Islamic extremists don't discriminate; they kill anyone and everyone

Walt has given up keeping score -- too many games in progress -- but notes two more massacres in Africa and Asia, and that's just within the last 24 hours.

As if the body counters in Pakistan weren't busy enough with last weekend's bombing outside an Anglican church (not forgetting this week's earthquake) they now have to hustle back to Peshawar, where twin blasts killed 33 people and wounded 70 today.

Although no-one has claimed responsibility for today's bombings, the style of the massacre -- suicide bombs exploded near a mosque and a crowded market -- is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the Taliban. In case no-one noticed, Reuters tells us "Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban."

Reuters also quotes "one woman in a long headscarf" ["niqab" surely. Ed.] as wailing "Who is burning Peshawar, who is burning Peshawar?" Answers on the back of a postage stamp to Mr. Nawaz Sharif, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in the most dangerous country in Africa [By whose account? Ed.] Islamist gunmen have attacked the Yobe State College of Agriculture in northeastern Nigeria, killing 44 students, or maybe it was 50. Casualty figures vary, but a local politician told the BBC that two vanloads of bodies had been taken to a hospital in the state capital.

The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory. Yobe state and most of northern Nigeria is under a state of emergency because of an insurgency by the Boko Haram group of Islamic fundamentalists.

They are fighting (so they say) to overthrow Nigeria's government and create an Islamic state. To this end, they've been attacking schools which teach "unIslamic things", regardless of whether the students are Muslims or "infidels". This, they say, will somehow weaken the Great Satan -- the USA -- and thus... well, as with most of what happens in Africa, the point is unclear.

Walt notes, however, that the majority of victims of today's mass killings were (probably) Muslims. Which proves that the Islamic fundamentalists are not anti-Christian, as many say. Well, not just anti-Christian. Seems as if they're against anyone and everyone who isn't Islamic enough.