The same questions go for Muslims in Nigeria as in Lebanon and Pakistan: How much do you care about your country as you know it? How much do you care about the way of life that was still possible a generation ago, but is now under threat, and about the ideals set forth when your country became independent?
Are you willing or able to fight for them, or is your resolve so hobbled by the notion that the imposition of Islamic law is benevolent, Allah's will, and can't ultimately be so bad, that you look the other way as your country disintegrates into chaos and poverty in the name of Allah?
Islamic law not only can be so bad, but it consistently fails to deliver on its proponents' promises of peace, justice, and prosperity. And it fails badly.
Here, we may be seeing an accelerating transition in Nigeria from creeping Sharia to galloping Sharia, at the peril of the very nature of the country and the well-being of its non-Muslim populations. "Sect's prison attack raises new fears in Nigeria," by John Gambrell and Shehu Saulawa for the Associated Press, September 8:
BAUCHI, Nigeria -- A radical Muslim sect used assault rifles to launch a coordinated sunset raid on a prison in northern Nigeria, freeing more than 100 followers and raising new fears about violence in the oil-rich nation just months before elections.
The attack Tuesday night by the Boko Haram sect left the prison in ruins and showed the group had access to the sophisticated weapons it needed to overpower prison guards. Now the group seeking to impose strict Islamic law on Nigeria may want to take on the government directly, potentially bring a new wave of violence to Africa's most populous nation.
The Nigerian government is "standing flat-footed. They're on the defensive," said Mark Schroeder, the director of sub-Saharan Africa analysis for STRATFOR, a private security think tank based in Austin, Texas.
The attackers went cell by cell at the prison in Bauchi, breaking open locks and setting fire to part of the prison before escaping during the confusion with more than 750 inmates, said Bauchi state police commissioner Danlami Yar'Adua.
Five people -- a soldier, a police officer, two prison guards and a civilian -- died in the attack and six others remain in critical condition.
Members of Boko Haram -- which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language -- rioted and attacked police stations and private homes in July 2009, triggering a violent police and military crackdown during which more than 700 people died. More than 120 followers arrested in the wake of the attacks last year were being held at the Bauchi prison pending trial.
Police believe the followers freed by the attack are now hiding in the mountains surrounding the pasturelands of the rural region.
"We have provided watertight security to hunt members of this group that we believe have not gone far," said Mohammed Barau, an assistant superintendent of police.
Bauchi remained calm Wednesday, as paramilitary police officers guarded the front of the damaged prison. They refused to allow an Associated Press reporter access the prison grounds. Footage later aired on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority showed piles of broken locks, burned-out rooms and a destroyed truck at the prison.
Police and military units added checkpoints along roads heading out of the city in hopes of catching escapees. Yar'Adua said his agency had arrested more than 20 suspected followers following the attack. Yar'Adua said 36 prisoners had returned to the prison on their own by Wednesday morning, hoping to serve out the remainder of their short sentences.
Boko Haram has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim-held north. A dozen states across Nigeria's north already have Shariah law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.
In recent months, rumors about Boko Haram rearming have spread throughout northern Nigeria. A video recording released in late June showed a Boko Haram leader calling for new violence as the one-year anniversary of their attack neared. Meanwhile, police believe motorcycle-riding members of the sect are killing policemen in the region.
Cassette tapes of preaching by the sect once could be found across the north, said Mustapha Ismail, an Kano-based Islamic scholar writing a book about Boko Haram. Now, Nigeria's secret police arrest people for merely attempting to download sermons, forcing the group underground.
"With their members in so many jails and prisons, they are just trying to free them, at least for now," Ismail said.
More Islamic supremacist trouble ahead:
The violence also comes as Nigeria's Jan. 22, 2011 presidential election nears. President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian who took over after the death of elected Muslim leader Umaru Yar'Adua, has yet to say whether he'll run for office.
If Jonathan runs, it could anger the country's Muslim elite, who believe Yar'Adua would have won a second term under a power-sharing agreement in the nation's ruling party. Now Jonathan faces new pressure in trying to put down the sect without alienating Muslims or allowing security forces to conduct a violent reprisal like they did in 2009....
"The same questions go for Muslims in Nigeria as in Lebanon and Pakistan: How much do you care about your country as you know it? How much do you care about the way of life that was still possible a generation ago, but is now under threat, and about the ideals set forth when your country became independent?"
Isn't that really a question for us as well?
Mohammed couldn't read or write, so illiteracy is Sunna. And as he was a violent warlord, violence is Sunna.
So, what do we have in Nigeria. A violent, anti-education Muslim group. Surprised? No!
Nigeria: State forces caught "flat-footed" as "Education is Sin" group stages massive jailbreak
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Of course, "flat-footed" implies nothing worse than naivete or incompetence—both of which can be addressed, if authorities are otherwise committed.
But, of course, this is likely not the whole story:
...is your resolve so hobbled by the notion that the imposition of Islamic law is benevolent, Allah's will, and can't ultimately be so bad, that you look the other way...
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Authorities in Yemen and Pakistan and Afghanistan seem to be "looking the other way" in many of these cases, as well...
This is especially appalling in terms of this toll—many of whom, incidentally, were probably Muslims, as well:
Five people -- a soldier, a police officer, two prison guards and a civilian -- died in the attack and six others remain in critical condition.
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More:
Now the group seeking to impose strict Islamic law on Nigeria may want to take on the government directly, potentially bring a new wave of violence to Africa's most populous nation.
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Yes—because just *threatening* to stone pregnant rape victims to death is not "Islamic" enough, as happens in northern Nigeria now.
More:
Islamic law not only can be so bad, but it consistently fails to deliver on its proponents' promises of peace, justice, and prosperity. And it fails badly.
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Exactly. The other day a long-time poster gave the impression through her comments that she considered Shari'ah no worse than a "tough" version of law and order.
*Nothing* could be further from the truth. Shari'ah is not only brutal, it is a codification of oppression of the most vulnerable in society—women; ethnic, tribal, and-especially-religious minorities; the poor—petty thieves have their limbs amputated, while well-off murderers simply pay off the victim's family in blood money; the victims of "honor" killings, and little children—who are sexually exploited by older men, either as abused boys or as girls, who can be "married" off at the age of nine or even younger to pedophiles.
Nigeria started off as one of the more promising African countries after independence, but is now descending into the horror of an Islamic state.
"Flat-footed"
Actually, being a big nerd I instantly thought "they don't get their dex bonus to their armor class and can't do attacks of opportunity."
Which actually sounds a lot like the government, at least at the first part of the article. Then again, the article quoted seems a bit schizophrenic.
"The Nigerian government is "standing flat-footed. They're on the defensive," said Mark Schroeder, the director of sub-Saharan Africa analysis for STRATFOR, a private security think tank based in Austin, Texas."
Let me get this straight, some 750 possibly DANGEROUS criminals just escaped from a prison, and as a result 2 are dead and more are injured, and the government is not going to round up and start a major manhunt to prevent further bloodshed but go on the "defensive"?
But then the article talks of guarding, mobilizing check points and the other things a government would be expected to do in response to a major uprising and prison break, making the "defensive" comment make no sense.
If, as is not unlikely, the Christians in Nigeria -- the Igbo, and the smaller tribes in the south (such as the Ogoni, who live near to where all of Nigeria's oil is produced), and even the Yoruba Christians (and perhaps Yoruba Muslims too, far more easygoing -- so far -- than the Hausa and the Fulani Muslims) -- try again to throw off the Muslim yoke, will the West do as it did during the Biafra War of 1967-69, a war that Colonel Ojukwu called in his Ahiara Declaration (July 1969) a response to a Jihad waged against the Christians, and do nothing?
Will the West again be afraid to antagonize the Muslims or will it realize that the Christians have every right to separate themselves from those who massacre them, in the north and even, now in the center of Nigeria, as at Jos (where killings of Christians by Muslims, unreported in the Western press, continue)? Will the American government do nothing, as it did nothing during the Biafra War, to help the Christians? What if, just as Nasser's air force helped strafe helpless Igbo villagers, Arab Muslims send aid to the Muslim side to crush the Christians? Who will help out?
During the Biafra War, exactly two countries recognized Biafra and gave aid: Ghana and Israel. That was it.
How many countries will do so this time, if the Christians are pushed into an intolerable situation, and can accept it no longer?
If, as is not unlikely, the Christians in Nigeria -- the Igbo, and the smaller tribes in the south (such as the Ogoni, who live near to where all of Nigeria's oil is produced), and even the Yoruba Christians (and perhaps Yoruba Muslims too, far more easygoing -- so far -- than the Hausa and the Fulani Muslims) -- try again to throw off the Muslim yoke, will the West do as it did during the Biafra War of 1967-69, a war that Colonel Ojukwu called in his Ahiara Declaration (July 1969) a response to a Jihad waged against the Christians, and do nothing?
Will the West again be afraid to antagonize the Muslims or will it realize that the Christians have every right to separate themselves from those who massacre them, in the north and even, now in the center of Nigeria, as at Jos (where killings of Christians by Muslims, unreported in the Western press, continue)? Will the American government do nothing, as it did nothing during the Biafra War, to help the Christians? What if, just as Nasser's air force helped strafe helpless Igbo villagers, Arab Muslims send aid to the Muslim side to crush the Christians? Who will help out?
During the Biafra War, exactly two countries recognized Biafra and gave aid: Ghana and Israel. That was it.
How many countries will do so this time, if the Christians are pushed into an intolerable situation, and can accept it no longer?
Or will the United States and other Western, other non-Muslim states, stand by the Christians?
And will they do for the Christians of the Sudan, 2.5 million of whom have been killed or deliberately starved to death by the Muslim Arabs (or those who identify themselves as Arabs) in the North, what they should have done these past 40 years -- that is, stand by them, help them, and not allow those Arabs to continue to kill them and rob them of their only wealth, the oil wealth?
From the article - "Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim-held north"
Note the language used here. 'Christian-dominated'. 'Muslim-held'.
Note that the harsher, more aggressive term is coupled with the word 'Christian' and the more neutral 'held' is coupled with the word 'Muslim'.
The poor Muslims are 'holding' their territory; but the south is 'dominated' by the Christians.
Let's rewrite it: 'the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim-dominated north'.
Or 'the Christian-held south and the Muslim-held north'. Or 'the majority-Christian south and the majority-Muslim north'.
Interesting how the tone changes, if one uses strictly parallel terminology.
Now, things will have changed since 2001, but in 2001 my Christian sourcebook, 'Operation World', which combined sources such as the CIA factbook with a range of other sources of information, stated that overall, Nigeria was roughly 52.6% Christian (of various stripes), 41 % Muslim, and about 6 % traditional religions (though they estimated that the 'traditional religions' category might be nearer 13 % due to syncretism among both nominal Muslims and nominal Christians).
Breaking it down by broad regions, the 'southern zone' was about 75 % Christian, 20 % traditional beliefs, and 5 % Muslim; the 'central zone' was about 55 % Christian (note, still a majority), 30 % Muslim and 15 % traditional beliefs; the 'northern zone', which includes the state of Bauchi where this jailbreak took place, was about 50 % Muslim, 30 % Christian, and 20 % traditional beliefs.
Now, in 2010, the CIA factbook gives the 'religions' breakdown for the whole country as follows: Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%. It doesn't give details for the three regions.
But this still means Muslims are only *just* half of the population overall, and Christians and animists combined make up the other half.
So: with just half, or probably not much more than half the population in the northern states, but less than that in the middle zone and only 5 % in the south, the Muslims in the north are proposing to impose sharia over *the entire country* including the south.
And sharia mandates Muslim superiority to, and dominance over, everybody else. The Muslims under sharia will become the not-to-be-challenged-or-disobeyed slavemasters over the non-Muslims, free to trample upon them and exploit them at will, free to falsely accuse, free to kill, rape and rob.
Islam: the religion made to order for greedy, conscienceless bullies and thugs who like to stamp on other people's faces and sink the boot in for fun.