Terror Trends Bulletin

There is an unfortunate tendency in the West to downplay the threat from Jihad. This is especially true when the acts of Jihad occur in the Third World and especially when the victims are non-white and poor.

This week has provided us with prime examples of this in Nigeria, where Boko Haram has continued its Jihadist terror with horrific attacks which have been little more than an afterthought in US and other Western media. For instance, on one of the news aggregator services we frequently check, Newsnow.co.uk, the terrorist attacks in Nigeria don’t even rate a mention among the 31 “Hot Topics” that are listed. Violence in Central Africa makes the list, where Christians have been fighting back aggressively against Jihad. But Nigeria, where Boko Haram has made a national sport of killing non-Muslims, is not considered important or “hot.”

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/

So what exactly happened in Nigeria this week that the media are ignoring?

On Monday, the 14th of April, two bombs set off by Boko Haram at a busy commuter bus station in the capital of Abuja killed 72 and wounded 133 civilians. As many as 40 buses were destroyed in the attack. It is actually a miracle that more people were not killed.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/blast-in-nigerian-capital-1397479416-slideshow/

This is the kind of attack that, had it happened in Europe or the USA, would have absolutely dominated the news for days afterwards. But because it happened in Nigeria, no one is really paying all that much attention. Given that Easter approaches this Sunday, there is the frightening proposition that more attacks could occur. That’s exactly what happened two years ago on Easter, as we reported here:

https://terrortrendsbulletin.com/2012/04/08/boko-haram-islamikaze-car-bomb-kills-38-christians-outside-easter-service-in-kaduna-nigeria/

Unfortunately, Boko Haram’s Jihadist attacks did not end this week with the bombing of the bus station.

On Tuesday, Boko Haram Jihadist terrorists, posing as soldiers, kidnapped 129 young girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria. Late Thursday, a military spokesman claimed that most of the girls had been freed, but it now appears that this is not the case. 115 girls are still missing, heading into the Easter weekend during which the Jihadists have demonstrated a tendency to commit atrocities.

The name Boko Haram roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden” and the terrorist group has repeatedly attacked schools and universities over the years. It is also possible that one or both of the attacks were the work of Ansaru, an offshoot of Boko Haram, though given that Ansaru members have been known to return to Boko Haram, it isn’t entirely clear that the two organizations operate completely independently of one another. Ansaru is also known as Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Lands.

72 killed, 133 wounded, 129 young schoolgirls kidnapped, all since Monday…had this happened in Europe or the US, it would have stopped all activity. But it’s Africa, so it’s hardly worth mentioning…except we have seen from Afghanistan and Sudan what happens when you let Jihadists metastasize in the Third World…