[Iran Press TV Latest] The Nigerian government has said that the West African country's inclusion on the US enhanced screening-list released on Monday is "unfair." "It's not fair! It's just not fair!"
The fourteen nations listed on the enhanced watch-list are Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria along with what the US calls "countries of interest," Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The remaining countries are Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq, though these four have not been officially confirmed.
The US enhanced screening-list and the subsequent tightening of security measures are a result of the New Year's Day botched bombing attack on a Northwest Airlines flight carried out by a 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
... who is a Nigerian national...
Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili who has been actively leading a campaign aimed to improve the country's reputation, said Abdulmutallab's act was a "one-off" and that it is unjust to brand Nigeria as a threat. "Abdulmutallab's behaviour is not reflective of Nigeria and should therefore not be used as a yardstick to judge all Nigerians. It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behavior of one person," Akunyili said.
How about the behavior of the Muslim minority in the country's north?
"He was not influenced in Nigeria, he was not recruited or trained in Nigeria, he was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria," she told Reuters.
"Except maybe by the Nigerian Taliban..."
"(He) was a well-behaved child from a responsible family who developed the ugly tendency to do what he tried to do because of his exposure outside the shores of Nigeria," Akunyili said.
| He tried to be a good Muslim boy, far from Dar al Islam, the Muslim world. And so he sought out the best Muslims, to be guided by them, and found the taqfiris who led him to Al Qaeda. Perhaps the Ummah should redefine what it is to be a good Muslim so that other well-behaved boys are no longer led astray, like Pinocchio at Donkey Island. In the meantime, let Minister Akunyili ponder the term "Nigerian Taliban", remember a certain massacre a decade ago, and become a less censorious of the world beyond her nation's borders. |