Now, in the end of October, the Nigerian Army killed 45 and wounded nearly 100 protesters from the radical Shia group called Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) when they started throwing rocks at the soldiers. The leftist reaction? You guessed it ‐ it was Trump’s fault. "Nigerian Army Uses Trump’s Words to Justify Fatal Shooting of Rock-Throwing Protesters," runs the New York Times. "Nigerian Army defends killing protesters by quoting Trump. Trump’s caravan rhetoric affecting the whole world," asserts CBS. That’s right, the whole world.
So, what actually happened? The Nigerian army’s official Twitter account posted a video, "Please Watch and Make Your Deductions," showing Trump’s speech in which he said rocks would be considered firearms if thrown toward the American military at the nation’s borders as the 7,000-migrant caravan was approaching southern border of America. "We’re not going to put up with that," President Trump said. "They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back." Nigerian army deleted the post hours later without explanation after it had caused an uproar on social media. But it was more than enough for the leftist media to "connect the dots" between the Trump’s words that suggested a decisiveness to protect American border and the lives of those who defend it with the long-lasting conflict between Sunni and secular Nigerian government.
The conflict has a long and bloody history, indeed. Nigeria is a predominantly Muslim country, and the overwhelming majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni. By most accounts, Shia Islam had little presence in Nigeria until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.