Nigeria's Buhari, Several Other World Leaders Yet To Condemn #BaghdadBombing
In the wee hours of Sunday, July 3rd a little after midnight as Muslims gathered to eat and shop at the Madi mega mall, a terror refrigerator truck detonated at the premises killing over 200 innocent victims, mostly women and children. It was the deadliest terror attack to hit the city since 2009, and the deadliest single attack worldwide since Nigeria's Dalori massacre of February 2016 ( 200 killed ) and the Nigerian Baga and Doro Gowon Boko Haram attacks of January 2015 ( 2000 killed ).
Claiming responsibility, Daesh (ISIS) alleged that the suicide bomber targeted a crowd of Shia Muslims .
A globally "unnoticed" Nigerian army coordinated massacre of as many as 1000 protesting Muslims, mostly Shia of the Islamic movement in Nigeria's Zaria city last December, with a mass grave admitted by the State government to contain at least 350 bodies , while falling into the category of recent most deadly massacres may perhaps be regarded a bit different, being conducted by State perpetrators.
While Nigeria appears to share a lot in common with Iraq as far as record-setting radical terror attacks and mega massacres goes, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari as at Tuesday (morning), two days after the attacks is yet to issue a public statement condemning the Baghdad dastardly terror attacks.
Uncharacteristic of Buhari
A day after a terror attack killed nearly 50 victims at an Orlando nightclub, Nigeria's President issued a strong statement condemning the attack.
Turkey: “We condemn in the strongest terms these criminal, cowardly attacks, wherever they might occur as an attack on all decent, democratic and peaceful people," Buhari said in a letter he wrote to his Turkish counterpart, Thursday last week, after the June 28th airport terror attack that claimed 41 innocent lives.
The Nigerian President has been prompt in condemning recent terror attacks across the western world from France to Belgium, and also did so when terrorist struck West Africa's Cote D’ivoire nation, when he called the president on the Monday after, to deliver his condolence and condemnation.
While we jettison querying sectarianism and confidently expect a sentimental condemnation of the Madi mall terror attacks from the Nigerian leader, it is observed that the current delay in condemning the Baghdad most deadly and horrendous attacks is rather displeasingly uncharacteristic.
Missing Global Solidarity
While the White House issued a generic statement condemning the Baghdad attack, there was no sombre statement by US president Barrack Hussein Obama. This was a sharp contrast to the phone call the US president placed to Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday, a day after the terror attack on the Istanbul airport where the US president said , "we stand with the people of Turkey."
US policies from the Bush through the Obama-Clinton administration are blamed for the deadly spate of Daesh takfiri terror devastating Iraq and emanating from the ravaged nation and Levant epicenter across the entire world.
Unlike most recent terror attacks affecting the western world, the recent attacks across the Middle East especially the Baghdad attacks–of monumental proportions–have remarkably failed to garner the usual global solidarity. There is no "I am Baghdad." Buildings are not being lit up and world leaders are making scant statements if any.
Do All Lives Matter?
One cannot honestly avoid asking if all lives matter. Apparently some humans are more valuable than others with Whites (Westerners) and Sunni (Sunni are majority of Muslims) lives being of "more value" than other lives.
An observer cannot avoid questioning a sectarian intonation to the global response to terror. While a recent report by the Global Terrorism Index , indicts just 4 Sunni terror groups (Taliban, al-Qaeda, Daesh and Boko Haram) as having killed 17,958 people, a whopping 66% of all terror killings in 2013 across five nations, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria, there is an obvious partiality in the global response to terror based not necessarily on perpetrators but on victims. There is silence when its Blacks and silence when it is Shia Muslims. This is a hard fact. The world first asks, "who got killed?," before it responds.
A 28-pages US document being globally campaigned to be declassified, is alleged according to US Senators and other experts, to hold information that links senior Saudi officials with 911, the worst terror attack on US soil. Declassified File 17 , written based on the 28-page document gives an insight into a link between Saudi diplomats in the US and the 19 hijackers. An openly ignored Saudi multi-billion dollar investment in financing sectarian "Sunni intolerant extremist(takfiri) and Wahhabi" radicalism around the world is now becoming an increasing focus of public conversation . But the world seems afraid of confronting the truth and continues to ignore and victimize the more common victims.
Silence And Partiality Encourages Terror
The global selection of victims to fret about and silence when it comes to others, can be squarely blamed for encouraging terror horizons and expanding the boldness of terrorists.
Believing the world does not care and that certain lives do not matter emboldens terrorists in their acts and aids their garnering of recruits and donations.
Disparity in the reactions of world leaders gives a State silent approval to wanton acts of terror. The condemnation should be blanket. The solidarity with all human and indeed animal and infrastructure casualties should be uniform.
Not poverty, but institutional oppression and disadvantagement is the lead cause of terror . We need to be careful. According to the scientific laws of Entropy, no amount of money can build what terror can easily destroy. And to destroy terror, we must be just even if it is against ourselves as the Muslim Quran says in Chapter 4 verse 135 .
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; @EveryNigerian