Nairobi Westgate Tragedy

[Paul Wolfe]

Some people really need to re-visit the concept of love and compassion,especially the religious schmucksthat are always screaming for blood(christians,jews,muslims).

I couldn't agree more.

[Trigger]

I agree the availability of weapons is a blight.

Those bereaved families might blame a religion but they will be mistaken, they should blame the fascists who polluted the minds of the perpetrators.

[Paul Wolfe]

Nigeria: Militants Kill Students in College Attack

Suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms, the school's provost said, reporting the latest violence in northeastern Nigeria's ongoing Islamic uprising.

As many as 50 students may have been killed in the assault that began at about 1 a.m. Sunday in rural Gujba, Provost Molima Idi Mato of Yobe State College of Agriculture, told The Associated Press.

"They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels, they opened fire at them," he said...

The extremists rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military camouflage uniforms, a surviving student, Ibrahim Mohammed, told the AP. He said they appeared to know the layout of the college, attacking the four male hostels but avoiding the one hostel reserved for women.

Almost all those killed were Muslims, as is the college's student body, said Adamu Usman, a survivor from Gujba who was helping the wounded at the hospital.

...there were no security forces stationed at the college despite government assurances that they would be deployed. The state commissioner for education, Mohammmed Lamin, called a news conference two weeks ago urging all schools to reopen and promising protection from soldiers and police.

Most schools in the area closed after militants on July 6 killed 29 pupils and a teacher, burning some alive in their hostels, at Mamudo outside Damaturu.

Northeastern Nigeria is under a military state of emergency to battle an Islamic uprising prosecuted by Boko Haram militants who have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010 in their quest to install an Islamic state, though half the country's 160 million citizens are Christian. Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden in the local Hausa language.

The Islamic extremists have killed at least 30 other civilians in the past week.

Ian, I know you say these things aren't about religion, but 1,700 people killed in 3 years by a group wanting to install an Islamic state? It seems to me that they believe it's about their religion.

For the record, I edited the article above. Quotes about grieving families are not necessary to get the point across about the atrocity. I also didn't feel that Barack Obama's condemnation comment was necessary in the article, either.

While I don't believe that it is the responsibility of the United States to go into all of the these countries and fight the "terrorists" and I do understand that the US government has done some nasty things in the middle east to 'protect our interests,' I do feel that someone has to step up at some point. I don't have the answer, but it seems to be a worldwide problem where "terrorists" kill whenever they choose to gain power through fear.

I put the term terrorist in quotes, because in this particular instance, the term coward seems to apply better than terrorist. Sure they accomplish their goal by inducing fear but shooting students in their sleep? Must have been some threat to the Islamic militants, a bunch of sleeping men. Then there's the shopping mall attack, attack helpless people to induce fear.

There is no way I will ever understand killing people just for the sake of killing people. I will also never understand cowardly acts where people commit their crimes from behind masks. The "anarchists" here in the States who like to disrupt things by covering their faces and smashing windows, overturning vehicles and instigating turmoil is on short step from shooting and bombing.

Maybe every time these things happen, whether they be 'terrorists' or 'anarchists' the UN should round the people up and give them their own state and let them all kill each other. Like a giant steel-cage match last man standing wins control of the state - until the next group wants to step up and take a shot.

Sorry for the rant, but violence bothers me.