Islamic extremist attacks in Africa bookend the past week

First, there was the horrific attack in Kenya's capital city on Saturday, September 21. A shopping mall targeted by al-Shabaab extremists, the carnage ending four days later with nearly 70 dead and 200 wounded. The coverage was extensive in the world press highlighting Kenya's visibility as the economic hub of East Africa. What also stood out in the attack is that while al-Shabaab took credit for the bloodshed, they had recruited ideologues from many countries, including the West.

Eight days later, Sunday, September 29, another Islamic extremist group, the notorious Boko Haram (fluidly meaning "Western education forbidden") attacked a college in Nigeria's troubled northeast state of Yobe, killing at least 50 students, many in their sleep. In this instance, the coverage will likely be much briefer and certainly less intense.

At the risk of sounding like a drum once again, the common thread, in Teatree's opinion, is the vigorous, violent religious-directed action of Islamic fundamentalists. It seems like many years ago (in the 1990s) that the world heard a host of excuses for the first attacks on Western targets - "it is what happens when the West ignores the plight of the poor, it is because of the West's oppression of the rest of the world, it is the presence of Israel and its occupation of Palestine," etc. Over time, with fellow Muslims taking the brunt of the bloodshed, these rationales have fallen away. What remains is an extremist vision of utopia - Sharia law - and the use of force to achieve it, and an equally bewildering hesitance in so much of the world to focus on it clearly.

Westgate shopping mall, Nairobi, Kenya

The attack of the Westgate mall was horrific, though what stands out most in Teatree's mind is the incredible acts of bravery by outmatched police and volunteers to lead individuals out of harms way through the corridors of the mall itself. Muslim, Christian, Hindi, others all helping each other. There is something so powerful to witness bravery in action, then and there, when so much is on the line.

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Rescue efforts broke past racial space, and human bonds emphasized. Photo from tv.msnbc.com by Amanda Sakuma

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Photo from Yahoo news, by Jason Straziuso

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We've learned that this individual in the police force is a Muslim who is credited with many acts of bravery and compassion. Photo from nydaily news by Philip Caulfield

Photo from terrorfreesomalia.blogspot by rahm Warsame

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Likewise, outgunned plainsclothes police and detectives - all races - worked together in the fluid situation. www.dailymail.co.uk

Later, there always plenty of stories and analysis, much true, much simply repeating stereotypes. The New York Times captured one thought well - that while Kenya showcases much of what is modern, its depth of security is overstated. While the "wananchi" shown, there remains the spectacle of rivalry between police and security forces. And all that overshadowed by the spectacle of Kenya's President and Vice President both facing charges over their influence in violence during the 2007 elections when 1,200 people died and more than 500,000 were uprooted from their homes.

College of Agriculture, Yobe state, Nigeria.

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The northeast provinces of Nigeria have for more than a decade been battered by a series of Islamic extremist attacks, the local Boko Haram demanding a state of their own, framed in Sharia law. This latest incident was in the state of Yobe. Graphic from www.rte.ie

In the comparatively sparse reports on Sunday's attack, up to 50 mainly male students at a local college were killed in their sleep by West Africa's premiere jihadists. Very few if any pictures have turned up yet - a testimony to the difficulty of media to get to these sites, and perhaps not the urgency ... As we read in allAfrica.com, "Residents believe the attack has the imprimatur of the extremist Boko Haram sect which has in the past three years slaughtered thousands of innocent Nigerians in attacks on schools, places of worship, media establishments and security installations.

Academic activities only resumed last week in schools across Yobe state following 10 weeks of closure after the brazen attack by members of the violent sect on two secondary schools, which led to the death of 29 students and three teachers. The state government ordered the closure of all schools in the northeastern state after the attack by members of the sect on Government Secondary School, Mamudo. But Government Secondary School, Mamudo, remained closed for another two weeks for the conclusion of ongoing reconstruction work in the school, the state Commissioner of Education, Mohammed Lamin said.

The Boko Haram sect had on Wednesday and Thursday murdered at least 27 persons in two separate attacks in the border towns of Borno State, government officials and security sources said. ..."

July 6, 2013, 30 killed in a Boko Haram attack on Mamudo Secondary School

In the latest AP report, "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. "We ran into the bush, nobody is left in the school now," Mohammed said. Almost all those killed were Muslims, as is the college's student body, Usman said.

Much was made over al-Shabaab gunmen in the Kenya attack asking people if they were Muslim or not, and if so, they could flee. Yet in this tragedy in Nigeria, with no westerners around, Muslims were given no pass, rather were focused targets to make the extremists point (men, not women - who will find their rightful place later). And in fact, while western victims provoke a large international outcry and coverage, it has been the Muslim populations around the trouble-spots of the world who have borne the brunt of Islamic extremists.

As with Kenya, secondary reports just now starting to filter in include some disturbing news of a system out of whack. The necessary investment and discipline in providing security is simply not reliable or sufficient. In this case, the Nigerian government had promised police protection for schools if they would reopen after the July attacks. While the schools did, apparently the police protection did not come through, at least at this school.

In any case, it seems to Teatree that a struggle for Islam itself is underway - it is the central question underlying both the visible attacks on westerners and on the more frequent and less covered attacks on fellow believers of Allah. From recurring unrest in Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, and even Sudan itself, the internal struggle rages on this continent, and on into the Middle East.

Pakistan in crisis

The deliberate shooting a few days ago of a 14 year old Pakistani girl by a Taliban group has been well covered by the world's media. Besides the act itself, which shines the spotlight on Islamic extremists' archaic and violent view of women, education, and development, the shooting emphasizes the internal tensions of this nuclear armed country.

Malala Yousafzai

The story is straightforward as it is painful and sobering. Malala Yousafzai, a school student from Mingora, a town in the volatile Swat District of Pakistan, was known for her education and women’s rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, 11-year old Yousafzai emerged through a blog she wrote for the BBC detailing her life under the Taliban regime, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region. Yousafzai began to rise in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and taking a position as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat. She has since been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu, and has won Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.

Mingora is one of the largest cities in the Swat valley, once a tourist attraction itself called "the Switzerland" of Pakistan.

On October 9, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, and today was flown to the UK for further treatment. Immediately after the shooting, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility, saying that the incident should serve as a warning to other children who participate in “secular-minded” activities. “She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her idol,” Since then, the Taliban group has reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin.

Hakimullah Mehsud, one of the main leaders of this Taliban group that has claimed responsibility for shooting Yousafzai. Mehsud was reportedly killed in January 2012 from a US drone strike, but the Taliban deny the claim, and no concrete proof has been obtained by the US or Pakistan intelligence services

Perhaps the most welcome surprise out of this shooting was a visceral response from much of the country. A group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan have issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her, and there have been mass demonstrations against the extremists that threaten the increasingly fragile Pakistani institutions and government. The demonstrations are a reminder that there is still a sizable portion of the population that aspires for a responsible, tolerant and compassionate society.

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Schoolchildren in a Mingora school offer prayers for Yousafzai's recovery. Note that both boys and girls are in this class in contrast to Pakistan's Islamic madrassas

Children of all ages and beliefs are increasingly at risk from the extremists in the country

Young Pakistani girls in particular facing an uncertain and limited future if the nation does not address its strident Islamic factions

The size of the demonstrations, however, gives this observer hope that the country's majority could be sufficiently sobered regarding their future to demand a new approach.

Still, the larger questions, while bubbling closer to the surface after this shooting, remain.

Does Pakistani's military continue to cling to geopolitical positions such as striving for the high elevation land of Kashmir, thus diverting its assets from confronting lawless tribal areas.

Tribes embedded with or sympathetic to Islamic extremist Taliban or Al-qaeda groups control much of the western mountainous spine of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan

Will Pakistan's notorious intelligence services remain suspect as collaborators or sympathizers with the Taliban.

Pakistan’s ISI chief Lt Gen Zahir-ul-Islam

Will the Pakistan government crack down, or can it, on notorious madrassas - schools run by Islamic extremists that create an ever ready pool of young Islamic warriors.

Can moderate Islamic leaders successfully counter the increasingly strident and powerful extremist factions.

Lots of images of hardline clerics calling for protests and revenge, very difficult to find images of moderate Islamic leaders ...

And how close are Islamic extremists to accessing Pakistan's nuclear weapons.