Boko Horam, the Muslim terrorist group attempting
to establish an Islamic caliphate in northern
Africa, has launched its worst offensive to
date in the Nigerian city of Baga.
The five-year campaign in Nigeria has seen
a death toll of nearly 10,000 last year alone
and hundreds of thousands have been displaced
or forced into refugee status in neighboring
countries.
According to Amnesty International, this most
recent attack on January 3 in the province
of Borno near the Chad border may have raised
the death toll by upwards of 2000 persons.
There were so many dead, that aid workers
were forced to leave hundreds of unidentified
bodies in the fields to rot.
Many victims had been shot as they hid in
bushes.
Others were burned alive in their homes while
many more drowned attempting to swim across
Lake Chad to the neighboring country of the
same name.
In a statement made by Daniel Eyre on behalf
of Amnesty International, the Nigerian researcher
said: "If reports that the town was largely
razed to the ground and that hundreds or even
as many as 2,000 civilians were killed are
true, this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation
of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught."
If Boko Haram is able to hold the city, it
gives them strategic access for incursions
into neighboring Chad.
As is the case with many government buildings,
the Florida State Capitol has been a battleground
for different understandings of religious
freedom.
In previous years, protests, including lawsuits,
have been lodged against religious displays
that many felt represented an imposition of
specific religious beliefs on the public.
In 2013, in order to avoid this problem, Florida
designated a special area referred to as the
“free speech zone” where anyone could
erect displays of their own faiths.
An atheist group calling itself The Satanic
Temple took advantage of this new policy and
erected a display which included comedic references
to religion such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
At first, state officials did not allow the
exhibit to remain.
But, during this past holiday season, threats
of legal action from Americans United for
Separation of Church and State caused the
state’s Department of Management Services
to reverse its stance and allow a depiction
of an angel crashing into a sea of flames
with a message reading “Happy Holidays from
the Satanic Temple” to be shown.
One local Catholic woman, 54-year-old Susan
Hemeryck, saying that she “couldn’t allow
that to happen” took matters into her own
hands and pulled the display down.
An officer attempted to stop her, but she
persisted and was placed under arrest, but
not before essentially demolishing the offending
display.
When he saw the damage done, John Porgal of
American Atheists stated that although they
did not like the Christian displays that had
been there in the past, they tolerated them
and acted within the law, erecting their own
anti-religious display as an alternative to
engaging in vandalism.
The damaged atheist display was left in its
demolished state.
Mr. Porgal said that “as a sign of what
the religious right's idea of tolerance is.”
A representative for the group who had installed
the original Christian manger display said
that they did not approve of what Hemeryck
had done, even though they found the competing
display offensive.
Hemeryck, who will face charges of criminal
mischief, says that her only regret is that
she did not damage the crashing angel display
even more effectively.
