A city that may be wiped out

Inconsequential news about politics, royal babies and film stars in the nude so dominate our news media, that the threat that Maiduguri, a city in Northern Nigeria. is about to be completely destroyed by Boko Haram Islamist fighters  rates only a passing mention. Maidiguri is a city of over a million people, mostly Moslem, but with a substantial Christian minority. It was established by the British as a military outpost in 1907, but the region was the centre of the mighty Kanem-Bornu Empire that flourished from the 14th to the 17th centuries. So should we care if the city disappears, its inhabitants slaughtered or enslaved? Should the atrocities of Boko Haram not be front page news? There is probably nothing we can do about the slaughter and destruction, but we should be aware of the great loss, remember a now largely forgotten part of history. Empires come and go, civilizations flourish and decline. Perhaps thinking of the fate of the Kanem-Bornu empire gives us a glimpse of the possible future of Western civilization. The fanaticism, the religious schisms, atrocities justified by  causes people believed in are real threats to Europe as well as to the Middle East and Africa. Ignoring these threats will not make them go away.