas and after we do so, we will each discover our own specialist expertise in one, some or many of those areas to engage in both for ourselves and our families and friends but also to everyone else. Once we re-discover our religion and seek to expand our true understanding and full knowledge of what has been revealed by the Creator, the unity and strength we once experienced under the Prophet, the Sahabah, the Tabi'een and the Tabi Tabi'een will return inshallah and so will the support and Divine Assistance of the Creator to the Ummah and to the image and honour of Islam.