The Nigerian Schoolgirls

[Calliope]

The fate of the 224 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists is a shocking crime against humanity, and yet President Obama seems to be the only Western leader to take action.

US President Barack Obama has described the kidnapping of more than 220 schoolgirls by Islamists in Nigeria as “heartbreaking” and “outrageous” as Washington deployed military experts in the hunt for the children.

Mr Obama urged global *action against Boko Haram yesterday and confirmed Nigerian leaders had accepted an offer to deploy US personnel there, soon after residents said the extremist group had seized 11 more girls, aged between 12 and 15, again in the embattled northeast.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...r-nigerian-girls/story-e6frg6so-1226909438708

NOTHING more epitomises the unspeakable evil of militant Islamic extremism in its most barbaric form than the plight of the hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria abducted by terrorists of the Boko Haram jihadist movement linked to al-Qa’ida. The girls had the temerity to want an education, in defiance of Islamist warnings against girls attending classes. The leader of Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language of Islamic northern Nigeria, has trumpeted that “they are our slaves” and announced the jihadists’ intention to “sell them in the market, by Allah”, for $12 each.

Boko Haram’s aims, in the name of some distorted, obscurantist form of medieval Islamic extremism, are clear. They align the Nigerian Islamic militants with the evil of Taliban jihadists who shot the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012 because she, too, had the nerve to want to go to school, and the countless schoolgirls in Afghanistan who have had acid thrown in their faces by extremists for attending classes. Inexplicably, ABC presenter and Fairfax Media columnist Waleed Aly has feebly maintained it is hard to define Boko Haram. It is no such thing; its extremist antecedents and grotesque intentions in the name of Islam are appallingly clear.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opi...sing-schoolgirls/story-e6frg71x-1226909401129

 

[SirRumpole]

This is a new low, even for terrorists.

Absolutely despicable.

 

[Julia]

Why is it always the responsibility of the West to save so many international situations?

It was three weeks after the abduction of the schoolgirls before Nigeria's President, Goodluck Jonathan, even made any public comment.

Information I've come across in doing some basic searches on this indicate that help was offered by both the USA and Britain but was rejected by Nigeria.

From the BBC.

Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, makes his first comments about the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists three weeks ago. There has been growing public anger at the way the government has reacted to the mass kidnapping. Speaking during a televised debate, Jonathan promised the parents of the missing children that the government would rescue them. 'We promise that wherever these girls are, we will surely get them out,' he said

America really cannot win. If they intervene there will be the inevitable backlash of "Americans once again thinking they can run the world/be the world's policeman" etc.
What exactly has the Nigerian government itself done about attempting to retrieve the girls?

 

[Calliope]

America really cannot win. If they intervene there will be the inevitable backlash of "Americans once again thinking they can run the world/be the world's policeman" etc.

No. The backlash would be for not intervening. The action of these Islamic terrorists has been so horrendous and devastating to the parents, that we in the West can't take the attitude that it's none of our business on the excuse you have put forward. I know that there are some who say that no matter how evil these extremists are, not upsetting Muslims ranks ahead of saving these Christian schoolgirls.

What exactly has the Nigerian government itself done about attempting to retrieve the girls?

Nothing.

I admit that I feel strongly about this, but to date the only forum member, out of 144 viewers, to share my concern has been SirRumpole.

 

[basilio]

It is absolutely shocking... Totally agree Calliope.

I also have been wondering how this tragedy/disaster has not been publicised with far more venom and vigour in the past few weeks.

To be honest I think the African angle to the deal plays some part in the low publicity. For arguments sake consider what would have happened if the abducted girls were from an expatriate school in Nigeria. Or perhaps an elite white only college. Absolutely no way there wouldn't have been some very serious intervention very quickly.

 

[Calliope]

It is absolutely shocking... Totally agree Calliope.

I also have been wondering how this tragedy/disaster has not been publicised with far more venom and vigour in the past few weeks.

To be honest I think the African angle to the deal plays some part in the low publicity. For arguments sake consider what would have happened if the abducted girls were from an expatriate school in Nigeria. Or perhaps an elite white only college. Absolutely no way there wouldn't have been some very serious intervention very quickly.

It is truly gut-wrenching, but belatedly people in the free world have started to examine their conscience. But you are right, intervention would have been very quick if the girls were white.

The kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls last month has sparked an international outcry, something that only intensified this week when the leader of the Nigerian Islamist group responsible for the kidnapping described them as “slaves” and threatened to sell them.
It took time for the story of the kidnapping to spread around the world, but once it did, the building anger was channeled through social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. In the United States, this outcry has taken the form of protests stretching from coast to coast, rallies that are similar to events happening in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...erian-schoolgirls-sparks-protests-in-the-u-s/

 

[CanOz]

Amazing how my wife and I only heard about this a few days ago....

The media is pretty disgusting as well for this reporting...

I really hope a team of special forces type finds these 'religious' nuts and fills thier skulls full of lead before they do the same or worse to the hostages...:frown:

 

[SirRumpole]

America really cannot win. If they intervene there will be the inevitable backlash of "Americans once again thinking they can run the world/be the world's policeman" etc.
What exactly has the Nigerian government itself done about attempting to retrieve the girls?

It seems to me that the best sort of help would be some elite SAS types (African Americans) who could infiltrate the group and then either wipe them out or relay intelligence back to the Nigerian forces.

I have a bad feeling about this for the girls. I think it's going to be very difficult to get them out militarily without a bloodbath, assuming that they haven't yet been sold on the slave market. Maybe the West could simply buy them back and then go after the terrorists with guns blazing.

 

[Bill M]

No. The backlash would be for not intervening. The action of these Islamic terrorists has been so horrendous and devastating to the parents, that we in the West can't take the attitude that it's none of our business on the excuse you have put forward. I know that there are some who say that no matter how evil these extremists are, not upsetting Muslims ranks ahead of saving these Christian schoolgirls.



Nothing.

I admit that I feel strongly about this, but to date the only forum member, out of 144 viewers, to share my concern has been SirRumpole.

I share your concern Calliope. The trouble is that we are dealing with a corrupt 3rd world government. Surely there is a Government Police Force or Government Military that could easily go after these extremists. Well you would think so anyway. If not, then why has the Government of Nigeria rejected the help from the west? We need to get the answers to those questions.

The whole event is disgusting and gut wrenching, it should be brought to an end quickly before we have another massive killing fields.

 

[CanOz]

It seems to me that the best sort of help would be some elite SAS types (African Americans) who could infiltrate the group and then either wipe them out or relay intelligence back to the Nigerian forces.

.........Maybe the West could simply buy them back and then go after the terrorists with guns blazing.

I think you've been watching too many movies SirRumpole....

 

[SirRumpole]

I think you've been watching too many movies SirRumpole....

No, I've been watching the news, Iraq, Afghanistan, drone strikes ...

 

[Calliope]

Amazing how my wife and I only heard about this a few days ago....

The media is pretty disgusting as well for this reporting...

If we were dependent on the ABC or the Fairfax media we would seldom read anything critical of Islam ...terrorists or otherwise. But I believe that the kidnapping of hundreds of Christian schoolgirls to sell into slavery will be the tipping point to force the hands of even the most bigoted.

Meanwhile;

British special forces to aid in kidnapped Nigeria girls
Oren Dorell, USA TODAY 10:13 a.m. EDT May 8, 2014

British special forces have joined an international effort to rescue nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist terrorists in Nigeria.

A team sent from the United Kingdom will help local Nigerian forces plan operations to find the girls, who were seized by the Islamist group Boko Haram on April 14.

The team will fly to Nigeria "as soon as possible", Prime Minister David Cameron's office told the AFP news service.

The Islamic terrorists, who believe girls should not be educated, took the girls from their school and brought them to their base in a heavily forested region of Nigeria. The group's leader has threatened to sell the girls into slavery.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the British offer of help when he spoke with Cameron on Wednesday by phone Jonathan said the abduction could be a turning point in the battle against Islamist militants that have plagued Nigeria, which is split between a norther Muslim population and southern Christian population.

"I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria," he said, addressing the World Economic Forum being held in Abuja.

The British team is being sent from the Ministry of Defense and includes a senior military officer and advisers who will join liaison officers for the SAS, Britain's equivalent of special forces, based in the capital Abuja. The Pentagon has ordered 10 advisers to head to Nigeria to assist as well.

 

[chiff]

If you want to get news like this listen to the BBC at night times.Australian news services seem to be about 36 hours late.There was a massacre of 300 in a Nigerian border town as well a couple days ago.Extremists planted false information with the troops guarding the town-information where to find these girls.The troops acted on this information and left the town unguarded,leaving extremists free to enter the town and slaughter at least 300.
These extremists have gone beyond the pale,and now they have to be put down.

 

[noco]

The Nigerian kidnapped girls have been freed.

All but 7 or 8 have been accounted for.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...rian-schoolgirls/story-e6frg6so-1226887579471

 

[Calliope]

The Nigerian kidnapped girls have been freed.

All but 7 or 8 have been accounted for.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...rian-schoolgirls/story-e6frg6so-1226887579471

I think you have some catching up to do noco. The story in your link was dated APRIL 17, 2014.

 

[McLovin]

Digusting act of terrorism.

No one cares because they're Africans. Africa is a mess, the Muslims kill the Christians, the Christians kill the Muslims, the Hutus kill the Tutsis.

 

[Julia]

Of course it's dreadful. But just to reiterate:

ABC Radio did report it when it happened and subsequently.

Both the USA and Britain offered to help, apparently very quickly after the event.

What do you expect them to do when the Nigerian President turns down the offer of help?
Seems he was so unconcerned that it took him three weeks to even comment !!

And Calliope, perhaps do not assume that people do not care on the basis of their lack of emoting about something which quite obviously is appalling.

 

[McLovin]

What do you expect them to do when the Nigerian President turns down the offer of help?
Seems he was so unconcerned that it took him three weeks to even comment !!

Actually I meant that generally people don't care what happens in Africa. We'd have 24 hour rolling coverage if this had happened to a group of white girls.

We still seem to get every possible update on Madeline McCann's disappearance. In seven year's time this African girls will be long forgotten, whatever the outcome.

 

[So_Cynical]

Nigeria is a powder-keg, with a population of 160 million split half and half Muslim Christian...political and economic power has always been held by the Muslims in the north while the middle and south is dominated by the Christians, mix into that Tribalism, poverty and rampant corruption and its easier to understand why the Government needs to tread lightly.

 

[chiff]

Nigeria is a powder-keg, with a population of 160 million split half and half Muslim Christian...political and economic power has always been held by the Muslims in the north while the middle and south is dominated by the Christians, mix into that Tribalism, poverty and rampant corruption and its easier to understand why the Government needs to tread lightly.

You are looking beyond the headlines! Do you think that our news services help us with that?