When You Pay The Fulani-Geld, You Never Get Rid Of The Fulani

One Nigerian town under attack by Islamist Fulani-tribe gunmen decided that the best course of action was to buy them off.

It went as well as you might have expected. 

The Detroit News: In Nigeria, a deadly bandit attack exposes fragile local peace efforts

When leaders from Doma town in Nigeria's northern Katsina state struck a deal with local gunmen last September, everyone hoped the attacks would end and they could go back to tending their farms in peace.

The agreement held, at first. Then on February 3, armed men from the same gang charged back in, survivors said, shooting as they moved house to house, killing at least 21 people and leaving the six-month truce in tatters.

Paying jizya is not a guarantee against future Islamic bandit raids, but it did give them a hudna for 4 months, but no longer once the Islamic bandits ceased to be sated by the money they were paid.

A pity that they couldn't spend that money towards their own defense rather than using it to try to bribe their attackers to not attack them, which never really works as a long-term solution. 

So What Kind of "Militants" Wall Street Journal?

Quite the headline at the Wall Street Journal:

 So, what kind of militants are they? Dare I say it ain't the Amish?

No, they are indeed not the Amish, but Islamists. 

On top of that, people who kidnap 300 children at gunpoint and march them into the jungle are not militants, they are terrorists. Period. Flippin' Dot.

The reluctance of the mainstream media to accurately label Islamic terrorists as Islamic terrorists rather than the milquetoast and unhelpful "We can't say what kind they are, but they are militants" is rather pathetic.

Wow, An American Boko Haram Apologist

Remember, Walid wants to make sure you don't mention the I-word. Walid: Corruption, bad policy are part of Boko Haram equation

Not Boko Haram's corruption and bad policy, no. He's instead up for a game of blame everything but the stated reason for their existence - to establish an Islamic Caliphate with Sharia law.

Boko Haram, like its pseudo-Christian brethren the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has caused mayhem and bloodshed in Central Africa, should be viewed along the lines of a cult. Nigerian Islamic organizations, mainstream American Muslim organizations to ultra-conservatives in Saudi Arabia have condemned Boko Haram as being un-Islamic even prior to this latest act of treachery.

That's of course because the Kony's LRA has massive affiliation and support from fundamentalist Christian terrorists worldwide, just like Boko Haram has with Al Qaeda...Oh, wait, try another false equivalence Walid, you're on a roll.

Of course, contra Walid, American Muslims have not all been very quick to condemn Boko Haram: US Muslim Groups Won’t Move To Excommunicate Boko Haram

Ok, Dawud then blames US government policies for Boko Haram, rather than you, know it's stated motivation, Islam.

What has been missing, though, from many discussions on television and the hashtag campaign #SaveOurGirls is a discussion of the environmental factors that gave birth to Boko Haram and whether U.S. government policies in Nigeria actually helping its people or contributing to problems.

Yep, wherever you go, it's always the US's fault for the acts of Islamists. Funny how the view is in Dawud's world.

Dawud then throws out the poverty canard:

Boko Haram has waged a brutal campaign of terror in an attempt to overthrow the central government’s authority in Northern Nigeria in part due to many legitimate grievances. Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the world, yet lacks in education, economic opportunities, healthcare and security problems are rampant, especially in Northern Nigeria were Boko Haram operates.

Any excuse beside the actual stated motives of Boko Haram as stated by Boko Haram are fair game for Walid.

So Walid jumps from oversimplified strawman to strawman without substantiation, trying to hide the elephant in the room, while demanding that:

What we can do, however, from our side of the pond, besides pray, is make sure that we are not oversimplifying complex geopolitical issues and promoting misinformation about Nigerian Muslims and Islam in general.

No Dawud, we leave the "promoting misinformation about Nigerian Muslims and Islam in general" to you, and you're doing a bang-up job of it.

One day, even the average Western sap is going to stop believing the "poverty and the west causes these poor misunderstood Islamic fellows to commit acts of terrorism instead of the reasons they themselves state for their actions" canard.

Nice Scam You Got There Nigerian.

You know of the typical Nigerian Internet Fraud scams right? The emails promising you money, saying you won an international lottery, or claims there's a wire transfer or package just waiting for you to accept, etc.

Well there's a new one making the rounds.

The fraudsters are copying ads of homes for rent from Realcomp.com, then posting them on craigslist at a ridiculously below market price for rent. Then of course the sucker responds to the advertisement by email, gets sent an "application" which asks for you social security number and other info and is told to wire the money and they'll be mailed a key. You know how that's going to end right?

The problem is among the houses they're playing with, they're trying to pull this using my house. Amazingly, people ARE falling for it.

I've had multiple people come by the house based on this ad. Given that the rental amount in the ad is more in line for a studio apartment around here rather than a 3 bedroom house that should have set off some alarm bells - not to mention the international area code for the phone number the fraudster gives, and his Nigerian accent. He even tells people he's in Nigeria! And they still go with it!

I just managed to stop one poor yet nice sap from sending this scammer money that she would have never seen again - she came to see the house and I pointed out they were being scammed.

They gave me the phone number the guy had provided, and the ad, which I have since gotten craigslist to pull - and craigslist was pretty quick to take the ad down once it was pointed out that it was a scam - its down at least for now until this scumbag tries to put it up again. I've also reported it to the local police department, but obviously there's some limits on what they can do about an international fraud scheme.

So if you want to mess with this guy and try and sucker him to come to the USA and get arrested for scamming lots o' people (I doubt mine is the only house he's pulling this trick with - apparently this is a new endemic fraud tactic) here's his info:

pbishop2183@yahoo.com
phone 1-234-808-974-2766 - The 234 is the Area code for Nigeria.

It is amazing that people fall for this stuff - if it looks too good to be true - and $500 a month below what any other comparable house for rent in the area is going for is too good to be true. Then it really is too good to be true. Don't be a sucker.

The international area code should also have been a tip off. Nigeria should raise a huge red flag on any internet transaction - and sending personal info and money to Nigeria in return for a promise of a key in the mail should unquestionably have people running, not walking, away from the scam.

But, as P.T. Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute, and the Nigerian fraudsters are trying to fleece every darn one of 'em they can.