The jihad that is being carried out in Africa and against Africans and others continues on its murderous path. According to a report in the Daily Express in the UK, suspected Islamic militants in Niger ambushed a group of French tourists and their Nigerien guide at a Giraffe reserve. The six tourists along with their guide and one other person were gunned down by motorcycle riding assailants.
This is just one of an increasing number of attacks by violent Muslim groups aimed at Christians, other non Muslims, those that they believe are the ‘wrong’ sort of Muslim and foreigners. Jihad has afflicted multiple nations across the continent from West Africa to East Africa.
Up until now, so many innocent people have died at the hands of Jihadi savages in Africa in attacks that have been poorly reported in the West, that I have referred to the African jihad as the ‘forgotten’ or ‘ignored’ jihad. It seems that in the minds of those who produce our news media, the death of thousands upon thousands of Africans at the hands of jihadi savages just isn’t worth the bother of committing to pixels or newsprint.
However, this attack, because it has involved Westerners as victims, is getting considerably more coverage in the Western mainstream media than a great many other attacks where Westerners have not been involved. This to me is somewhat shameful. Whilst I, being a former press person myself, recognise that news that touches on more local issues and local tragedies is more likely to be given prominence in Western outlets, it disgusts me to see the difference in how this attack is being reported and how other incidents where Westerners are not involved are, or are rather not, being adequately reported.
What happened to the French tourists and their guides, a group of horrors bringing death whilst shouting ‘Allah hu Akbar’, is sadly not unusual for Africa, what’s unusual about this case is that Westerners were among the victims. Attacks similar to these have occurred all over the place in Africa, from Mozambique to Burkina Faso and from Nigeria to Kenya. However these attacks have rarely been properly reported or have elicited high profile political responses to them. These attacks have been all but forgotten and ignored by both the media and political class in the West.
This time it’s different. The jihadi savages have turned their attention to French citizens and that, in the minds of the Western media, makes the story newsworthy.
As many regular readers of this blog will know, I’ve decried on many occasions the failure to report on or tackle the problem of jihad in Africa. Readers may also be aware that I believe that ignoring the African jihad is foolish as the African Jihad, with its random terror, its disruption of normal life and its ultra-violence, is what the jihadis want to bring to our nations in the West. People in the West need to stand by all those who are afflicted by jihad as we all share a common enemy in it.
This attack on the French tourists is without a doubt a terrible and senseless tragedy. However, I hope and pray that some good may come out of it. The death of French citizens at the hands of jihadis in Africa may well cause more media and political attention to be paid to the problem of jihad in Africa in general. That may not immediately cause the problem of jihad in Africa to go away, but it will certainly raise awareness among the public that their fellow human beings are being brutally snuffed out with alarming regularity by the followers of an ideology who speak with a forked tongue when they refer to it as a ‘religion of peace’.
