Recently in Boko Haram Category

Over at Gatestone Institute (via RaymondIbrahim.com, where the links are), I discuss how the Obama administration is devoted to whitewashing the Nigerian jihad:

While the Obama administration continues to say that the Islamic group Boko Haram's jihad against Nigeria's Christians—which has seen countless churches destroyed, and thousands of Christians killed—has nothing to do with religion, the group once again made clear that it is all about religion. According to a recent report:

In an online video released last week, the militant Muslim group Boko Haram demanded that Nigeria's Christian president either convert to Islam, or resign. [Boko] Haram head Abubakar Shekau told President Goodluck Jonathan to "repent and forsake Christianity," otherwise Shekau's followers would continue their violent campaign...

Indeed, despite the fact that the Obama administration has agreed to spend $600 million in a USAID initiative launched to ascertain the "true causes" behind Boko Haram's murderous bloodlust, it was clear from the very beginning that the group and other Muslims were enraged that Nigeria was being led by a Christian, President Goodluck Jonathan, even though he won elections "by a landslide."

Writing back in April 2011, Nigerian analyst Peter Run said:

The current wave of riots was triggered by the Independent National Election Commission's (INEC) announcement on Monday [April 18, 2011] that the incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, won in the initial round of ballot counts. That there were riots in the largely Muslim inhabited northern states where the defeat of the Muslim candidate Muhammadu Buhari was [deemed] intolerable was unsurprising…. Now they are angry despite experts and observers concurring that this is the fairest and most independent election in recent Nigerian history.

Once again, then, reality is easily ascertained—at root, Boko Haram's terror campaign is entirely motivated by religion—even as the Obama administration refuses to designate the group as a terrorist organization, spends millions of U.S. tax dollars on superfluous initiatives (or diversions), and pressures the Nigerian president to make concessions, including building more mosques, the very structures where Muslims are radicalized and recruited to Boko Haram's jihad.

Imagine if they put that ingenuity and resourcefulness into building something constructive, rather than attempting to blackmail their targets into submission by destroying them bit by bit. It is far easier to destroy than rebuild, and easier to get attention that way, and so they become self-serving vandals, launching cowardly attacks against civilians.

In Somalia and Nigeria and particular, their respective jihadist movements seem bent on ruling an empty country, if they have to kill, expel, or starve everyone in it to impose Sharia. But when the country is subdued, or more likely even before, they will turn on each other.

"Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria bombings deadlier in 2011," by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press, March 15:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Bomb attacks in Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia rose in 2011 as al-Qaida-affiliated terror groups used more sophisticated devices to kill more people with each explosion, the Pentagon's anti-IED unit said.

Nigeria saw a nearly fourfold jump in the number of improvised explosive device incidents last year, while Kenya saw an 86 percent increase, according to the unit. Underscoring the threat, both nations saw deadly blasts last weekend: A car bomb attack on a church during Mass in Nigeria and grenades thrown at Kenyans as they waited at a crowded bus stop.

Militants last year began using a deadlier type of bomb known as a shaped charge for the first time in both Somalia and Nigeria, John Myrick, a U.S. military bomb expert told The Associated Press. Advanced bomb-makers use shaped charges to increase the force of a bomb so that it can penetrate armor.

Such deadly explosives were used repeatedly by militants at the height of the Iraq war, and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan. The migration of the deadlier bombs to Africa is evidence that more sophisticated al-Qaida-linked groups are advising and training African militants.

While Somalia saw only a small increase in attacks, the newer technology lead to greater casualties and deeper impact on Africa Union forces, Myrick said.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomb attack aimed at the main government compound in Mogadishu killed at least three people, said the spokesman for the African Union force known as AMISOM.

Bombs in Somalia "are definitely more sophisticated and they're definitely more effective against AMISOM armored vehicles, which represents an advance in the capabilities of the insurgents," said Myrick, the chief of the global missions task force for the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.

Myrick said that the more effective bombs and attacks "indicate an increase in logistical support from some of the more sophisticated groups on the continent, and also an increase in training."

Specifically, the anti-IED unit says al-Qaida's North African branch is increasing support to Nigerian militants, and another affiliate, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is supporting Somali militant groups.

Nigeria saw 196 bomb incidents in 2011, compared with 52 incidents in 2010, U.S. military numbers show. An incident is when a bomb detonates or is discovered before detonation. The Pentagon's anti-IED unit expects Nigeria to see a slight increase in bomb incidents this year, before attack numbers plateau because militants will have reached their capacity to produce them, Myrick said.

The Joint IED Defeat Organization says militants are increasingly targeting events that will produce mass casualties. A Christmas Day blast that struck St. Theresa Catholic Church near Nigeria's capital killed 44 people.

Nigeria Police Commissioner Ambrose Aisabor, who oversees the Nigeria Police Force's anti-bomb squad, blamed the increase on a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north.

"Since the past two years, the activities of Boko Haram have been on the increase," he told AP. "A lot of IEDs are being detonated in the northeastern part of the country." [...]

Somalia saw a slight rise — from 182 to 191 — while incidents in neighboring Kenya jumped from 14 to 26. Many of Kenya's bomb attacks were near the Somali border and appeared to have been planted by Somali militants al-Shabab.

Kenya also suffered several grenade attacks in its capital. Al-Shabab denied it was behind last weekend's grenade blasts, which killed nine people. The research firm Eurasia Group said if al-Shabab didn't carry out the blasts the attacks show that Kenya faces threats from potentially several terror groups.

Col. Cyrus Oguna, the officer in charge of the Kenyan military forces that moved into Somalia in October, said his troops encountered many IEDs at the beginning of its operation and lost "a couple" soldiers. But he said his forces have since implemented counter-IED strategies, reducing the bomb's frequency and effectiveness.

The commander of AMISOM troops in Somalia said his forces are seeing "improved technology" in IEDs. [...]

IEDs are the weapon of choice for terrorists and insurgents the world over because of how easy they are to make. As Myrick said: "An 8-year-old can put together an IED if they try." In addition, IED blasts garner more attention.

"People in the press in general tend to take a more active view of things that go boom instead of things that go bang. Shooting up a refugee camp, while newsworthy, would not get the amount of coverage as an IED in a refugee camp," he said.

"We'll see this problem for decades. JIEDDO's view is that the IED is going to remain the weapon of choice for insurgents and terrorists for at least the next 40 years."

Any jihadist attack on a church puts contrasting ideals of martyrdom on display. More on this story. "11 dead after suicide attack on Nigerian church," from Agence France-Presse, March 11:

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Catholic church in central Nigeria on Sunday, killing seven people and sparking panic in which security forces shot three others dead.

It was the second suicide attack on a church in the flashpoint central city of Jos in two weeks, after a February 26 attack claimed by Islamist sect Boko Haram killed three people and injured dozens.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned Sunday's bombing and reaffirmed his government's determination "to end the spate of mindless attacks and killings".

Jos, a faultline in Nigeria's Muslim-Christian divide between north and south, was tense in the aftermath of the bombing amid fears of a reprise of deadly riots which followed last month's attack.

"There are rumours of reprisals from Christian youths, but we hope the security agents are on top of the situation as they have cordoned off the area," said Alhassan Danjuma Aliyu of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Worshippers were filing out from Sunday mass in St. Finbar's Catholic church when the suicide bomber crashed his bomb-laden car into the gate, killing seven people and leaving a dozen others dazed and injured on the ground, Plateau State government spokesman Pam Ayuba said.

Three men were then shot as security forces fired on a crowd of onlookers who gathered after the blast.

"There were 10 dead -- seven parishioners and three that were shot dead by soldiers," in a bid to disperse the crowd, Ayuba told AFP.

The bomber was also killed, "mutilated beyond recognition".

Boy scouts tried to stop the car, he said.

"The security guards, who were mainly members of the Boys Brigade, tried to prevent the car from entering the compound and in the process the car exploded."

Three people died at the scene, emergency agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib said. Several others were reported to be in a critical condition.

Emergency workers said the death toll could have been higher had the bomber managed to get the vehicle closer to his target. "The bomb exploded before he could get to the church," said Shuaib.

Peter Umoren, the parish priest at the church, told AFP seven of his parishioners were killed while 12 others were injured in the blast.

"We lost seven church members while 12 were injured and have been taken to the Plateau state specialist hospital and the airforce military hospital for treatment," he said.

He said there were a total of four suicide bombers, two in the car and two on a motorcycle escorting it, all of whom were killed. There was no immediate confirmation of his claim.

The blast blew out church windows and cracked the wall, an AFP reporter at the scene said, adding that the engine of the car was detached from its shattered body and flung into the church compound....

Jihad causes poverty. "Nigeria: Over 5,000 Children out of School," by Kimei Hilton Ndukong for AllAfrica, March 8 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Human Rights Watch says their schools have been destroyed by Boko Haram Islamic militants.

Over 5,000 school children in northern Nigeria are now at home after Boko Haram Islamic militants destroyed their schools in their campaign to impose Islamic Sharia law in the country. The Nation newspaper of Nigeria citing a Human Rights Watch, HRW, report released earlier this week, said since the beginning of 2012, at least 12 schools have been destroyed in the city of Maiduguri, capital of the north eastern Borno State, the heartland of the insurgency.

The group's Deputy Head, Children Rights Directorate, Zama Coursen-Neff, said Boko Haram attacks on schools represent a new and reprehensible development since the group began its campaign of violence in 2009. Between February 26 and 29, at least four schools were burned, and on March 1, five schools were set ablaze, including Sunshine Stars Secondary School and Success Secondary School, which had an enrollment of 700, the report says. All the attacks have occurred either at night or in the early morning hours.

Attacks on schools by armed groups, HRW warned, not only put children and teachers' lives at risk, but may also deprive children of an education. It noted that schools may close and children drop out entirely and even when classes resume after an attack, the quality of education may suffer with students and teachers afraid and learning material have been destroyed. The report notes that threats of attacks may also force neighbouring schools to close or parents to keep their children at home.

In a similar development, Nigeria's Tcabinet on Wednesday March 7, 2012 approved the White Paper by the presidential committee on security challenges in the country. The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria reported that the report that will be gazetted, recommends among others that government should negotiate with all armed groups in the country on the condition that they renounce use of violence as a means of achieving their objectives.

Meanwhile, sources in the State Security Service (SSS) say that arrested Boko Haram spokesman, Abu Qaqa and Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the deadly 2011 Christmas Day attack on a church near the capital, Abuja, have confirmed that the group's main aim is to Islamise the whole of Nigeria. According to THISDAY newspaper of Nigeria, the two men have been corroborating each other.

And will this attack bring about paradise under Sharia? Guess not. But they'll try again. "At Least 10 Killed as Suicide Bomber Attacks Catholic Church During Mass," by Ahmed Saka and John Gambrell for the Associated Press, March 11:

JOS, Nigeria (AP) — A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church Sunday in the middle of Mass, killing at least 10 people in the latest violence targeting a church in a central Nigerian city plagued by unrest, a state official said. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence. Security at the gate of the church's compound stopped the suspicious car and the bomber detonated his explosives during an altercation that followed, Plateau state spokesman Pam Ayuba said.

The blast damaged the church's roof, blew out its windows and destroyed a portion of the fence surrounding the church's compound, Ayuba said. At least 10 people died, Ayuba said, while many others were wounded in the blast, including soldiers who also had been stationed at the church.

"He destroyed so many things," the spokesman said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility though the city has been targeted in the past by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. The sect claimed a series of bombings in Jos on Christmas Eve in 2010 that killed as many as 80 people. The sect also claimed a similar church bombing on Feb. 26 on the main headquarters of the Church of Christ that killed three people and wounded 38 others.

The sect, which speaks to journalists through telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday.

Jos and surrounding Plateau state have been torn apart in recent years by violence pitting its different ethnic groups and major religions — Christianity and Islam — against each other. Human Rights Watch says at least 1,000 people were killed in communal clashes around Jos in 2010....

They want to "liquidate" Christians from the country. When they run out of unbelievers, or even before, they will turn on each other and implode, because their own ideology -- the idea that those who are not implementing Sharia "correctly" must repent or die -- can and will be used against them. If allowed to succeed, they will take Nigeria down with them. Jihad causes poverty. "Nigeria’s Boko Haram wants to kidnap Christian women, says spokesman," by David Eto for Bikya Masr, March 6:

LAGOS: A Nigeria spokesman for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday afternoon that the group has plans to begin kidnapping Christian women in a push to “liquidate” the religious group from the country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the spokesman said that “we are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women.”

He added that they would not sexually assault or harm the women, “but we will demand as ransom that the families leave our Islamic areas.”

The spokesman did not elaborate on when or how this new “campaign of terror” would take place, but it is striking fears in many Christians in the country.

“Kidnapping is very serious and dangerous. After all the bombings and violence, I don’t know what we would do,” Markos, a Christian living in Lagos, told Bikyamasr.com.

According to the same spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria on Sunday, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.

But the spokesman said the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come.”

He said, without giving specific details, “we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”

On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.

“This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate,” said the spokesman.

The explosion in the Kaleri suburb of the northern city on Friday destroyed a house and dismembered the three Islamist sect members, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed of the special military unit in Maiduguri said.

Other items recovered at the scene included remote control devices, wrist watch timers, metallic drums and copies of the Qur’an, he said.

The sect converts homes into bomb-making factories for attacks, the spokesman said.

Will the central government in Abuja act like there is still a central government in Abuja, and step up and protect its citizens? "Nigeria’s Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians," by David Eto for Bikya Masr, March 4 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a “war” on Christians in the next few weeks.

According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.

But the spokesman said the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come.”

He said, without giving specific details, “we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”

On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.

“This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate,” said the spokesman.

The explosion in the Kaleri suburb of the northern city on Friday destroyed a house and dismembered the three Islamist sect members, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed of the special military unit in Maiduguri said.

Other items recovered at the scene included remote control devices, wrist watch timers, metallic drums and copies of the Qur’an, he said.

The sect converts homes into bomb-making factories for attacks, the spokesman said.

As well as in Maiduguri, there have been accidental and fatal explosions in suspected Boko Haram bomb-making factories in the northern cities of Damaturu and Kaduna in recent months.

Violence blamed on the militant group, whose goals remain largely unclear, but has called for an Islamic state in Nigeria, has since mid-2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to rights groups.

Jihad causes poverty, courtesy of the group whose name translates as "Western Education is Sacrilege." The great irony is that Boko Haram is dependent on people who can read and write, and use technology.

It would be one thing if the jihadists stuck to dumbing down themselves. If there are going to be jihadists, let them be as dumb as possible. But they are hell-bent on dragging down all of Nigeria with them. "Suspected Islamists burn down seven Nigerian schools," from Reuters, March 1:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, March 1 (Reuters) - Arsonists suspected to be members of Islamist sect Boko Haram have burned down seven schools in northeastern Nigeria the past few days, authorities said on Thursday, a new twist in the group's increasingly violent insurgency.

Thousands of children have been left without schools in the middle of their term.

Boko Haram, an Islamist movement styled on the Taliban, is waging a low level insurgency against the government that is radiating out from its heartland in the remote northeastern city of Maiduguri right across the north.

"Low level" is highly debatable.

Its name means "Western education is sinful", after the ant-Western [sic] teachings of its early spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009.

Musa Inuwa Kubo, the commissioner of education for Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital, said the schools were attacked over the past few days, two of them on Thursday.

Reuters visited the scene of one of the fires, where a building was reduced to a pile of still smouldering ash.

“The issue is impunity, as there seems to be no consequence for the violence.”

More on this story. "Targeted Christians: Boko Haram strikes again as a Nigerian church is bombed, killing four," by Mindy Belz for WorldMag, February 29 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A Sunday morning bombing outside the headquarters of a leading Christian denomination in northern Nigeria exploded what has been a brief season of calm in the Plateau State capital, Jos. The Nigerian-based terrorist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack Sunday, which killed four and severely injured at least 38. In a tactic now familiar to victims of Boko Haram, a suicide bomber loaded a vehicle with explosives, and then drove through the security gate of the Church of Christ in the Nations (COCIN) headquarters, which includes offices, a church, and classrooms. The bomber apparently planned to crash the gate and detonate his vehicle inside the sanctuary, where hundreds had gathered for worship. Instead, the car’s tire blew and the vehicle hit a motorcycle, detonating only yards away from the church building.

The dead include a woman crushed by the vehicle explosion, a woman who only a week ago relocated to Jos after being displaced by similar attacks on Christians in Yobe State farther north, and a an 18-month-old child. [...] "The issue is impunity, as there seems to be no consequence for the violence," said Ann Buwalda, executive director of the Washington-based Jubilee Campaign. “After thousands have been killed, the federal government [in Nigeria] is not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice.”

Boko Haram consistently targets people, practices, and institutions that would stand in the way of their imposition of Sharia. In doing so, they are destroying the physical and social infrastructure of the land they would then rule in pious squalor. Jihad causes poverty.

"Gunmen attack police station, bank in nothern Nigeria," from Agence France-Presse, February 27:

Gunmen hurled explosives and fired at a police station and a nearby bank in a northern Nigeria town Monday in another of daily attacks blamed on Islamist sect Boko Haram, witnesses said.

The attack in Jama'are, a traditional emirate and town in the north of Bauchi state, occurred 24 hours after a similar assault in another northern Nigerian town in which three policemen were killed.

Residents said a large number of gunmen were involved in the attack, but were unclear about casualties.

"They arrived in cars and headed straight to the police station and a nearby bank, shooting and throwing explosives," said Tijjani Khalifa by phone from the town.

He said residents quickly moved indoors on hearing the sound of the explosions and gunshots.

"We don't know if there are casualties because everybody is at home," said another resident Muktar Dan-Abba.

Members of Boko Haram are thought to rob banks to fund their activities.

No officials were immediately available for comment.

Bauchi borders and lies to the north of Plateau, whose capital Jos was targeted by a suicide bomber on a church during Sunday service.

The Jos attack killed three people while reprisal riots that followed the attack left another three dead.

Boko Haram claimed to have been behind the church attack where a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car and blew it up metres away from a church hall.

Violence blamed on the group, whose goals remain largely unclear, has since mid-2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to AFP and rights groups.

The sect has previously said it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's deeply impoverished north.

Three police corporals were killed Sunday night and two other policemen wounded when gunmen threw explosives and opened fire on a police station in Shuwa village of Adamawa state, northern Nigeria, state police commissioner Adelere Chinaba said.

How creating hell on earth for the sake of Sharia is supposed to turn it into paradise under Sharia is still a puzzler. "Nigeria unrest: Suicide bomb targets church in Jos," from BBC News, February 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A suicide car bomber has killed at least three people at a prominent church in the troubled central Nigerian city of Jos.

Witnesses said the suicide bomber rammed his car into the Church of Christ during an early morning service.

A woman was killed as he sped towards the church, and a father and child died in the resulting explosion.

No group has said it carried out the attack, but suspicion will fall on the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.

The group has carried out a number of bloody attacks across Nigeria in its quest to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

The bomber drove towards the church through unmanned gates, killing a woman in the process, eyewitnesses said.

The bomber then detonated the explosives and pieces of the car tore into the church. Local officials later said the blast killed a father and his child who were worshipping inside the church at the time.

At least 38 people had to be taken to hospital for treatment, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Christian human rights activists suspect Boko Haram of carrying out the attack, which they say is the deadliest on a church in Jos, the BBC's Mark Lobel reports from Lagos.

A car bomb, this time. The gradual diversification of Boko Haram's tactics shows how it has grown in strength and resources, highlighting the extent of its support, and bolstering the case for an increasing connection with al-Qaeda. "Blast at Nigeria church injures two," by Habiba Salihu for Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 25:

Abuja (dpa) – A bomb attack outside a church in Abuja on Sunday, suspected to be by Nigeria’s Boko Haram sect, has left at least two people seriously injured, the country’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.

Several other worshipers were also hurt in the blast in the suburb of Sulieja.

Five cars were also badly damaged in the attack when a parked car filled with explosives detonated outside the Christ Embassy Church.

Witness Ngozi Favour told dpa that “the church service was still on-going when the car exploded, otherwise we would have suffered more casaulties.”

Sulieja is a volatile area known for previous attacks – including one during the 2011 presidential election at the Independent Electoral Office left scores dead.

Human rights organizations say more than 250 people have been killed since January in attacks carried out by the group.

The security forces have faced mounting pressure to contain the Boko Haram insurgency, which has intensified in recent weeks in a wave of both large and small attacks.

The group killed at least 185 people in coordinated gun and bomb attacks in Nigeria’s second city of Kano on January 20, its deadliest ever strike. It has also attacked churches and the United Nations office in Abuja.

A Christmas Day bombing of the St Theresa Catholic Church near Abuja by Boko Haram left 43 people dead and scores injured.

The intrepid mujahedin, still going after those really hard targets. On the other hand, though, "Boko Haram" does translate as "Western education is sacrilege," so they really are just living up to their name.

Jihad causes poverty. "Gunmen burn schools in restive Nigerian city: official," from the Daily Star, February 24 (thanks to Twostellas):

KANO, Nigeria: Gunmen burnt down a school in Nigeria's troubled city of Maiduguri, the second such attack in two days in an area rocked by Boko Haram Islamist raids, an official said Thursday.

A group of unknown gunmen stormed Budun primary school in central Maiduguri Wednesday evening and set fire to classrooms and a store after seizing the security guard at gunpoint, according to state education commissioner, Tijjani Abba Ari.

"The gunmen held the security guard at gunpoint and set fire to a block of four classes and an adjoining store which gutted the whole block," he said.

Another school was also burnt down by gunmen late Tuesday, Ari said.

"We are dealing with an emerging trend that is quite disturbing because this is the second time in two days that a school was burnt by armed arsonists," Ari said.

No one was hurt in the incident but the arson created panic in the city with pupils staying away from schools on Thursday, he said.

Ari did not name suspects in the arson but the radical Islamist Boko Haram group, which opposes western-type education, had threatened to attack public schools in retaliation for alleged desecration of the Koran and a raid on an Islamic seminary in the city by security agents.

Sect leader Abubakar Shekau issued the threat last month in an audio message in which his group claimed responsibility for a January 20 attack in the northern city of Kano that killed 185 people.

The intrepid, manly mujahedin, really going for those difficult targets there. As for the AP headline, we frequently see similar attempts to spin jihadist violence as religious "tensions" in which there is mutual participation.

What is the solution to "religious tensions?" If you're religiously tense, do you need a religious spa day? "'We will get you soon:' Slaying of Christian in northern Nigeria increases religious tensions," from the Associated Press, February 24:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Police discovered the body of a 79-year-old Christian woman killed in northeast Nigeria, with a note in Arabic left on her chest reading: “We will get you soon,” a witness said Thursday. The slaying raises religious tensions in Nigeria as a radical Islamist sect increasingly targets Christians in its bloody attacks. While police said they knew of no immediate suspects in the killing, witnesses blamed the attack on the sect known as Boko Haram, which has been blamed for killing at least 305 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

The group has consistently targeted people, practices, and institutions that would stand in the way of their imposition of Sharia.

The dead woman was identified as Shetu Haruna Malgwi, a Christian living in the city of Maiduguri in Nigeria’s Muslim north. Assailants apparently attacked Malgwi on Wednesday, a day after she returned home from receiving an eye treatment in the city of Kaduna, Borno state police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said.

Her killers slit the woman’s throat, then wrote a note with red pen they left on her chest, witness Audu Ibrahim said. Ibrahim said the woman’s family believes the message is for her son, who is a pastor of a local church where the 79-year-old sang in the choir.

Authorities found a Bible placed under the woman’s feet, Ibrahim said. Police continue to investigate the killing and no arrests have been made, Tizhe said.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, is carrying out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law and avenge Muslim killings in Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Maiduguri is the sect’s spiritual home, though its members have carried out attacks across the north. This year, a spokesman for the sect warned it would begin specifically targeting Christians living in the north. That has further widened divisions between Christians and Muslims in the country.

Boko Haram seems to want a civil war so it can really cut loose.

Meanwhile, police said four police officers were killed in two separate attacks in Nigeria on Thursday.

The intrepid mujahedin, spraying bullets at people buying food. "30 killed in Nigeria market attack," from the South African Press Agency and Agence France-Presse, February 21:

Kano - Suspected Nigerian Islamists opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri on Monday, killing at least 30 people, a medic and a witness said.

Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram stormed the fish section of Baga market and sprayed stallholders and vendors with bullets, traders said, reporting that women and children were among the dead.

"The number of dead could not be less than 30," a Maiduguri hospital nurse said.

The military confirmed the assault on the market but denied any civilian deaths, saying security forces had killed eight assailants and safely detonated bombs planted by the attackers.

"At about 1.30pm (1230 GMT) this afternoon at Baga market of Maiduguri metropolis some gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram attacked and shot civilians at the market," Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, spokesman of a special military unit in the city, said.

He said several people had been wounded but that there was "no civilian death at this time".

The military "immediately came to the rescue of the situation and safely detonated three bombs planted by members of the sect and shot and killed eight members of the sect," Mohammed said.

However, one trader who have his name as Mairami, said six gunmen stormed the food and commodities market and "opened fire indiscriminately. At least 30 people including women and children were killed."

Another vendor by the name Gana gave a similar account of the attack in the city, the stronghold of Boko Haram which has been blamed for a deadly wave of bombings and shootings mainly in the north of Africa's most populous country.

Witnesses said the gunmen set off eight homemade bombs inside the market, destroying stalls. The entire market was deserted after the attack.

"The gunmen just opened fire killing people. I saw three military vans piled with bodies leaving the market. There were several explosions after the shooting," Gana said.

The attackers accused traders of collaborating with the military following the arrest last week of a suspected Boko Haram member in the market, witnesses said.

Mairami said one gunman shouted angrily that traders had "teamed up with soldiers" to help arrest members of the sect.

"'We have henceforth waged war against you'," Mairami said the gunman had declared, before spraying bullets on both vendors and customers.

The nurse said it was difficult to get a precise death toll from the attack as security forces did not take the bodies to the morgue but allowed relatives to claim their loved ones for immediate burial, according to Muslim rites.

Last week, traders overpowered a gunmen suspected to be a Boko Haram member and handed him over to the military....

Bill Clinton recently demonstrated the tenacity of those liberal/leftist/materialist paradigms that have all but blinded the West to reality. According to the Associated Press:

Former U.S. President [and current spouse of the U.S. Secretary of State] Bill Clinton warned Monday that the rampant poverty that plagues oil-rich Nigeria—felt most acutely in its Muslim north—is fueling the religious violence now tearing at the nation. A radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram claimed Monday it killed 12 soldiers and beheaded three government informants in its bloody wave of sectarian violence against Nigeria’s weak central government [the report later adds that Boko Haram has so far killed 286 people this year alone, that is, in just the last six weeks]. While Clinton never named the sect in a speech Monday night in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, he admitted he remained “really worried” about the security challenges in Africa’s most populous nation.”You can’t just have this level of inequality persist. That’s what’s fueling all this stuff,” said Clinton... New government statistics released Monday showed that in Nigeria’s northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty [emphasis added].

The remainder of the article tells of how “analysts” agree that poverty-fuels-jihad, and how “Clinton called for Nigerians to embrace their similarities,” arguing that “It is almost impossible to cure a problem based on violence with violence.”

Thus Clinton, analysts—even the New York Times—all offer a perfectly palatable reason for the violence plaguing Nigeria, one that accords so well with the materialist worldview, and one that, as usual, defies reality. Consider some simple facts:

First, Muslims of the north, led by Boko Haram, began their violent jihad in earnest, not because they realized they were financially impoverished, but because a Christian won what was described as Nigeria’s freest and fairest elections. After all, as Islamic law clearly teaches, a non-Muslim is not permitted to govern Muslims—not because he is bad for the economy, but because he is an infidel.

The full name of Boko Haram is “Sunnis for [Islamic] Propagation and Jihad”; “Boko Haram,” their nickname, means “Western Education is a Sin” (not “We Kill Because We’re Poor”). Their stated goal is the establishment of a pure Sharia state in Nigeria. In other words, they are like all the other Islamists around the world, many of whom are financially well of, beginning with the leader of the pack, Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s wealthiest nations, and also the nation most responsible for fueling the jihad of groups like Boko Haram (just as the rich Saudi Osama bin Laden had supported the Islamist regime of Sudan, any number of wealthy donors, Saudi and otherwise, support jihadi groups like Boko Haram as part of their zakat).

Then there is the fact that, whenever and wherever a society begins to enforce Sharia, impoverishment soon follows—unless, of course, that society has natural resources to glut on. Indeed, consider the poverty-inducing consequences of Boko Haram’s jihad: most recently, after reading about how “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims killed and wrought havoc in the Nigerian city of Kano, we discover that Kano is “the economic heart of Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.”

Who, then, is really creating poverty in northern Nigeria? As we saw, the Associated Press report states that "in Nigeria’s northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty." The implication is that poverty creates frustrated jihadis; the reality is that jihadis frustrate the economy.

The inability to accept these straightforward facts; the inability to factor ideological or existential motives, seeing only material motives (money, land, etc); the almost instinctive conclusion that Muslim violence is proof positive of legitimate grievance—all of these are so ingrained in the predominant paradigm, from the mainstream media, to mainstream politicians, and all of these are poisoning Western civilization from within, eroding its influence and capacity to act from without.

Raymond Ibrahim is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center

He forgot the "Zionists." In any event, the handy thing about conspiracy paranoia is that it doesn't have to make sense, and more importantly, one need not take responsibility for a situation that is said to be ultimately controlled by a powerful hidden hand. "Nigeria: Boko Haram Conceived to Destroy Islam - Prof. Bunza," from the Daily Trust, February 8:

Boko Haram was conceived to destroy Islam and Muslims in Nigeria withthe sole aim of splitting the country as predicted by the United States of America agents, the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies of Usman Danfodio Univeristy, Sokoto, Professor Aliyu Mohammad Bunza has said.

Delivering a lecture entitled "Who is a terrorist?," during a lecture organised by the National Council of Muslim Youth

Organisations(NACOMYO), stressed that the concept was a conspiracy to destroy Muslims and to make the prediction by the West that Nigeria would disintegrate come 2015 become a reality.

Shut up, he explained:

Bunza emphasised that Islam was a religion of peace and urged Muslims in the country to stand up to resist any attempt to label Islam as aterrorist group. He urged government and the media in the country to desist from labelling Islam as a religion that condone terrorism....

This may be the plainest demonstration yet of the adoption of al-Qaeda-style tactics by Boko Haram: coordinated attacks, attackers disguised in uniforms, and suicide bombing. Such an evolution in tactics would not be possible without support, training, and financing. "Suicide attack, two other blasts rock Nigerian city," by Victor Ulasi for Agence France-Presse, February 9:

Explosions rocked an army barracks, a bridge and an air base in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna Tuesday, a set of coordinated attacks claimed by the Islamist group Boko Haram, officials said.

The military said the attack on the barracks was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an army uniform. Troops opened fire on him before he was able to reach the compound's buildings.

Boko Haram, which has claimed a series of recent attacks in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer, said it was responsible for the Tuesday blasts and that its insurgency would go on.

According to the military, the blast went off after soldiers opened fire on the car as the bomber sought to force his way onto the grounds at the barracks in Kaduna, a major city in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Army spokesman Raphael Isa told journalists the man was "dressed in military uniform (and) driving in a private car" which he tried to crash into headquarters of the 1st Mechanised Division.

Multiple military sources have insisted the driver was the only person killed.
After the blast, the army sealed off the area and blocked rescue workers from accessing the site, preventing them from assessing whether anyone was killed or injured.

"I was standing at the gate for 2 hours. The military have not been helpful. I pleaded with them to allow us in, but they refused us entry," said Musa Ilallah, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency in Kaduna.

Another bomb also went off outside a nearby air force base, defence spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima told AFP.

He described the device as being planted "in a canister" not far from the base, but said it was not clear what caused it to explode.

A third explosion struck near a bridge in Kaduna, damaging a group of commuter buses and wounding passengers, residents and the military said.

The attack at the army barracks happened just after midday, Kano-based army spokesman Abubakar Edun told journalists.

He said the driver managed to crash through an outer gate but then the soldiers started firing as he approached the building, causing him to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a wall, which set off the explosion.

One resident said he saw soldiers being taken out of the barracks with cuts thought to be from the shattered glass.

"Virtually all the glass has been shattered," the resident said. "I saw soldiers with glass cuts on their bodies being taken out, but it's difficult to say if there were any (more serious) casualties."

The army blocked journalists from accessing the site and confiscated the equipment of some reporters, an AFP correspondent said.

Speaking to journalists by phone conference in Maiduguri, the northwestern city that is seen as their base, a purported Boko Haram spokesman claimed the Tuesday attacks.

"We are responsible for the attacks on the army barracks and the air force base in Kaduna today," a man who claimed to be Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa said....

Authorities recently said they arrested Abul Qaqa. Since it is a pseudonym, however, there's plenty more Qaqa where that came from.

The aim of jihad in all of its forms is to impose Sharia law. That is why jihadist movements find common cause with one another, sometimes over vast geographical distances, and it is why purportedly "regional" jihadist conflicts become globally interconnected.

Think jihad globally, wage jihad locally. "Al-Qaeda’s hand in Boko Haram's deadly Nigerian attacks," by David Blair for the Telegraph, February 5:

The radical Islamist group, based in northern Nigeria, once specialised in robbing banks and attacking defenceless Christian congregations. In the past month, however, its gunmen or suicide bombers have struck 21 times, killing at least 253 people.

The Daily Telegraph understands this transformation has come about partly because of the help Boko Haram has received from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a branch of the international terrorist network based in the Saharan states of Mali, Niger and Algeria.

Boko Haram demonstrated its new potency on Jan 20, when at least 100 of the movement's fighters executed eight assaults in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, overwhelming the security forces and killing 185 people.

This operation bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda: a mixture of suicide bombers and gunmen, some in police or army uniform, carried out multiple, carefully coordinated attacks on hard targets.

Boko Haram destroyed two police stations and the regional police headquarters, and damaged the local office of the State Security Service, Nigeria's version of MI5.

Al-Qaeda's influence was also evident from the choice of weapons: car bombs exploded outside some targets, while police found caches of "improvised explosive devices", with detonators and shrapnel packed into soft drinks cans.

Since then, Boko Haram has kept up the momentum, launching night raids on two more police stations in Kano.

Officials and experts in the Nigerian capital of Abuja believe Boko Haram has learnt its new capabilities from AQIM. Niger, a key operating theatre for AQIM, shares a largely unmarked frontier with Nigeria, spanning 900 miles of desert and scrub.

Boko Haram probably has little need for weapons or money as its fighters are accomplished bank robbers and whenever they raid a police station, they usually empty the armoury. AQIM's contribution is most likely to be in tactics and expertise, with Boko Haram fighters taken out of Nigeria for training.

While the country has a long history of political and religious violence, experts point to the novelty of Boko Haram's techniques.

"Suicide bombing was, until recently, something we saw in the movies," said Chinedu Nwagu, a security analyst from the Cleen Foundation, which monitors Nigeria's justice system.

"People never thought that anybody here would do that".

The Kano attacks, he added, showed a degree of "coordination that you would not just pick up without very specialised training"....

Boko Haram consistently targets people, institutions, and practices that would stand in the way of its imposition of Sharia. This time, the epicenter of the violence was a police station. "Nigeria unrest: Blasts rock Kano and Maiduguri," from BBC News, February 6:

A police station has been hit by an explosion and attacked by gunmen in the flashpoint northern Nigerian city of Kano, injuring an officer.

Further east, at around the same time, witnesses spoke of hearing explosions in the market area of Maiduguri.

Suspicion for the attacks will fall on Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram is waging an insurgency in the region in a bid to try and overthrow the national government and install an Islamic state.

Kano saw a series of attacks last month that left more than 185 people dead.

'Plumes of smoke'

The attack on the police station in the Sharada district of Kano happened at just after 18:00 (17:00 GMT).

Gunmen carrying bombs had descended on the police station from different directions, Kano police spokesman Magaji Musa Maji'a told Reuters news agency.

"One policeman was shot on the leg and he is receiving treatment in hospital," he said.

Resident Bala Salisu told the AFP news agency he had just arrived home in time for a curfew when he heard a loud blast.

"Shortly, gunshots followed. From what I heard it sounded like a shoot-out," he said.

A Reuters reporter in the area said the explosion - so powerful it shook windows - was followed by a sustained gun battle which lasted more than an hour.

Magaji Musa Maji'a said that the police officers eventually got control of the station.

Meanwhile, in Maiduguri - Boko Haram's heartland - a series of explosions were heard in the market and black smoke was seen billowing from the area.

"I heard five explosions around the market and plumes of black smoke... filled the air," nearby resident Aisha Goni told AFP.

"The market is still on fire. Soldiers and policeman have taken over the whole area."