Nigerian Christians fleeing Kano
The jihad in Nigeria continues. It is still portrayed as ethnic violence, and still blamed on Christians whenever they respond, but the attacks all originated in jihad initiatives. Note that this story does contain information about how the Muslims were incited by a preacher who told them that Nigerian Christians are acting as part of a Western conspiracy against Islam. From AP, with thanks to FreedomNowNews:
KANO, Nigeria - Muslim mobs brandishing machetes and clubs attacked Christians in the streets of Kano on Wednesday as security forces struggled to quell a two-day rampage to avenge a massacre of hundreds of Nigerian Muslims.Police confirmed at least 30 killed in strife engulfing this northern city, where thousands — mostly minority Christians — cowered in army barracks and police stations as mobs attacked victims outside. Witnesses spoke of scores more slaughtered.
"I saw them put an old tire on his neck and set him ablaze," said a 30-year old Christian, Barry Owoyemi, of a dead Christian neighbor. Owoyemi was whisked to safety by police who fired guns in the air to scare away the attackers.
Authorities ordered police to shoot rioters on sight.
The rampage exploded Tuesday following a demonstration by thousands of Muslims protesting the slaying of up to 600 Muslims by a predominantly Christian ethnic group last week in the central Nigeria town Yelwa.
The latest rioting threatened to send violence spiraling further. In an apparent response to Muslim attacks, a group of young Christians in one Kano neighborhood fired shotguns Wednesday at groups of Muslim men accused of torching houses.
"The Kano situation is an unfortunate development and just a reverberation of what happened in Yelwa," said Remi Oyo, spokeswoman for President Olusegun Obasanjo. ...
A leader of minority Christian Ibo-speakers in Kano, Boniface Ibekwe, asked police in the presence of journalists to "stop this killing today or give us six months to leave Kano peacefully."
By Wednesday evening, security forces fired tear gas and shot into in the air to disperse crowds ahead of a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
On Tuesday, Kano's most influential cleric launched the Muslim protest from the main mosque, telling protesters that the Yelwa killings were part of a supposed Western conspiracy against followers of Islam.
The May 2 and May 4 attacks on Yelwa by ethnic Tarok Christians left 500 to 600 dead in the largely Muslim Hausa-speaking town, according to a Red Cross official who traveled there. Nigerian officials — who routinely play down violence to avoid inciting revenge attacks — put the death toll at half those figures.
In February, Muslim militants were blamed for the slaughter of almost 50 people in Yelwa — including Christians who took refuge in a church.
"Were blamed"? Is there any question that they didn't do it? There is not.
There is a "conspiracy" to stop Islamofascism, called the war on terror.
Enough is enough.
Oh the poor Muslims, they can't take over lands and ethhnic cleanse at will anymore, poor things.
When are the Muslims going to understand that this barbaric violence does not win hearts and minds.
The only ones it does positively affect are those who already have a disposition towards aggression and violence - young men.
Islam is not the solution or answer for those in a quest for peace in this world or with God.
This is somewhat off-topic- for the moment. But one has to wonder if, five years down the road, when towns like Hamntramk (spelling, sorry) are primarily Muslim, we won't see the beginnings of violence like this? After all, once they have pretty much co-opted the town and surrounding neighborhoods, those churches have Got to go. And the people who worship in them.
TS. may I ask you what your facts are based on? What do you mean by conspiracy? Do you know how many christians these people the Hausa-Fulani (muslims) have killed? you are talking about conspiracy when you don't even know facts.
In Feb.2004 about 50 christians were killed in a church! the world media was never alerted! where in the world can any muslim be killed in the mosque and they will not riot?
while when the purported christians retaliated, every muslim and all non-facts-gathering persons, are shouting foul.(although I am strongly against killing of innocents)
TS and the people who may be reading this article who I supposed support your view should ask yourself this questions: why is it that in the christians states in Nigeria, the muslims are not killed? why is it that so much publicity is always given to the killing of muslims and not christians? why is it that any where the muslims are there is always killing? Who told you that the muslims are poor in Nigeria? who has been controlling Nigeria since independence and how many times the christians had been in power and for how long? I supposed that you are among few people in this world who can be easily deceived or cajoled with what you see without any relative reasonable verification.
Take Sudan for example, christians are being persecuted daily? What do you say about that?
One thing I know about fanatical muslims is that they have no message to preach but to kill. Ask them what their message is? and they will only shout Allah-u-akbar the more.
TS let me tell you this, I am used to the muslim and I know what they can do. when they are winning they will say the mayhem was caused by hoodlums while if any simple thing infringes them, or somebody talk about their religion, they will shout foul and threaten to kill you.Can't they (muslims)be fair for once?
Do you think that if muslims(fanatics) have power like the United States, they wouldn't have killed any body the count as infidels?
One way to see things is to see them as a worldwide conspiraycy agaisnt nuslims.
Western Christians, African Christians, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Thailand, Jews all over the world, atheists all over the world.
They are ALL evil and against islam.
The more reasonable conclussion is that it is something in Islam that causes problems when muslims meet other cultures.
D.S - hold up on the friendly fire. My take on TS's comment is that s/he was mocking the Islamic Supremacists who cry 'conspiracy' every time they don't get what they want, or when something bad they do gets any press.
Gangs in Fair Fax Va. use Machetes to attack people at a mall sound Familiar?
Black's Riot in America is Farrakan behind? Remember in 91 the L.A. riots to take out Bush 41 also remember he went to Iraq before the Iraq war to pledge to Saddamn and it was his group who posted those fake pictures in the Globe
Oil For Food seams foot dragging by Bremmer? Bremmer summer house in France? who's side is the State department on?
An Arab on fox news today said that he did not know who hessbella was? he said Arab Americans are worried about other American Suspensions? Not to worried about the Killing of Mr. Berg and cutting a mans head off.
We are Winning!
REmember a gun in hand is worth 2 cops on the Phone!!!!
Part of the American Tribe
God bless the USA and her fighting Forces and All who Fight with her give them Sterngth and Courage to stay the course to Victory Amen
Hold on a sec...the Christians were attacked while taking refuge in a CHURCH...and the US army is pussyfooting aroung their "holy" mosques...guess if they will attack Christians in a church then the mosques are fair game.
LOL, that is what I have to say. It's outrageous how blind you people are...when 630 muslims were being slaughtered on the streets some days ago no one said anything. Now when they are showing their rage and anger, they are the "bad guys"...It seems like a christian life is better than a muslims?
I just wish the people posting things- like Alex- would stick around long enough to do some reading here. Maybe they'd take notice that the Muslims have been persecuting and killing the Christians for decades in this and other countries- and this Always happens whenever the Muslims become a Majority in any country.
Alex, A Christians' life, a Bhuddists' life, an atheists' life, Anyone's life, is better when Islam is not the main religion of a country. Read your history. And go back further than the last commentary by a Muslim.
Alex
WE are teaching the Chirstians to fight back we saw your kind kill 2,000,000 you can only lie to yourselfs we see who you realy are we see you burn churches all over the world we see how your kind uses machetes to cut chirstians, and we Saw the Monsters who cut of the head of Mr. Breg and will not allow this to happen any more. Either you are with us or against us. American has Awaken and you will not like desterbing her sleep
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who fight with her give them strenght and courage to stay the Course to Victory Amen
God Bless D.Rumsfeld and G.W. Bush amen
Alex, I dont think your facts are right at all! I will take you back to history. In 1980, these same muslims burnt christians and hacked them down in their churches in kaduna and kano states of Nigeria. That was when the problems started in Nigeria. Alex, I should have been very happy if you've had your facts cleared before posting insinuating messages online. In Sudan what can you say that the life of a christian worth, a bit less than Id-el-Fitril ram or a useless chicken. Let me tell you this, there has never been any place in this world that the christians or animists attacked the muslims first. It is always the muslims that want to convert everybody to their religion through unreasonable Jihad or sharia implementation. How do you think you can make everybody bow down and face the east (sunrise) everyday (5 times)? Will that be reasonable to everybody. Personally I dont think everybody will have the same school of thought to be like that!
Alex, go to history and get your self cleared before writing anything about religion in Nigeria. I presumed you're not a Nigerian that's why you are writing such, but I think I know who are.
If you think what we are saying is wrong, I will advise you to go and live in Libya, Saudi arabia or any other similar countries and try to claim that you have a fundamental human rights.
It is then you will know what oppression means and you will know that you have no alternative than to express yourself. Alex if you think you're are free, then go and live with the sharia people and you'll understand what it means to be very WICKED and be in BONDAGE!
The question that begs asking is why there isn't any help forthcoming for these poor people?? This is incredibly awful!!! This is what the Muslims will do if nobody is around to stop them. And they have to be stopped.
cair is on tv crying about this
I've read up on this story. Muslims may have enganged in these recent attacks, but the Christians have killed around 600 of them as of late. Maybe the machete manufacturers should go on a two week summer plant shutdown so the Christians can finish the Muslims off......
It seems like a christian life is better than a muslims?
Posted by Alex at May 13, 2004 12:44 PM
Well, close......Everyone's lives are better WITHOUT Muslims......
D.C. --The dry cleaner called. Your white hood is ready...
Most of the murder and mayhem committed in the name of religion is committed by Muslims and people are tired of it. Within five years Islam will be outlawed worldwide.You don't think that can happen? Watch as it does happen.
Reality, lets examine your assertion that:
“Most of the murder and mayhem committed in the name of religion is committed by Muslims and people are tired of it.” Really? Over what time period? And in what place?
To quote Andrew Sullivan:
“…This use of religion for extreme repression, and even terror, is not of course restricted to Islam. For most of its history, Christianity has had a worse record. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the bloody religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe saw far more blood spilled for religion's sake than the Muslim world did.”
I’d also hasten to add that as American’s we’ve conducted our own genocide along religious grounds, displacing and attempting to convert Native Americans to our religions and way of life, and when that failed, we killed them or sentenced them to reservations. Also, don’t forget we did wonderful things with biological warfare. Do smallpox-infected blankets ring a bell for anyone? As the Cherokee watched their elderly and children die on the Trail of Tears, I bet they were pretty tired of the murder and mayhem, too.
As for your second, rather asinine assertion that: “Within five years Islam will be outlawed worldwide. You don't think that can happen? Watch as it does happen.”
According to http://www.religioustolerance.org, Christianity is the world’s largest religion with about 33% of the population, and Islam is the second largest at 22%, with that number growing rapidly. Islam will be the dominant religion of the world in a few decades if the current growth rate is maintained.
Reality, the reality is this: Islam is too large to marginalize, much less "outlaw." At best, we can isolate the extremists and befriend the moderates. It's time we learned to play together, kids. I doen't think it will be easy, but unless you guys have another rock to call home, we don't have much of a choice.
Bob,
That's why I said people do not think it will happen. But watch as Islam is outlawed within the next five years.Islam is a cancer like the nazi fascist movement that was wiped out 50 years ago.
In a few years being a Muslim will carry the same stigma as being a Nazi. You don't think it can happen? Watch as it does happen. Ghoulish Palestinians dancing with body parts. Other Muslims sawing off a head and celebrating. These acts are so vile and so evil they will lead to the end of Islam.
Reality, I’m afraid you are dealing with a legalistic, moralistic, theocratic and political impossibility. First, you are making an extremely racist comment that “Islam is a cancer.” I think the Aryan Nation and the Klan feel that way about Jews and Catholics. You are stopping just short of saying all Arabs are evil. You are walking on very dangerous moral ground, placing you on the level of those you advocate outlawing.
To believe that an entire religion is a cancer, you must believe that the vast majority of its adherents are inherently evil and incapable of being good people. Accordingly, they were born bad, will die bad, and do a lot of bad things in the middle. I can’t buy that. That removes the concept of free will.
Nazism was practiced as a fervent, though secular political movement, and had an estimated membership of seven million at its peak. Millions willingly joined, but a great many others were compelled to become others against their will. Source: Encarta at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560927_1____8/National_Socialism.html#s8
So you figure a bit less than half of that, say three million, were “real” Nazis, and actually believed the party line. In the year 2000, there were an estimated 1,902,095,000 people of Muslim faith on earth. It took six years and 292,000 American lives to quell that Nazi threat. Want the math? As there are currently 634 Muslims on this planet for every Nazi, that means if we start today, it will take 40,634 years to subjugate them, at a cost of 185,128,000 American dead. And I'm not counting wounded.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it won’t happen.
No I don't consider all Muslims evil as I'm sure there were also some good Nazis. Islam is showing itself to be an evil fascist movement that will go the way of the Nazis and soon. I'm talking about the outlawing of Islam which will happen I predict within the next five years. Your math is wrong too and this assumes that it will take a war to eliminate Islam.If it does take a war, the US fought two wars in three years against Islamic countries it took about two months and less then 1000 US soldiers to defeat Afghanistan with very few US casualties. It took only three weeks to defeat the Muslims in Iraq. The US has suffer 700 casualties in Iraq in one year most of which have come after the ouster of the former regime.On the other hand the enemy suffered considerably more casualties and will continue to suffer casualities until Islam comes to an end.Modern warfare as fought by the west leads to fewer casualties for western armies and more for the enemy.Islam will be outlawed for certain, I'm predicting that happens within the next five years.
Even three months ago I wouldn't have said this but the things I have seen done in the name of Islam and the silence of so-called moderate Muslims has convinced me of how morally bankrupt Islam is. Islamofascists will soon go the way of fascist Nazis. Oh and quit playing the race card. You know nothing about me. Besides experience shows some of the worst anti-semites and most virulent racists are Arabs living in the Middle East.
Reality, I'll make on last attempt...
The United States didn't have to dedicate many group troops to Afghanistan because the Northern Alliance was in place, actively engaging in insurgency before we arrived, and the Taliban was very unpopular with the population at large. The lack of support for the government existed in Iraq outside of the Sunni Triangle as well. Both campaigns were essentially cake walks. Are you forgetting how many Iraqi soldiers simply walked away form theri units because they didn't want to fight for Sadddam? Some units had desertion rates over 70%. We didn't have casualties, because the majority didn't want to fight.
In both cases, the US wa seen as saviors, at least in the early stages of the respective conflicts. We aren't having to fight the majority of the population in either country. When the population is fully against an occupying power, technological superiority loses out to ideology consistantly. We found that out in Vietnam, and the Russians found it out when they went into Afghanistan. Steel is strong, but human will is stronger. And western countries, having for so long fought for personal and religious freedoms, are loath to take them away.
While we're speaking of will, just which politicians on the world stage would commit the political suicide of advocating the complete destruction of the second largest, and fastest growing religion, on the planet?
You keep saying that you are so convinced that someone wil pass the law; so I ask you: who is going to propose the law? Name the world leaders.
Once you've come up with your leaders, come up with your list of countries that would support such a law.
Once you have a majority of countries, please explain how a world that does not have even the most bland, innocent law uniformly applied globally, is going to agree to such a radical law? You'd have a better chance making abortion mandatory, or the French brave. Oh, and I'm forgetting the simple fact that thee is no world body authorized to pass such a law. And Reality, if you bring up the United Nations... well, do I have to even go that route?
Look, I'm glad that you are so certain. It is nice to have people that feel things so absolutely. Just stay a few thousand miles from me while you try to get this passed.
BTW, a few billion people want to have a word with you out back.
Bob,
I said in the beginning that people don't think it will happen, that's why it will be such a shock when it does happen. Sort of like religious fanatics highjacking airplanes and flying those planes into buildings and killing 3000 people one day in Sept. People were really surprised when that happened.I bet people were also surprised that this event led to the fall of two Islamic regimes in just a matter of weeks. Islam will be outlawed worldwide and soon.Islamofascists are going the way of the fascists that once ruled Germany, Italy and Japan. I'm predicting it will happen within five years.Oh, it should be obvious by now that your attempts to convince me otherwise have failed. So why don't we agree to disagree, five years will be here before you know it.