Islam - Current Day - Another Kidnapping in Nigeria; Another Beheading Threat in France; Another Car-Bomb Massacre in Afghanistan

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Gunmen abduct 30 students in Nigeria, police confirm,

in ongoing spate of kidnappings

12 Mar, 2021 16:12

A man rests on a pole beside the signage of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization where gunmen abducted students, in Kaduna, Nigeria March 12, 2021. ©  REUTERS / Stringer

Nigerian police have said that 30 students remain unaccounted for after gunmen targeted a technical college in the northwest of the country late Thursday night, as the shocking trend of student kidnapping continues.

Speaking on Friday, Kaduna State’s security commissioner, Samuel Aruwan, said that the militants, often referred to as bandits, struck at 11:30pm on Thursday night. 

Aruwan said that around 30 individuals remain missing after the nighttime raid at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization on the outskirts of Kaduna town, the state capital.

The police commissioner said that the army had rescued 180 people, adding some staff were among those seized by the gunmen. Security forces “are conducting an operation to track the missing students,” he added.

It is not clear which group was behind the attack on the Kaduna college, which is located just miles away from a military training academy. A local resident told the BBC they had dismissed the commotion as they often hear the sound of gunshots from the Nigeria Defence Academy.

Around 20 army trucks were seen around the college on Friday and relatives of the students were gathered at the site.

More than 800 people have been kidnapped since December in a series of raids across northern Nigeria. In a recent attack in Zamfara State, 279 girls were abducted from the Government Girls’ Science Secondary School (GGSS) in Jangebe. All the girls were released by their captors a week later, largely unharmed.

French teen with knife arrested after saying he wanted to kill teacher

12 Mar, 2021 13:07

© Getty Images / Aleksej Kuznecov / EyeEm

A teenager with a knife was arrested in the French city of Metz after he declared that he wanted to kill a teacher, local media reported.

According to BFMTV, an unnamed teen was picked up by police at Metz’s Philippe de Vigneulles College on Friday after he called emergency services and told them that he “wanted to kill a teacher.”

When police arrived, they searched the college and arrested the teenager, who, apparently, didn’t show any resistance. He was found to be armed with a knife – however, a judicial source told BFMTV that the incident could be considered more of an “educational dispute” and presumably doesn’t have any “terrorist or religious” reason.

Last October, French school teacher Samuel Paty was murdered and beheaded by Islamist terrorist Abdoullakh Anzorov for previously showing his students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo – which has also fallen victim to terrorist attacks over the past decade due to its controversial cartoons.

Car bomb kills 8, wounds 47, in western Afghanistan

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The blast targeted a police headquarters in the city of Herat around 10 pm on Friday

Published:  March 13, 2021 13:19

AFP/Gulf News

  

Rescuers carry an injured girl amid the debris of a damaged house after a car bomb blast in Herat.

Herat: A powerful car bomb in western Afghanistan killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more, authorities said Saturday, as the United Nations condemned attacks on civilians in the country.

The blast targeted a police headquarters in the city of Herat around 10 pm on Friday, damaging dozens of houses and shops, Jailani Farhad, the spokesman for the Herat provincial governor, told AFP.

"The death toll from a car bomb in the city of Herat increased to eight, and 47 others are wounded," he said, adding that women, children and security personnel were among the dead.

The interior ministry spokesman, Tariq Arian, confirmed the death toll, adding that 54 had been wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the blast in Herat had no links to their group. However, the group's insurgents are active in the western province and have carried out recent attacks against Afghan government forces.

President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban, adding in a statement the group "continued their illegitimate war and violence against our people" and "showed once again they have no intention for peaceful settlement of the current crises".

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months - including a wave of assassinations against journalists, activists and civil servants, despite the launch of peace talks between the warring Afghan government and Taliban.

On Friday, the UN Security Council "condemned in the strongest terms the alarming number of attacks deliberately targeting civilians in Afghanistan".

It comes as speculation is rife about the United States' future in Afghanistan after a two-decade military involvement in the country. US President Joe Biden is wrapping up a review on whether to stick to an agreement with the Taliban negotiated by his predecessor Donald Trump who wanted to pull out the final US troops by May.

The Biden administration has signalled that it wants to take a hard look at Trump's deal and its repercussions for Afghanistan and regional stability.

Washington recently submitted a draft peace agreement to the authorities in Kabul and to the Taliban, including the creation of a "new inclusive government," according to a letter from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that was revealed by Afghan media.

Russia has backed the initiative, as global powers ramp up efforts to secure a peace deal and end decades of war.

'Silent Night': Persecuted Palestinian Christians Kept Out of Sight

The Middle East’s forgotten Christians

Raymond Ibrahim, Front Page

This article was first published by the Gatestone Institute.  Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“The moment they [Hamas] took control [of the Gaza Strip], they started persecuting us, ruining our churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam.”

Such are the recent recollections of Kamal Tarazi, a 60-year-old Christian man from Gaza, now living in the streets of Nazareth.  Before fleeing, he tried to resist the Islamist takeover, including by calling on Muslims and Christians to unite against Hamas.  As a result, “I was jailed several times. Do you know what a Hamas prison is? It is pure torture.” 

The report adds that “the Islamic group decided to keep him alive to avoid depicting themselves as persecutors of the local Christian population, something that could potentially anger the international community.”  He was eventually released, fled the region, returned, got imprisoned again, and fled again, permanently. “I am sure there are no more than 500 Christians left in Gaza,” he offers, “and it is just part of the general trend.”

His account is a reminder that, while reports on the persecution of Christians emerge regularly from other Muslim majority regions around the world, little is often mentioned of those Christians living under the Palestinian Authority.

This is not because they experience significantly less persecution than their coreligionists.  Open Doors, a human rights group that follows the persecution of Christians, notes in its most recent report that Palestinian Christians suffer from a “high” level of persecution, the source of which is, in its words, “Islamic Oppression”:

Those who convert to Christianity from Islam, however, face the worst Christian persecution and it is difficult for them to safely participate in existing churches. In the West Bank they are threatened and put under great pressure, in Gaza their situation is so dangerous that they live their Christian faith in utmost secrecy….The influence of radical Islamic ideology is rising, and historical churches have to be diplomatic in their approach towards Muslims.

It seems that the unique situation of Palestinian Christians—living in a hotly contested arena with much political and media wrangling in the balance—best explains the lack of news from that area.

“The Persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Authority,” a report by Dr. Edy Cohen, published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies earlier this year, goes a long way in validating this supposition.

First, it documents three anecdotes of persecution of Christians, all of which were back-to-back, and none of which were reported by so-called “mainstream media.”  Summaries follow:

April 25: “[T]he terrified residents of the Christian village of Jifna near Ramallah … were attacked by Muslim gunmen … after a woman from the village submitted a complaint to the police that the son of a prominent, Fatah-affiliated leader had attacked her family. In response, dozens of Fatah gunmen came to the village, fired hundreds of bullets in the air, threw petrol bombs while shouting curses, and caused severe damage to public property. It was a miracle that there were no dead or wounded.”

May 13: “Vandals broke into a church of the Maronite community in the center of Bethlehem, desecrated it, and stole expensive equipment belonging to the church, including the security cameras…. [T]his is the sixth time the Maronite church in Bethlehem has been subjected to acts of vandalism and theft, including an arson attack in 2015 that caused considerable damage and forced the church to close for a lengthy period.” 

May 16: “[I]t was the turn of the Anglican church in the village of Aboud, west of Ramallah. Vandals cut through the fence, broke the windows of the church, and broke in. They desecrated it, looked for valuable items, and stole a great deal of equipment.”

These three attacks, which occurred over the course of three weeks, fit the same pattern of abuse that Christians in other Muslim majority regions habitually experience.  While the desecration and plundering of churches is prevalent, so too are Muslim mob risings against Christian minorities—who tend to be perceived as dhimmis, or second-class “citizens,” who should be grateful to receive any toleration at all—whenever they dare speak up for their rights, as occurred in the village of Jifna on April 25:  “[T]he rioters” in Jifna, the report relates, “called on the [Christian] residents to pay jizya—a head tax that was levied throughout history on non-Muslim minorities under Islamic rule. The most recent victims of the jizya were the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria under ISIS rule.”

Moreover, as often happens whenever Christian minorities are attacked in Muslim majority nations, “Despite the [Christian] residents’ cries for help” in Jifna, “the PA police did not intervene during the hours of mayhem. They have not arrested any suspects.”  Similarly, “no suspects were arrested” in the two church attacks.

In short, Palestinian Christians are suffering from the same patterns of persecution—including church attacks, kidnappings and forced conversion—that their coreligionists suffer in other Muslim nations.  The difference, however, is that the persecution of Palestinian Christians has “received no coverage in the Palestinian media. In fact,” Cohan explains, “a full gag order was imposed in many cases”:

The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA’s image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives.

Considered another way, the bread and butter of the PA and its supporters, particularly in the media, is to portray the Palestinians as victims of unjust aggression and discrimination from Israel.  This narrative would be jeopardized if the international community learned that Palestinians are themselves persecuting fellow Palestinians—solely on account of religion.  It might be hard to muster sympathy for a supposedly oppressed people when one realizes that they themselves are doing the oppressing of the minorities in their midst, and for no other reason that religious bigotry.  

Because they are so sensitive to this potential difficulty, “PA officials exert pressure on local Christian[s] to not report such incidents, which threaten to unmask the Palestinian Authority as yet another Middle East regime beholden to a radical Islamic ideology,” Cohen states elsewhere:

Far more important to the Palestinian Authority than arresting those who assault Christian sites is keeping such incidents out of the mainstream media.  And they are very successful in this regard. Indeed, only a handful of smaller local outlets bothered to report on these latest break-ins. The mainstream international media ignored them altogether.

Notably, a similar dynamic exists concerning Muslim refugees.  Although West European politicians and media present them as persecuted and oppressed, in need of a welcoming hand, Muslim migrants themselves persecute and oppress Christian minorities among them—including by terrorizing them in refugee camps and drowning them in the Mediterranean.

Even mere numbers—which are inherently objective—confirm that Christians living under the PA are experiencing some unpleasantry that Muslims are not: although there were approximately 3,500 Christians in the Gaza Strip in 2007, there are now reportedly no more than 500-1,300.

As Justus Reid Weiner, a lawyer acquainted with the region, explains, “The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs…  In a society where Arab Christians have no voice and no protection it is no surprise that they are leaving.”

Indeed, Christianity is, by all counts, on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth—literally, as this includes Bethlehem, scene of the Nativity—thereby giving the otherwise seasonally relevant words, “Silent Night,” a more tragic significance. 

Perhaps God is removing His people from these areas before their destruction. Is that possible?

Acapulco's Entire Police Force Suspended in Corruption Probe as Crime Surges in Mexico

Corruption is Everywhere - and I mean Everywhere in Mexico

Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News 

Mexican marines surround the Secretary of Public Security of Acapulco, Max Lorenzo Sedano, right, on Tuesday.

Mexican military forces arrested police officers and took control of the local Public Security Secretariat,

citing possible infiltration by organized crime. (Francisco Robles/AFP/Getty Images)

Surging crime in Mexico

Mexican authorities have disarmed and suspended Acapulco's entire municipal police force amidst a massive murder and corruption investigation.

Heavily armed soldiers and marines staged a daylight raid on the resort city's police headquarters yesterday, arresting two senior police commanders on homicide charges and seizing the guns, bulletproof vests and radios of the rest of the force.

Mexican Marines escort Acapulco municipal police officers who were disarmed and detained Tuesday

during an operation to check if they were colluding with organized crime. (Javier Verdin/Reuters)

The Guerrero state government issued a statement saying it will be taking over policing responsibilities in the city "because of suspicion that the force had probably been infiltrated by criminal groups" and "the complete inaction of the municipal police in fighting the crime wave."

The Pacific coast city of 800,000, once a playground for foreign tourists, is now known as Mexico's murder capital. The local murder rate is 103 homicides per 100,000 residents, one of the highest in the world.

Most of the killings are connected to the drug trade, with up to 50 gangs currently battling for supremacy.

Drug violence in Mexico has left more than 200,000 dead since 2006. Another 35,000 people have simply disappeared.

A relative of a missing person enters a site on Sept. 17 where a mass grave was found in El Arbolillo, Veracruz.

The region has been hit by bloody drug cartel turf wars, and scores of bodies have been found in

33 mass graves at El Arbolillo's 'narco-cemetery.' (Victoria Razo/AFP/Getty Images)

A 12-year federal government effort to smash the cartels using the country's army has only served to increase the mayhem, as larger organizations splinter into smaller groups scrapping for territory. 

Last year, Mexico recorded 31,174 murders, a 27 per cent increase from 2016, and the country's murder rate is now at its highest point since 1990. To date, 2018 is proving even more deadly, with almost 19,000 killings over the first eight months of the year, a 20 per cent jump from 2017.

Horrors have become commonplace.

This week, authorities in the Gulf state of Veracruz issued photos of clothing items found in a mass grave, including an infant's pants, toddler's sandals, and tiny T-shirts decorated with Pokemon and Tinkerbell. So far at least 174 skulls have been discovered in the massive pit and the excavation continues.

This undated photo from the Veracruz State Prosecutor's Office shows a piece of child's clothing found at the site of

a clandestine mass grave in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Mexico. Investigators have also found personal items,

ID cards and shoes belonging to men, women and children at the site. (Veracruz State Prosecutor's Office via AP)

The week before, local residents in a Guadalajara suburb — alerted by the stench of decomposing flesh — discovered a tractor trailer stuffed with more than 270 corpses. As it turned out, authorities knew all about the bodies. They had been using the truck as a mobile morgue for weeks because city facilities are overflowing with the dead.  

But Mexico's crime problems go even deeper.

Yesterday, the National Statistics Institute released the results of a country-wide survey on "common crime," which it defines as pretty much everything short of murder, drugs and migrant trafficking. It estimates that there were 33.6 million "lesser" crimes committed last year, 2.5 million more than the year before.

Muggings on the street or transit were the most-cited offences, accounting for 28 per cent of the total.

The Institute estimated that there were somewhere between 64,000 and 97,000 kidnappings in Mexico last year, most short-term affairs for relatively modest ransoms.

Police officers work at the site of a mass grave in Alvarado, Veracruz, on Sept. 7. Scores of bodies have been

discovered at the site since exhumations began on Aug. 8. (Victoria Razo/AFP/Getty Images)

The survey suggests that only 10 per cent of crimes in Mexico are currently reported to police.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the new president-elect who takes office on Dec. 1, made the crime epidemic a central focus of his campaign and has promised to take personal control of government efforts to halt the violence.

The rot is profound, however.

In Guerrero state alone, more than a dozen municipal police departments have been disbanded due to corruption over the past four years, including the force in the state capital of Chilpancingo, where dozens of teenagers turned up dead following run-ins with the cops.  

A pending auction of drilling rights in a rich oil and gas deposit in Tamaulipas state, near the Texas border, may end up being a bust because foreign firms are scared of violent drug and human trafficking gangs that roam the countryside.

And the spread of violence now threatens Mexico's tourism industry, which attracted some 40 million people last year and brought in $21.3 billion US.

A truck hauls away a trailer full of bodies on Sept. 15 that had been parked in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Mexico,

as a temporary morgue. (Reuters)

The country's incoming tourism secretary is pledging to counteract the bad media with more advertising campaigns and promotional events.

But even the fantasy versions of Mexico seem to be bumping up against its worrying reality.

The $45 million US spent on a Cirque du Soleil show, Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico, has been declared a "bad investment" by the new government since it failed to increase visitor numbers.

Nigerian Army: Self-declared Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau 'Fatally Wounded'

If Goodluck Jonathon were still running Nigeria, I would completely dismiss anything that comes from the Army. However, since his demise I have come to where I almost believe what the military say. 

By Andrew V. Pestano  


Abubakar Shekau, who took over leadership of Boko Haram after its founder was killed in 2009, recently said he maintains his position as leader in the group despite contradicting claims. The Nigerian Army on Monday said Shekau was "fatally wounded" in an airstrike conducted last week. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice

ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The Nigerian Army said an airstrike carried out last week "fatally wounded" self-proclaimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.

Nigerian Army Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, acting director of the army's public relations division, said Monday the "unprecedented and spectacular air raid" conducted on Friday by the Nigerian air force killed "some key leaders of the Boko Haram terrorists" while others were "fatally wounded."

"Those Boko Haram terrorists commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others," the army colonel wrote. "While their leader, so-called 'Abubakar Shekau,' is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders. Several other terrorists were also wounded."

If this is true it is good news. With Shekau being ousted as leader there was a good probability that he could have started a competing terror group with his and Boko Haram each trying to out-do the other. That, if possible, would have made life even more difficult for the good people of northeast Nigeria. It would also have split military resources fighting against them. Let's hope 'fatally wounded' is an accurate description of Shekau's injuries.

Shekau became leader of Boko Haram after its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in 2009 -- when the militant Islamist group first began its campaign of mass kidnappings, executions, suicide bombings and assaults on remote military bases and villages. More than 20,000 people have been killed and millions have fled Nigeria due to the fighting that created a humanitarian crisis.

Boko Haram would later pledge allegiance to the Islamic State -- becoming the self-proclaimed caliphate's West Africa province.

Earlier this month, Shekau said in a video he remained the leader of Boko Haram despite contradicting claims published in an Islamic State magazine, also vowing to continue fighting. At that time, the Islamic State declared Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the son of founder Yusuf, the new "governor" of Boko Haram.

Boko Haram was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2013. The militant Islamic group seeks to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria and has ruthlessly targeted civilians.