Muslim militants kill 28 Christians in northern Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya—Twenty-eight Christians were brutally murdered Saturday morning in Mandera, a town in northern Kenya, by Muslim militants belonging to the Somali-based al-Shabaab terror group.

In a message on social media, al-Shabaab took responsibility for the killings, saying they were in revenge for the raid by Kenyan security forces on two mosques in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. Government officials said suspected militants were using the mosques to plan attacks against innocent Kenyans. During the raid, they found an assortment of weapons in the two mosques, which government officials said had been taken over by radical Muslim youth.

On Friday, a day of prayer and worship for Muslims, the two mosques remained closed and worshippers were blocked from entering. The buildings are now being regarded as crime scenes until investigations by security forces are complete.

According to witnesses who survived the early morning attack in Mandera, a town near the Kenya-Somalia border, the militants hijacked a bus that was heading to Nairobi. They tried to drive it towards Somalia, but because it had recently rained, the bus got bogged down in mud.

The militants ordered everyone off the bus and asked them to recite the Quran. Those who could not were separated and shot because they were all suspected to be Christians. Media reports said those who were killed were mostly civil servants—police officers, health workers, and teachers—who were traveling to join their families for the upcoming Christmas festivities.

The killings fall into a now familiar pattern of attempts to cause tension and hatred between Christians and Muslims. The militants claim they are killing to defend Islam, which they say is under threat from Christianity.

“The Mujahedeen successfully carried out an operation near Mandera early this morning, which resulted in the perishing of 28 crusaders, as a revenge for the crimes committed by the Kenyan crusaders against our Muslim brethren in Mombasa,” Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabaab’s spokesman, told AFP.

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa has been vocal in denouncing the radical activities taking place in the mosques. He warned the government will stop at nothing to bring to an end any criminal activities perpetrated from the mosques.

Imams who have cooperated with the government to tame the radicalization movement, have faced threats or even been killed. One cleric in Mombasa recently was forced to step down, fearing for his life. Reports indicate Muslim clerics are now afraid to lead any mosques where there have been clashes between security officers and Muslim youth.

After Saturday’s massacre, Muslim leaders denounced the attack, saying it does not represent what Islam stands for. Abdikadir Mohammed, a Muslim and the president’s adviser on constitutional issues, said it is time Muslim leaders worked with the government to counter the militants’ activities.

“The aim of al-Shabaab is to put a wage between the different communities in this country, they haven’t succeeded. … We need to take the war to them now,” he said. “Not just the war in terms of what [Kenya Defense Forces] is doing, but the ideological war.”

Mohammed called on the Muslim community to come out strongly and challenge the militants’ radical and divisive narrative. But other Muslim leaders in the country blame the government for the terrorism. They say the mosque raids are alienating many Muslims.

Wambugu Nyambura, a Kenyan security expert at Leeds University in the U.K., said radicalization is a problem that needs to be tackled in a multi-pronged manner.

“Radicalization is not only a problem of Muslims, there is Christian fundamentalism taking root in Kenya and this is contributing to the dynamics of religious intolerance in the country, and so we have to look at things collectively because it seems to me that someone is trying very hard to start a religious war in this country” she said.