You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Africa: West
Nigerian Imans: Polio shots are an American Plot
2004-01-12
EFL
BY JOHN DONNELLY - The Boston Globe
BATAKAYE, Nigeria - In this village of 3,000 people, 12 cars, one college graduate and no telephones, the final push to erase polio from the earth hit a dead end....four of the village’s youngest residents, who lost the use of one or two limbs. The virus thrived here in part because of the usual obstacles to better healthcare: internal political struggles, misspent money, alleged corruption. But an unusual additional factor came into play in the hamlets along the fault line between Christians and Muslims in West Africa: Local Muslim clerics told villagers to reject the polio vaccine because it was part of an American plot.
The Globe's behind the curve on this one. We reported on it in October, from a Newsday/AP story...
Muslim leaders in hundreds of northern Nigerian communities limited or halted door-to-door polio immunization last year. They told millions of faithful in this Muslim-dominated region that the American government had tainted the vaccine with either infertility drugs or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS — statements later proved false by independent laboratory tests.
[ but independent labs use steel slides made by a subsidiary of Halliburton so obviously they are part of the plot ].
Some leaders admitted in interviews late last year that they never believed such a thing. But they remained silent, they said, in order to stop anything associated with the United States...
[ and because they don’t have the guts to stand up to the Imams ]
The U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, several said, had led them to believe that America wants to control the Islamic world,
[ or as the Globe would say, It’s Bush’s fault ]
and the polio vaccination effort gave them an opportunity to resist a U.S.-funded initiative.
"So, face! How's it feel to be without a nose? Ha! (Ow!)"
They vowed to preach against polio vaccinations as long as the United States pays for them, even though it puts their own children at risk. ’’People believe that America hates Muslims, and so whatever comes from the United States, no matter how good it is, people will reject it,’’ said Sheik Muhammed Nasir Muhammed, chief imam at the second largest mosque in Kano, the Muslim political center in northern Nigeria. ...’’What most of them are worried about now is this gulf between the Americans and the Islamic world,’’ Mabogunje said. ``To them, almost all the difficulties are caused by some Americans. It’s the only language people seem to know.’’
once again, the victims of Islam are Muslims

No skin off my fore. If they want their kids to die or be paralyzed by polio while the rest of the world is happily moving on to battling the scrourge of obesity, let them. My sympathy meter's in the shop for overhaul. Things like this just don't seem to register.
Posted by:mhw

#15  Well....Salk and Sabin were Americans.....Joooooos even.....
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2004-1-12 10:31:40 PM  

#14  In order to get them to cooperate, you'd have to do a "Brer Rabbit" on them. Besides, everyone knows it's camel shit, oil of the castor bean, and fluid from the lung cavity of a secretary bird, combined 3:3:1 and let age for twenty days, that cures polio when rubbed all over the body twice a day for a month. The camel dung and goat piss recipe only cures impotence.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-1-12 10:13:41 PM  

#13  Think they'd buy in if we told them to rub camel shit and goat piss on themselves to cure polio? Pretty good odds they would.
Posted by: tu3031   2004-1-12 9:08:19 PM  

#12  Shh. Don't let them know that good hygiene is also an American plot.
Posted by: ed   2004-1-12 8:38:26 PM  

#11  No parachutes, mount JDAM guidance systems on them and drop them on some of these imams homes.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck   2004-1-12 7:01:05 PM  

#10  Perhaps we can parachute in a few Iron Lungs.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-1-12 6:45:08 PM  

#9  What dorks. The WHO and Rotary International are funding the effort to eliminate polio worldwide. You can't do anything for some people. Well then, Sorry but FOAD.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck   2004-1-12 6:29:44 PM  

#8  The Imans didn't see that us crafty Americans knew that the vaccine would be rejected if we gave it to them. We have outwitted them again; thanks to the clever teachings of our Jewish masters.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-1-12 1:31:13 PM  

#7  Maybe someoneshould give some serious thought to hiring mercenaries to whack these imams. All this anti-American carping got old a long time ago.

If deep-sixing loony Islamic clerics isn't an option, then the next best solution is to leave them to rot in their own hell. Cut them off from the outside world completely and let nature take its course.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-1-12 1:07:04 PM  

#6   "Dang. They are onto our plot to sap and impurify their precious, bodily fluids! Curses!!!"

...Thank you, General Ripper.*S*

Mike
Posted by: Anonymous   2004-1-12 10:39:27 AM  

#5  Dang. They are onto our plot to sap and impurify their precious, bodily fluids!

Curses!!!
Posted by: eLarson   2004-1-12 10:16:20 AM  

#4  "Some leaders admitted in interviews late last year that they never believed such a thing."

I believe it was O.B.Juan Kenobe who said"Who is the bigger fool,the fool or the one who follows the fool".
Posted by: raptor   2004-1-12 9:17:00 AM  

#3  Fine with me. We'll just use the money for Polio Vaccine to hunt terrorists in Iraq. Or better yet, fund the Dean Campaign.
Posted by: Anonymous   2004-1-12 9:08:09 AM  

#2  RCrawford,

The same denial exists regarding AIDs in the Islamic world. See:

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-12/01/article08.shtml

In their own words, they realize the plague is coming and its potentially much worse than the polio risk.
Posted by: mhw   2004-1-12 8:19:19 AM  

#1  The bright side is we won't have to do anything and they'll kill themselves off.

The dark side is that they'll provide an incubator population for possibly resistent strains of polio.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-1-12 8:06:15 AM  

00:00