Nigerian Violence: AP, Reuters Won't Label Boko Haram a Muslim Terrorist Group
It would appear that the establishment press is determined to portray a "both sides are at fault" equivalency as much as possible in Nigeria where almost none exists.
Earlier today, Patrick Poole at the PJ Tatler pointed out that a brief initial Associated Press item from Lagos would cause a person, in Poole's words, to "come away mystified as to why these churches were subject to apparently random 'violence.'" He specifically objected to the vagueness of a sentence claiming that "Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria." Later more detailed dispatches from Reuters and the AP aren't much more helpful, especially as they both fail to tag the principal perpetrators of the violence, the Boko Haram, as the terrorists that they are.
For those who don't know, Boko Haram is "is a Muslim sect that seeks to abolish the secular system of government and establish sharia law in the country," and "is also known for attacking Christian churches."
The Reuters report by Isaac Abrak is the more risible of the two in that it only specifically identifies those who are carrying out reprisals as Christians while failing to tie Boko Haram to the latest attacks (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Nigeria church bombings kill seven, spark reprisals
Bombings at three churches in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state killed at least seven people and wounded others on Sunday, triggering retaliatory attacks by Christian youths who dragged Muslims from cars and killed them, officials and witnesses said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings but the Islamist Boko Haram group has often attacked church services in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.
... Two blasts rocked churches in the town of Zaria within minutes of each other. First, a suicide bomber drove a blue Honda civic car into a church, its pastor told a Reuters cameraman at the scene.
"Three people are confirmed killed. Others have been taken to hospital for treatment," said Reverend Nathan Waziri.
Then, attackers threw bombs at another church, killing four children who were playing on the streets outside, said Deborah Osagie, who lives opposite the church. She said the attackers were later caught by a crowd and killed.
A blast hit a third church, called the Shalom Church, in the state's main city of Kaduna, witnesses said.
... After the bombings, Christian youths blocked the highway leading south out of Kaduna to the Nigerian capital Abuja, pulling Muslims out of cars and killing them, witnesses said.
"We had to return home when we saw (the Christian youths) attacking. I saw many bodies on the ground, but I don't know how many were dead or just injured," said Kaduna resident Rafael Gwaza.
Witness Haruna Isah said up to 20 people might have been killed in reprisals at the road-block. "There were bodies everywhere on the ground," he said.
A few paragraphs later, Reuters does note that Islamic "militants" were responsible for church attacks which took place a week ago. It's almost as if there's a required cooling-off period before its reporters will accurately describe an attack attack Christians as Muslim terror-related.
At the Associated Press (note: report was revised as this post was prepared), it took Inka Ibukun and Godwin Attah until the seventh paragraph to identify any religious sect involved in any way:
Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria. The situation has led churches in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north to boost their security in a nation of more than 160 million people almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians.
Police arrested one of the bombers who survived. (Kaduna State police chief Mohammed Abubakar) Jinjiri declined to say who police suspected might be responsible, though a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has claimed similar church attacks in the past.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, is waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public. More than 560 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
The Nigerian Red Cross said young people had started protesting in Kaduna, leading the state government to impose a 24-hour curfew in a state deeply divided along religious lines. An Associated Press reporter also saw billows of smoke over a mosque in a predominantly Christian part of the city. People had mounted illegal roadblocks and were seen harassing motorists. A motorcycle rider in that same neighborhood lay seriously hurt and bleeding by the road side. Motorbike riders there are often presumed to be Muslim and become easy targets during reprisal attacks by Christians.
The truly annoying aspect of such coverage is that there is no aspect of Christianity's expressed beliefs which sanctions "reprisals" and no Biblically-based defense for random "reprisal" attacks (or for the far less frequent attacks on mosques, which unfortunately are occurring). Meanwhile, Boko Haram jihadists publicly justify their terrorist actions as carrying out Islam's fundamental tenets.
The primary message which should be coming out of Nigeria is that things would probably be much more peaceful in that country if Boko Haram weren't engaging in serial terrorism. But AP and Reuters, as seen here, seem to be doing everything they can to avoid relaying it.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
More "Workplace Violence"....
Submitted by bigdaddy on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 5:42pm.
...Sure wouldn't want to call it what it really is....
Boko Haram?
Submitted by Galvanic on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:00pm.
Any relation to Procol Harum?
Seriously, the Muslim violence in northern Nigeria has persisted for many years. I've read that in many communities, the central government no longer has control and the fundmentalist Muslim imams have imposed sharia'a. The US State Department and the MSM have been largely silent on this situation, despite the fact that Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa.
Hillary, Baracka and Foggy Bottom are silent?
Submitted by UpNorth on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:48pm.
They aren't addressing terrorism, or work-place violence? I'm shocked, totally shocked at this.
Diseased
Submitted by locomotivebreath1901 on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:18pm.
Islamism is a cancer. Reuters and the Associated (with terrorists) Press aid its spread.
Funny how those damned
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 9:39pm.
Funny how those damned Christians just happened to drag mooooooooooooooooslems out of their cars and kill them, after the church bombings, huh???
But Islam, moooooooooooooooooohammed, and the rest of the moooooooooooooooooooslems are , like their syncophant-in-kind, Boy Baraka Hussein, 'untouchable' and 'non-blameable'. Now, those Catholics and Christians and Jews and Mormons are another story alltogether.....................
I'm Outraged!
Submitted by Ogundipe S.O. on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 10:14pm.
While mourning the latest casualties report out of kaduna and condemning the federal government for being too complacent, I'm outraged to see that Jon Gambrell, AP Lagos Bureau Chief, and Yinka (which is a shot hand of Oluyinka which means "God protects me". Not Inka) Ibukun, a senior Nigerian reporter for the wire, would continue to write a State Department tailored report on Boko Haram atrocities in our country. I called Jon in February to register my disgust over a report he filed for his wire service in which he wrote that Boko Haram has been responsible for an estimated 300 deaths in the country so far. 300?
The State Department continues to pay lip service to the sect's attacks without any serious effort at labelling them a terror group and cutting their funding avenues accordingly.
I no longer go to the AP or even Reuters, albeit I'm dating one of their reporters, to get my report on what's happening here in my country, but thanks for noting what, as I told Noel Sheppard last week re a New York Times story from here "was a liberal media bias, even on stories from Nigeria", Tom.
Catholic Churches Bombed
Submitted by stunned on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 10:19pm.
I bet Boko Haram is just pissed the Church won't pay for their contraceptives if you read the LSM you would think that is a bigger crime than suicide bombings.
tired of liberal lies
Boku Haram - ideological twin of Saudi Wahabbism
Submitted by DrRJP on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 10:59pm.
General Ham reiterated his concern after the Christmas Day 2011 bombings of churches in Nigeria: "I remain greatly concerned about their stated intent to connect with Al Qaeda senior leadership, most likely through Al Qaeda in the lands of the Islamic Maghreb.”[68]
The US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence urged the Obama Administration and U.S. intelligence community in November 2011 to focus on Boko Haram as a potential threat to United States territory.[69]
Nigeria's National Security Adviser, General Owoye Andrew Azazi, has been working with other African governments, European and Middle Eastern governments, and the U.S. government to build cooperation against Boko Haram. He met in 2010 with then-CIA Director Leon Panetta, and in 2011 with AFRICOM Commander General Ham, and other U.S. officials, and was in the United States when the congressional panel was preparing its report on Boko Haram. He participated in a CIA conference at about the same time.[70] After the Christmas 2011 bombings carried out by Boko Haram, President Barack Obama's office issued a statement that confirmed that the U.S. and Nigeria were cooperating at a senior level against the terrorist group.
Their main problem is,,
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 1:43am.
They were basically one-hit wonders, cause they didnt follow up after "A Whiter Shade of Pale", unless you include "Conquistador"!
The mainstream media
Submitted by nolefan2 on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 9:46am.
simply refuses to recognize militant islamist extremism for what it is.....a clear and present danger to the world. Political correctness has clouded their vision.