Tuesday, October 01, 2013

COEXISTing

The war on terror receded right into a college students' hostel in Nigeria.

I'm thinking the wrong people sport those COEXIST bumper stickers. But they're doing God's work, so it's okay:

Suspected Islamist militants stormed a college in northeastern Nigeria and shot dead around 40 male students, some of them while they slept early on Sunday, witnesses said.

The gunmen, thought to be members of rebel sect Boko Haram, attacked one hostel, took some students outside before killing them and shot others trying to flee, people at the scene told Reuters.

So what angered these jihadis? Iraq? Afghanistan? Guantanamo Bay? Drones? Nah. As the terror group's name says, they find Western-style education forbidden under Islam. So they like to kill people getting such an education. And plenty of others, too, of course:

Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched its uprising in 2009, turning itself from a clerical movement opposed to Western culture into an armed militia with growing links to al Qaeda's West African wing.

But I'm sure if we just tried harder to understand them--more cow bell COEXIST bumper stickers!--we could settle our differences amicably.