“Harassment?” Bad. Suicide truck bomb? A-OK, apparently. Boko Haram, with whom al-Shabaab is said to have a growing alliance, must be so proud. An update on this story. “Somali Bomber Who Killed 100 Slammed Education,” from the Associated Press, October 6:
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Somali suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people, including students seeking scholarships, in an attack near the education ministry was a school dropout who had declared that young people should forget about secular education and instead wage jihad.
Bashar Abdullahi Nur, who detonated a massive blast Tuesday that covered the capital in dust more than a half-mile away, had given an interview before the attack that was later aired on a militant-run radio station.
“Now those who live abroad are taken to a college and never think about the hereafter. They never think about the harassed Muslims,” he said. “He wakes up in the morning, goes to college and studies and accepts what the infidels tell him, while infidels are massacring Muslims.”
The U.N. said Thursday that more than 100 people had died in the explosion in Mogadishu.
Dozens were wounded, including Somalia’s deputy health minister. Tuesday’s attack killed some of Somalia’s brightest young minds, including students gathered around a notice board to learn about the results of scholarships from the Turkish government.
The attack took place near a building housing several government ministries, and it was not immediately clear what was the precise target. However, it is not the first time the al-Qaida-linked militants have targeted students. In 2009, the al-Shabab group attacked a graduation ceremony, killing medical students and doctors.
Jihad causes poverty:
“These attacks, which targeted some of the country’s very few university-level students, as well as the dedicated civil servants working to enhance Somali public institutions and social services under extremely difficult circumstances, are a direct blow to the fabric — and future — of the nation,” said Shamsul Bari, the U.N.’s independent human rights expert in Somalia.
Al-Shabab has vowed to increase attacks “day by day” as part of an effort to defeat the weak U.N.-backed Somali government and the 9,000 African Union peacekeepers stationed in the country.
The ultraconservative Islamist group is known for the hard punishments it metes out against people, such as chopping off the hands of thieves [Qur’an 5:38] and stoning adulterers to death [Sahih Bukhari 8.82.816]. The group considers the secular education as a form of Western invasion into the minds of the Muslims.
Suicide bombings, unheard of in Somalia before 2007, have become increasingly frequent….