West's policies towards Muslims need to be revised

Catholic bishop of Jos Ignatius Kaigama accused the international community of lacking determination to tackle Boko Haram, the extremist movement which has slain thousands and taken hundreds prisoner in northeastern Nigeria.

He questioned last weekend's demonstrations in France and elsewhere over the killing of 17 French citizens by extremists claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

His charges were levelled as 23 people were killed in suicide bombings committed by two women and a girl of 10.

At least 150 others were said to have died during a Boko Haram offensive in the town of Baga, in Borno state.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan exhibited lack of empathy over Boko Haram's massacres and disdain for his countrymen and women who have been killed, wounded and kidnapped by this movement when he expressed condemnation for the slayings in France but said nothing about Borno state.

He seems to have taken his cue from the Western powers who led the condemnation of the three French murderers and marched in Paris last Sunday.

The differences in reaction over the French and Nigerian cases is an extreme example of the double standard that prevails on the international scene.

Another recent example is the mid-December slaying by the Taliban of 145 Pakistani students and teachers at an army school in Peshawar. No one in Pakistan or on the international scene thought of marching in protest against this massacre that was, however, given worldwide media coverage.

There were scattered demonstrations against Israel's devastating assault on Gaza last July and August, but not on the scale of the demonstrations involving millions in France against the attacks that killed 12 at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman on a street, and four shoppers at a Jewish market.

The double standard has existed for decades. The "Third World" is seen as a violent place where hundreds, even thousands of civilians, die every year, their right to life ignored.

Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims have been constant targets, largely because they are critical of Israel and the West.

This double standard has contributed greatly to the rise of jihadism in the Arab and Muslim worlds and among Muslims living in the West.

The double standard could be highly dangerous if events like the attacks in Paris, given worldwide, non-stop publicity, prompt other angry, ignored young men and women to launch fresh attacks in Western capitals.

For some months, "terrorism" experts and intelligence agencies have been warning that Western returnees from the war in Syria and Iraq could use their training and expertise to carry out operations against perceived antagonists, key facilities and even media outlets, like Charlie Hebdo.

The double standard becomes doubly dangerous when paired with the refusal of Western leaders to admit that their policies towards Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are the main motivators of jihadists.

After Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda central engineered the operation that flew hijacked civilian airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on September 11, 2001, politicians and media outlets claimed the suicide hijackers took such action because "they hate us and our way of life".

No explanation was given for the hatred.

"Palestine" was a forbidden word even though Al Qaeda founder, Osama Bin Laden, placed US support for Israel first on his list of motives for the operation.

The same thing happened when disgruntled British-born Muslim men bombed London transport on July 7, 2005. Then British prime minister Tony Blair dismissed any linkage between Western policies and what happened.

For decades, for many Muslims, Palestine was regarded as the primary symbol of Arab powerlessness, weakness and relegation to the margins of international society as second, or third class human beings.

The 2001 and 2003 US wars on Afghanistan and, particularly, Iraq — which generated similar feelings in a new generation of frustrated individuals — prompted the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, prime movers of the Paris outrages, and their associate, Amedy Coulibaly, aged between 32 and 34, to strike in the heart of the French capital.

The brothers were very young and impressionable 12 years ago when satellite television broadcast grainy green images of US bombers dropping their loads of bombs on Baghdad. The Kouachis began plotting with other disadvantaged young men in deprived satellite estates to go to Iraq to fight against the US occupation.

The Kouachis did not manage to get to Iraq but they did go to Yemen and, allegedly, made contact with Al Qaeda there.

So far, France has deployed 10,000 troops at potential jihadist targets, but this cannot be sustained.

Stepping up surveillance on militants likely to take action will not suffice. No one can identify "lone wolf" bombers and shooters if they keep below the radar.

Homegrown jihadism can only be tackled and defeated if the West abandons its double standards and double think about first and second or third class human beings.

The West must begin to address the causes of jihadism across the globe, offering serious help to countries like Nigeria, plagued by Boko Haram.

The West must also revise policies that have generated frustration, anger and feelings of impotence among young Muslims.

Palestine must be resolved to the satisfaction of Palestinians, and Syria and Iraq rescued from Islamic State terrorists.

Youths have to be given decent housing, education and jobs to provide them with dignity, a sense of fulfillment and a future.

This will not be accomplished in days, weeks or years, but unless an effort is made, the situation will only grow increasingly dangerous and deadly.