Obverting outrage; obviate obnubilation ...

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[LINK Vanguard News]

[edited 13:30] Too little too late? Mrs. Obama joining the call for some action on the situation of the Nigerian school girls that were abducted FOUR WEEKS AGO by Nigerian Islamic terrorists (very surprised by the comments under that article btw). Relatively little has been reported about this until recently (with some exceptions [ABC Spanish]) despite the sudden spike in reporting [that seems like a contradiction but it isn't]; Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole called the abductions Twitter's 'cause of the day', a bit like flavour of the month; on Twitter he went further saying: "For four years, Nigerians have tried to understand these homicidal monsters. Your new interest (thanks) simplifies nothing, solves nothing." However, I am sure the school girls, as they [edit: allegedly] suffer multiple rapes every day or get their throats cut, appreciate the hashtag thought [sarc off]. Four weeks, the longer it goes the harder it will be to get those still alive back in one piece: does anyone think they are all still together, eating and sleeping happily as a group in a hall? They are already split into singles or small groups, maybe even sent to other Islamic militant groups, maybe in other countries. Small mercies: some have already escaped and others found in the forest.

Obama and his government hadn't seemed that interested; in fact they only put Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in November last year, having refused to do so on more than one occasion previously, including the 2011 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Abuja. The mainstream media’s sudden interest in the abducted girls and Boko Haram is amazing. This devout Muslim group... has been waging bloody jihad in Nigeria for years, while the U.S. government, the United Nations and the mainstream media [and just about everyone except those condemned as anti-Muslim hate mongers] yawned. And will new outrage be short-lived? These otrocities often are e.g. who recalls the Kenyan Mall attack last autumn? Who knows that Boko Haram has already murdered in the most brutal fashion nearly 2600 people in the first three months of this year? They target teachers, doctors, schools..."but above all, Christians". This is a religious war; attacks are on-going (overshadowed by the mass abduction) but have been going on for years; hopefully this latest upsurge international interest will spark some serious countermeasures: Goodluck Jonathan, Action This Day.

"It is also time for Western liberals to wake up", Well said Ayaan Hirsi Ali: "If they choose to regard Boko Haram as an aberration, they do so at their peril. The kidnapping of these schoolgirls is not an isolated tragedy; their fate reflects a new wave of jihadism that extends far beyond Nigeria and poses a mortal threat to the rights of women and girls"...[and boys, and men, and Christians].

Islamic scholars of course are denouncing the kidnapping and subsequent pronouncements by Boko Haram as "a gross misinterpretation of Islam", interestingly, even Al Qaeda seem to have the same message; what about the wholesale slaughter of Christians, burning of churches, beheadings, attacking schools, "incessant bombings and blood letting" that's been happening for years?

Multiple Hat-tip: The Trent (Nigeria's Internet Newspaper).