Religion of Peace Update

This is what real persecution looks like:

A prominent Nigerian reverend has revealed Islamist terror group Boko Haram destroyed over 180 churches in the West African country following its capture of towns and villages in the north-eastern states of Borno and Adamawa.

Reverend Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State, said the group’s seizure of territory in both states has seen 185 churches torched and over 190,000 people displaced by their insurgency.

In his statement, Obasogie said Boko Haram’s “ransacking and torching” of churches had forced priests to leave their homes for two months while displaced civilians were still unable to return to their towns and villages.

The last Ralph Peters novel I read was The War After Armageddon, in which a radicalized “United God-Fearing States of America” wages all-out war against the Islamic world, following the nuclear destruction of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It was an exhausting read, and not just because of the constant and vivid scenes of brutal combat.

It’s far-fetched of course, and a work of fiction. But it’s an all-out religious war that we’re trying to avoid by working with more moderate and modern elements within the Islamic world, and why backing elements such as the Muslim Brotherhood or the Iranian government is a mistake. Gangs like Boko Haram would make Peters’ fictional vision come true if given the chance — or maybe it would be more accurate to say, “if given enough chances.”