Boko Haram Islamists burn down whole town Baga, up to 2,000 people murdered

I think we should create an Islamic state somewhere across seas and invite them all to go there, including the ones in the US.

I don't come in this forum often but it is disturbing to me to see that there really is no Islamic faction that comes out strongly against these atrocities. The problem is with the religion itself. That is something that cannot really be said about most other religions. Very sad.

 

The U.N. can create an Islamic Caliphate just like they did for Israel... but for the exact opposite reasons. The irony would overwhelming.

 

Why not just rebuilt the Ottoman Empire? And walk away...quickly.

 

What makes you think this? Groups like Boko Haram and ISIS are evidence of exactly the opposite. These groups are murdering fellow Muslims, who we can deduce are opposed to their thinking. The non-militant Muslims, by definition, don't have militaries, so they can't really fight back. They do speak out all the time, though we don't hear much of it because people saying "killing is bad!" isn't really compelling TV news. But the governments of Islamic countries like Iran or largely Muslim countries like Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria in this case (it's actually about 50/50) do fight these groups on a regular basis. Those groups don't support of most of the people - they conquer through fear instead.

Terrorism exists because it's effective way to fight a superior opponent. ISIS is learning that governing is hell of a lot harder than blowing things up and killing people. But as long as your objective is just the latter, it's far more difficult to really stop, especially as technology continues to advance and makies it easier to kill more people with less effort. It took us 10 years to find one guy and we haven't come close to dismantling terrorist infrastructure. What exacfly can we realistically expect from a much poorer and less sophisticated country like Nigeria?

 

The problem is not the religion. The problem is the culture.

 

Africa has cultural and societal issues that could be corrupted by just about any strong ideology.

 

I saw on BBC that Cameroon launched air strikes against them. Paul Biya is taking a strong stand and trying to get the African Union involved.

African leaders don't get much credit...or press.

 

I am sure someone published a cartoon that was offensive to them. We should be more sensitive and understanding.

 

If you wanted to make that argument with Hamas or Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood, I could see the case. But it's simply not true with groups like ISIS. There's a reason they are having to terrorize every place they take over - it's the only way to get anyone to do what they want. They've taken over the towns in Iraq that should be most sympathetic to them and they can't keep control of anything without threats. They have virtually zero public support across the board.

Here is the first (and possibly only) set of polls conducted in some ME countries on ISIS.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/...t-about-islamic-state-have-surprising-results

Now, however, a trio of new polls—the first ones of their kind—provides the hard data on which to make this judgment. The polls were conducted in September by a leading commercial survey firm in the Middle East, using face-to-face interviews by experienced local professionals. The sample was a random, geographic probability national sample of 1,000 respondents (nationals only, excluding expatriates or refugees) in each country, yielding a statistical margin of error of approximately 3 percent (visit this link for charts illustrating the data).

The most striking as well as encouraging finding is that ISIS has almost no popular support in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Lebanon—even among Sunnis. Among Egyptians, a mere 3 percent express a favorable opinion of ISIS. In Saudi Arabia, the figure is slightly higher: 5 percent rate ISIS positively. In Lebanon, not a single Christian, Shiite, or Druze respondent viewed ISIS favorably; and even among Lebanon's Sunnis, that figure is almost equally low at 1 percent.

ISIS and Boko are a different class of bad guys than any of the previous usual players in Islamic extremism. They aim their fire internally, which basically alienates everyone they need to support them. AQ is in its own class with low support, but it's higher than these guys because they focus their attacks outward and use the "rally around the flag" theory by creating a common enemy. As evil as they are, AQ doesn't generally go around massacring entire towns because they know that it will degrade the support they need to survive.

(The political parties (MB, Hamas, etc) all have a more complex structure since they have relatively popular domestic social-program wings from which they finance their terror wings, so it's hard to know what people actually support and don't support with those groups).

I know it's not a popular opinion, but I suspect ISIS is going to destroy itself at the end of the day. All these other groups have a model that at least theoretically makes some sense as to how they can garner support and built a base, whether its building schools or manipulating people's emotions or whatnot. ISIS, on the other hand, isn't designed in any sort of sustainable way - they rely on nothing but fear. They are going to cause all sorts of hell while they exist, but they are going to flame out and implode on their own. I think we're already starting to see some of that in Iraq. Boko, I have no idea. I don't know enough of their background to have a real sense of them specifically.

 

What a tragedy....just horrendous and sickening to think about.

 

What a horrible tragedy. If 2000 people died that's close to 9/11 level of tragedy. Boko Haram seems to be the most cruel and blood thirsty of these groups, possibly on track with ISIS.

 

Very sickening.

Still not clear, though, what is the reason for the attacks/massacre?

 

Like Pakistan but with moar nukes.

 

The religion sets the culture with it's inconsistent by laws and message.

DD

 

I can't believe how little this is being spoken about in the media.

2,000 people!