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From Michelle Vu in the Gospel Herald:
The most populous country in Africa will witness its first civilian-civilian democratic handover of the presidency on Saturday when the outgoing Christian president of Nigeria will likely be succeeded by one of three Muslim candidates in the country plagued by years of Christian-Muslim strife.President Olusegun Obasanjo’s election in 1999 ended 15 years of almost completely military rule. There are no Christian candidates among the current presidential front-runners, but Christians are said to favor Umar Musa Yar’adua of the People’s Democratic Party who is thought to be more sympathetic than the other candidates, according to Open Doors USA.
The other candidates are vice president Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party.
Christians in Nigeria and abroad have raised concern about the effect of a new Muslim president on religious freedom in the country, especially after recent shocking persecution events.
"If there's a Muslim-elected president – and the two leading candidates are both Muslim - Christian rights in that country will continue to suffer," Open Doors USA president Car Moeller told Mission Network News. "We know that Nigeria is the home to some of the largest and fastest growing churches in Africa. However, there's also a great deal of persecution going on in the northern states."
A Christian teacher was recently brutally beaten and burned alive by her students in a Muslim dominated northern town. Two days later in the same town, an evangelical church was burned.
Nigeria’s population of 135 million is nearly equally divided between Muslims and Christians, with Muslims primarily settling in the north and Christians in the south. Since democracy was restored in 1999, there have been at least 15,000 deaths due to religious, communal or political violence, according to BBC.
Yet Obasanjo remains hopeful that Saturday’s election will move Nigeria one step closer to setting up a strong democratic nation. The president along with the country’s citizens hope the federal election on Saturday will turn out better than last week’s state election where accusations of vote-rigging, fraud and violence marred the event. At least 21 people were killed throughout the country last weekend and many fear a similar scenario will take place on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.
"Let us seize the high tide of history," said Obasanjo, according to AP. "Never have we progressed this far in our democratic journey."
"I appeal to all Nigerians to exercise their civic responsibility of voting peacefully, diligently and without indulging in any malpractices."
The Nigerian federal election will be keenly watched by the world which depends on the country’s oil being that it is the world’s sixth biggest oil exporter and Africa’s biggest oil producer, according to Agence France-Presse.
"The world is watching us and we cannot afford to disappoint ourselves, our friends and the world," said Obasanjo on Friday, according to AFP.
Nigeria’s 61 million registered voters will elect their next president and more than 300 lawmakers in Nigeria’s federal legislature at 120,000 polling centers on Saturday.
The new government will take power on May 29.
One has the sneaking suspicion that President Obasanjo's optimism about "democracy" may be rather naive as Nigeria makes the transition to a Muslim administration. It certainly does not bode well for Nigerian Christians or for the rest of us in dar al-harb. One fears that Nigeria may be about to go down the path of Algeria, Lebanon, Bosnia, etc., etc. If so - what will the West do about it?
Posted by Greg at April 22, 2007 1:33 AM
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"If so - what will the West do about it?"
Little or nothing if present trends continue.
Posted by: alexon![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 22, 2007 1:47 AM
Assalamau Laikum all,
And one day a muslim will be
president in France, and
a prime minister in the UK ,
and the president of the USA (Allah bless the Amerike).
at April 22, 2007 3:19 AM
We'll see a Christian prime minister of Saudi Arabia before we see a Muslim president of the United States of America, Naseem. Neither one is very likely.
Posted by: Jonas Salk at April 22, 2007 4:17 AM
I had a conversation in a rural part of Nigeria which a local that went like this:
We were discussin the possibility of the northeners bringing their existing jihad further south.
I said "what will happen?"
she said "America will help us"
I asked "why?"
she said "because they protect freedom"
I had to explain that actually america is the opposite and gave a long list of examples of conflicts where america protects oppression and normal local (oft poor) people suffer.
During the cold war it seen as better to be opposed to "undesirable" possibly communist groups by supporting other groups. Unfortunately many civilians suffered horribly. I guess the taliban is the most famous "ally" of the US after Saddam Hussein but the list is long as it was a cold war that spilled a lot of hot blood.
I then pointed out that america and the west prefer dictators and oppression where there is oil. For instance Azerbiajan can inflict genocide on Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, Burma is inflicting genocide on the tribes in the north, Sudan is inflicting it on the tribes in the Nuba Mountains. Saudi Arabia has slavery and total oppression.
As the western elite are proud of the Arab alleged civilised past and ashamed of our alleged slave owning colonial past we will watch the arab supported North nigeria kill, rape, and enslave the South and then happilly buy the oil from them.
Posted by: exposesithlords at April 22, 2007 7:02 AM
Alas for Christian Nigerians-words such as 'Democracy & Freedom' are only words and words
are cheap as we know from our own Politicians.
Western forces are already over extended-Europe
& Britain will soon be fighting for their own lives. The old adage "God helps those who helps
themselves" is only advice we can offer plus stocking up on guns & ammunition.
at April 22, 2007 9:45 AM
Why is everyone worried about the Christians. I just heard a congressman yesterday say that Islam has lived peacefully amoung Christians and Jews for centuries. It must be the Christians fault now that it is not peaceful. Everyone knows Islam is a religion of peace!
Posted by: MadMom at April 22, 2007 10:27 AM
Yea I agree with Naseem, there will oneday be a Muslim president of the United States...The average American is a good person I only hate the ignorant, arrogant, war-loving, bear-drinking red-necks of Mostly middle america...
Al-jazeera was just saying Most Americans have NEVER met a Muslim and most Muslims have NEVER met an american and yet they think they know each other through the media, enough to hate each other LOL
Posted by: Abdullah at April 22, 2007 10:33 AM
Abdullah,
None of us here drink bears.
Naseem,
If the President of the USA is ever a muslim, I feel its time for us to write off the human race and try something else.
Posted by: Uriel Septim at April 22, 2007 10:48 AM
Let the massacre begin.
Posted by: KAOSKTRL at April 22, 2007 10:48 AM
in a word nothing unfortunately in the West it seemed like the big PC thugs are in charge and a good look at history will show that every time Muslims have taken power Christians and Jews and Hindus have lost human rights to the Muslims we have to remember that Muslims do not consider any one but a fellow Muslim to be fully human anyone else who is not Islamic is considered to be subhuman unless they convert
Posted by: godisnotallha at April 22, 2007 10:54 AM
Geesh Abdullah,
Please take Naseem to a Hotel where you can masterbate each others fantasies in private.
Posted by: William The Crusader at April 22, 2007 11:09 AM
"And one day a muslim will be
president in France, and
a prime minister in the UK ,
and the president of the USA (Allah bless the Amerike)."
yes, and that one is called the planet of the apes, where baboons like muslims take power.
Out in cinemas, near you.
Oh I forgot, cinemas are banned in fuckistan!
I hope they soon ban shoe sellers too, they sell the garments of the devil.
Posted by: FedUpagain at April 22, 2007 11:41 AM
Nigeria - just what Islam needs - more oil.
Posted by: poetcomic1 at April 22, 2007 12:18 PM
Yes, poetcomic1, the oil companies remain hellbent on developing the oil resources of this unstable, chaotic, hellish place, increasing our dependency on hostile (and mainly Muslim - hmm, is there a connection there somewhere?...naah) regimes for energy. Fools. Our government, sadly, seems completely unwilling to stop this insanity. Not coincidentally, the few identifiable Muslims who post here are clearly enemies of the USA in particular, and Western civilization in general. They are dar al-Islam in microcosm.
Posted by: commonsense at April 22, 2007 1:03 PM
I wonder how this might this affect the jihad?
Millions face famine as crop disease rages
Scientists say wheat blight that ravaged Africa is set on a course for Asia
Robin McKie and Xan Rice
Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer
Scientists say millions of people face starvation following an outbreak of a deadly new strain of crop disease which is spreading across the wheat fields of Africa and Asia.
The disease, known as black stem rust, has already destroyed harvests in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. Now researchers report that stem rust spores have blown across the Red Sea into the Arabian peninsula and infected wheat fields in Yemen. Spores have also blown northwards into Sudan.
Experts believe the disease - Puccinia graminis -will spread to Egypt, Turkey, the Middle East and finally India and Pakistan, which would lead to the destruction of the principal source of food for more than a billion people. Some observers warn that the disease could reach Egypt, which is heavily dependent on wheat, before the end of this year.
'This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction,' the international agriculture expert and Nobel prize-winner Norman Borlaug warned this month.
Black stem rust has blighted wheat production in many parts of the world for thousands of years. So pernicious were its effects that the Romans prayed to a stem rust god called Robigus.
'The Bible talks about plagues afflicting crops and these are almost certainly references to stem rust,' said Rick Ward, of the Global Rust Initiative, which has been set up to counter the new threat. When an outbreak occurred, a field of ripening wheat would be transformed into a mass of blackened vegetation.
Every few years one of these outbreaks would lay waste to entire harvests, sometimes sweeping across continents in only a few months.
But in the 1960s scientists and agriculture experts began to develop ways to counter the menace. Disease-resistant varieties of wheat were produced and planted in the West and in developing countries. As a result, it disappeared from most farms.
'Stem rust was something we felt we had solved,' Mariam Kinyua, a plant breeder at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in Njoro, told the journal Science this month.
However, a new strain of the fungus - known as Ug99 - was found in breeding nurseries in Uganda several years ago. The discovery caused alarm because virtually every variety of wheat tested with the strain was severely affected.
'Varieties that had been resistant for many years were no longer resistant,' said Wafa Khoury, a plant pathologist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome.
Within a year Ug99 was found in fields in Kenya and Uganda. The damage inflicted was severe but did not cause huge social problems because wheat is not a staple crop in either country. Nevertheless a field centre for Ug99 was established in Njoro and samples of wheat from around the world, including Argentina, Canada and Australia, were sent for testing. Virtually every single sample was found to be susceptible. 'That's what really caused the panic,' said Khoury.
This point was backed by Ward. 'The world had been safe for 50 years, but now the biblical plague that used to afflict our crops has returned. This is a very serious situation.'
The chilling feature about the new stem rust strain is the manner of its attack: Ug99 specifically targets resistance genes in wheat. As a result, it is now believed that 80 per cent of wheat varieties grown in the developing world are likely to be susceptible to the fungus. 'It's heaven for the [Ug99] pathogens,' said Khoury.
The spread of Ug99 to Yemen, where wheat is a staple, was confirmed in February by a team that included Khoury.
Now studies of wind patterns suggest Ug99 will soon spread to Saudi Arabia and the Near East. Eventually Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Europe could be affected.
'We have to breed new wheat strains that are resistant to Ug99,' said Ward. 'If we do not, then we face the prospect of countries like Egypt and Pakistan suffering calamitous losses of wheat production. That would trigger all sorts of destabilising effects, ones that could have profound implications for the West. We have to move quickly. There is no time to lose.'
at April 22, 2007 1:04 PM
I'm sure the new Muslim leader will not implement the "Islam is not to be dominated, but must dominate" idea.
That would not be "moderate".
Posted by: profitsbeard at April 22, 2007 1:46 PM
I'm not one to get gungho about movies but all Jihad & Dhimmi Watchers should rent and watch the DVD of the 2003 movie "Tears of the Sun" starring Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci.
Bruce Willis stars as the head of a US military mission to retrieve a doctor (Monica Bellucci) from the Nigerian jungle, after Muslim rebels have just assassinated the presidential family, and are on a rampage throughout the country. Hendricks is located easily, but she will only leave so long as all able-bodied individuals on her mission can come along. Waters reluctantly agrees, but soon finds that he and his group must trek the jungles with no assistance and with 5000 Muslim soldiers hot on their trail.
The movie actually opens with a female news reader: announcing: "The tension that had been brewing for months in Nigeria exploded yesterday as exiled General Mustafa Yakubu orchestrated a swift and violent coup against the democratically elected government of President Samuel Azuka. In a land with 120 million people and over 250 ethnic groups, there'd been a long-standing history of ethnic enmity, particularly between the Fulani Moslems in the north and Christian Ibo in the south. The victorious Fulani rebels have taken to the streets as periodic outbursts of violence continue all over the country. Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting or executed thereafter. Fearing ethnic cleansing, the majority of the Ibo have abandoned their homes, and are fleeing the city or searching for sanctuary wherever they may find it. For now, General Yakubu has taken control of most of the country and appears firmly in charge. There's no word yet on the United Nations' reaction to the coup, but United States forces have already begun to evacuate its embassy."
This was one of the few Hollywood films that shows accurately what a Muslim takeover of a Christian nation is like. There are some fairly grisly scenes of Muslims martyring nuns and priests as well as raping and mutilating Christians, but the action never stops.
Except for the fact that Muslims are about to take power in Nigeria democratically, the movie appears to be prophetic.
http://www.firstuniversal.clara.net/tears-of-the-sun.html
at April 22, 2007 3:51 PM
It will be interesting to see how an elected Muslim president behaves. Will he have the same eagerness to attract the electors like Western-style politicians do? Or, will he be a good Muslim?
Posted by: calatrava at April 22, 2007 4:01 PM
I see Nigeria experiencing the fate of Lebanon
exposesithlords, you should tell the Nigerians you know to take a good look at Sudan if they think the US will send them any sort of aid. They will have to do their own killing if they want to survive
Posted by: PapaBear at April 22, 2007 4:36 PM
A pig will become president of Iran before there is ever a Muslim PM in the Britain.
Posted by: wallyUK at April 22, 2007 7:44 PM
Nigeria is one of those places we could do so much good. To help the Igbo peoples and Biafria would be a real honor not the fake hope wasting away in Iraq. Real Non-muslims fighting for their freedom.
For those who do not know see:
Or you can find it in the link section on the Jihadwatch main site. Another forgotten victem of the world wide Jihad.
Posted by: greatcometof1577 at April 22, 2007 9:16 PM
They'll be a Nigerian Civil war by 2009.
at April 23, 2007 10:21 AM
Do tell Abdullah, what is a good American? One that pays taxes so that the USA can send Billions to your Muslim shitbins?
Posted by: never_submit at April 23, 2007 6:15 PM
Abdullah - you fergot bar-b-que eatin'.
Posted by: MP at April 23, 2007 7:29 PM
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