Amidst all the internecine squabbling between faiths, or reports of faith-induced violence, it’s nice to see some bridges built like this. As the Washington Post and the Daily Nation (from Kenya) report, a bus full of both Muslims and Christians was stopped in Kenya by more than ten armed men suspected to be members of Al-Shabaab, an Islamist terrorist organization. That organization conducted two similar attacks in 2014, separating Muslims from non-Muslims and then killing all the latter.
This time the passengers wouldn’t put up with it. When ordered to separate by faith, with the murder of Christians impending, the Muslim passengers wouldn’t comply. They were mad as hell and wouldn’t take it anymore. As the Post reports:
When the militants attempted to sort through the passengers, they told “locals” — most of whom are Muslim and ethnic Somalis — that they could get back on and be spared, according to the BBC.
They refused.
“We even gave some non-Muslims our religious attire to wear in the bus so that they would not be identified easily. We stuck together tightly,” Abdi Mohamud Abdi, a Muslim passenger, told Reuters. “The militants threatened to shoot us, but we still refused and protected our brothers and sisters. Finally they gave up and left but warned that they would be back.”
. . . Another passenger, 28-year-old teacher Abdrirahman Hussein, told the AP that some Muslims gave head scarves to non-Muslims.
Those Muslims who refused to sort themselves out were immensely brave, knowing that they could be killed. And, indeed, the militants did kill one person and wounded three others, but then fled when they thought the police were coming.
How lovely that the protective passengers called the non-Muslims “our brothers and sisters.” They didn’t recognize “Muslims” versus “non-Muslims”; they recognized everyone as members of the human family.
h/t: Susan E.
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Glad these brave people decided enough is enough & stood up to these armed bullies. It must have been a truly horrifying experience.
Yeah, it must have been terrifying!
You see similar behaviour in the armed forces of African countries that fight Islamist terrorists – the soldiers see themselves as brothers against the terrorists. It’s the way it should be.
Indeed.
We hardly have religious motivated violence. Our biggest problem is tribalism. And most of the conflicts are either tribal or related to pasture for livestock
I am Spartacus!
No, I am Spartacus!
…
Good call.
Well, that’s great to see. The lesson is, perhaps, that by sticking together extremism can be defeated.
That is the correct lesson to be learned.
Which is why, of course, the communities that these traitors to their faith (in the opinion of Al Shabaab) will suffer severely from communal punishment, to try to make people afraid to stand up to the murderers.
Someone mentioned upthread that they were Spartacus. Though the cinematic ending of everyone claiming to be Spartacus is pure fresh Hollywood spin, the historical accounts do agree that the 6000-odd prisoners captured after the final battle of Spartacus’ rebellion were crucified lining the Appian Way. “Pour,” as Voltaire once said, “encourager les autres.”
Subtlety in warfare is a relatively new invention. (See Pinker, probably.)
Made my day!
Well done. Gives me hope. I found east Africans to be wonderful people.
Oh yes. Loved my time working in Tanzania, and looking forward to another opportunity to work there.
Agreed: that stacks up with my experiences of Kenyans.
Ditto.
Who was it who said that “the best argument for and against Christianity is Christians”? I’ve always thought that if religious people actually acted like they believe their stories they could make some positive impact in the world instead of picketing Starbucks for their war on Christmas.
This is a story that every Christian bigot who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country needs to see.
As inspiring as this story is, the terrorists here are almost certainly Al Shabaab Islamists. So if somebody is starting from a view that “such a high proportion of Muslims are terrorists that we should keep them all out”, then I don’t see how a story in which half of the Muslims involved are terrorists is likely to alter that view, even if the other half are heroes.
I mean, even forgetting the bigots in the U.S. – from a safety perspective, should this story make a non-Muslim more likely to want to travel to this part of Kenya, or less likely?
Seconded.
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(This was a reply to Mike Paps, obviously.)
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That combination of courage and compassion is an expression of what is best of humanity. I’m afraid that I can only dream of aspiring to it.
Encouraging! Hope the defenders didn’t all come from the same village.
What beautiful bravery and compassion. If only those qualities were the rule among humans and not the exception, this would surely be a much more wonderful world for people to live in than it is now.
Best reflection on human nature since Hugh Thompson put his chopper down at Mỹ Lai to save innocent Vietnamese civilians from massacre.
Thanks. I hadn’t known that account.
Reblogged this on Nina's Soap Bubble Box and commented:
remember WW1 when they stopped fighting for one day?
then the Tet Offensive…. but then.. this……
When they came for the Christians … I defended them!