NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, April 6, 2015, 6:15 PM
Sun Ruibo/© Sun Ruibo/Xinhua Press/CorbisMurderous
With Africa rivaling the Middle East as a terrorist killing field, Pope Francis is seeking to rouse the conscience of the world to see violence against Christians as the growing global scourge it is.
“We ask the grace not to succumb to the pride which fuels violence and war,” said Francis in his Easter Sunday blessing, urging “the international community not to stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding.”
The latest hotbed is Africa, where on Thursday the Somalia-based militant group Al Shabab murdered 148 people at Garissa University College in neighboring Kenya. Survivors say gunmen asked victims to recite a Muslim prayer — and shot those who could not.
Not to be ignored, the Boko Haram militants of Nigeria — who infamously kidnapped hundreds of mostly Christian schoolgirls last year — struck again on Sunday, this time by killing 24 fellow Muslims.
HO/AFP/Getty ImagesWill to peace
Chillingly, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently announced that he had received a pledge of allegiance from Boko Haram. There are also reports of inter-terrorist collaboration between Al Shabab and Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Looking to avenge its murdered students, Kenya said Monday that its air force had bombed and destroyed two Al Shabab training camps.
This is not just Africa’s fight, but the world’s. With their mindless bloodlust for killing innocents, the terrorists are waging war not against any single religion or ethnic group or country, but against civilization itself.