Recently in Nigeria Category

Sheik Mohammad Isa Okete was indeed fired for teachings contrary to Islam, but they involved adultery and the Ramadan fast. Note also that after another Muslim preacher, Khalifa Tijjani, denounced Okete's teaching as Satanic, Okete's followers violently attacked Tijjani, and Tijjani's followers carried out a reprisal attack. Religion of Peace!

The main point about this story, however, is this: what Okete was preaching, if this report is accurate, really does run counter to the tenets of Islam. Now consider this: how many times have you heard of any Islamic group anywhere denouncing any Muslim preacher for preaching jihad against the Infidels? I mean specifically for preaching jihad violence against and the subjugation of Infidels, not for preaching "terrorism," which most Muslim groups denounce in a pro-forma, vaguely defined way, or in a way that slyly condemns Israel without condemning jihad violence. (Take, for example, the frequent locution of Muslim spokesmen in the U.S., that they condemn "all forms of terrorism, including state terrorism: with "terrorism" left undefined it's unclear that they mean to include jihad violence -- and they don't -- and "state terrorism" refers to Israeli defensive actions against Palestinian jihadis.) There have been no such denunciations. Anywhere. Ever.

"Nigeria: 'Islamic Preacher' Sacked From Niger," by Aliyu M. Hamagam for the Daily Trust, February 9:

Minna — A self acclaimed Islamic preacher, Sheik Mohammad Isa Okete, in Niger State has been sacked for preaching contrary to the teachings of Islam. He was alleged to have said that committing adultery is permissible while observing five daily prayers, and that the Ramadan fast is not obligatory in Islam.

Daily Trust gathered that Okete alongside his followers, numbering about 100, were on January 7 attacked in his village, Shobawosi in Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State, and was forced to leave the town. The 35 year-old preacher was said to have earlier settled in Bida Local Government Area before he was forced to relocate to his village. It was also alleged that the preacher trivialized the five pillars of Islam by telling his followers to embrace only zikr, saying it is the only way to Paradise.

Problems started for Okete when another Islamic preacher, Khalifa Tijjani from Zaria, visited Shobawosi, and was asked by some Muslim faithful about the new doctrine. The visiting preacher was said to have condemned Okete's preaching, describing it as satanic.

Provoked by the statement, Okete and his followers attacked the Khalifa. And a day after that, the followers of Khalifa Tijjani from other villages carried out a reprisal attack, which forced the sheik and his followers to flee the village.

Later, 18 people believed to be followers of Okete were arrested with the help of the vigilante group in the village, and handed over to the police.

Speaking to Daily Trust chairman of the local government area, Isa Mohammad Etsugaie said when his council visited the village a day after the incident, it was deserted....

Boko Haram consistently targets people, institutions, and practices that would stand in the way of its imposition of Sharia. This time, the epicenter of the violence was a police station. "Nigeria unrest: Blasts rock Kano and Maiduguri," from BBC News, February 6:

A police station has been hit by an explosion and attacked by gunmen in the flashpoint northern Nigerian city of Kano, injuring an officer.

Further east, at around the same time, witnesses spoke of hearing explosions in the market area of Maiduguri.

Suspicion for the attacks will fall on Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram is waging an insurgency in the region in a bid to try and overthrow the national government and install an Islamic state.

Kano saw a series of attacks last month that left more than 185 people dead.

'Plumes of smoke'

The attack on the police station in the Sharada district of Kano happened at just after 18:00 (17:00 GMT).

Gunmen carrying bombs had descended on the police station from different directions, Kano police spokesman Magaji Musa Maji'a told Reuters news agency.

"One policeman was shot on the leg and he is receiving treatment in hospital," he said.

Resident Bala Salisu told the AFP news agency he had just arrived home in time for a curfew when he heard a loud blast.

"Shortly, gunshots followed. From what I heard it sounded like a shoot-out," he said.

A Reuters reporter in the area said the explosion - so powerful it shook windows - was followed by a sustained gun battle which lasted more than an hour.

Magaji Musa Maji'a said that the police officers eventually got control of the station.

Meanwhile, in Maiduguri - Boko Haram's heartland - a series of explosions were heard in the market and black smoke was seen billowing from the area.

"I heard five explosions around the market and plumes of black smoke... filled the air," nearby resident Aisha Goni told AFP.

"The market is still on fire. Soldiers and policeman have taken over the whole area."

How is it that Shekau studied Islam at the feet of Islamic clerics and yet did not emerge with the idea that it was a beautiful Religion of Peace? Why is this exact same misunderstanding of Islam so prevalent among Muslims, including clerics, worldwide? Why does no one in the mainstream media ever care to ask such questions of Muslim spokesmen in the U.S.?

"Shekau leading Boko Haram from the shadows," from AFP, January 28 (thanks to Clark):

KANO (AFP) – Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria.

Very little is known about Shekau, but this week he appeared on YouTube, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence which killed 185 people in Kano in reprisal for the arrest and torture of its members.

Aged 43, he was born in a farming village also called Shekau in northeastern Yobe state.

He moved to the nearby city of Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s base, about a decade ago, according to sources familiar with the group.

Shekau studied theology under local clerics in the Mafoni area of Maiduguri and enrolled in a government-run school for Islamic studies.

He is often shown in photos wearing a keffiyeh and seated next to an AK-47, his face intense....

The voice said to be Shekau in the message posted on YouTube on Thursday said “we attacked the security formations because our members were arrested and tortured. Our women and children have also been arrested.

“They should know that they also have wives and children,” he said. “We can also abduct them. It is not beyond our powers.”

In another part of the message, he says, “I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams.”

The Obama administration supports “democracy” and “self determination” in the Middle East—two euphemisms that, in the real world, refer to “mob-rule” and “Islamic radicalization,” respectively. Yet, as Jimmy Carter recently put it: “I don’t have any problem with that [an “Islamist victory” in Egypt], and the U.S. government doesn’t have any problem with that either. We want the will of the Egyptian people to be expressed.”

Sounds fair enough. The problem, however, is that Muslim clerics openly and unequivocally characterize democracy and elections as tools to be discarded once they empower Sharia law. Thus Dr. Talat Zahran holds that it is “obligatory to cheat at elections—a beautiful thing”; and Sheikh Abdel Shahat insists that democracy is not merely forbidden in Islam, but kufr—a great and terrible sin—this even as he competed in Egypt’s elections.

The Obama administration can overlook such election-exploitations because the majority of Muslims are either indifferent or willing to go along with the gag—with only a minority (secularists, Copts, etc.) in Egypt actually objecting to how elections are being used to empower Sharia-enforcing Muslims.

But what if Muslims do not win elections? What if there are equal amounts of non-Muslims voting—and an “infidel” wins? What then? Then we get situations like Nigeria.

While many are aware that Boko Haram and other Islamic elements are waging jihad against the government of Nigeria, specifically targeting Christians, often overlooked is that the jihad was provoked into full-blown activity because a Christian won fair elections (Nigeria is about evenly split between Christians and Muslims).

According to Peter Run, writing back in April 2011

The current wave of riots was triggered by the Independent National Election Commission’s (INEC) announcement on Monday [April 18, 2011] that the incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, won in the initial round of ballot counts. That there were riots in the largely Muslim inhabited northern states where the defeat of the Muslim candidate Muhammadu Buhari was intolerable, [but] was unsurprising. Northerners [Muslims] felt they were entitled to the presidency for the declared winner, President Jonathan, [who] assumed leadership after the Muslim president, Umaru Yar’Adua died in office last year and radical groups in the north [Boko Haram] had seen his ascent [Christian president] as a temporary matter to be corrected at this year’s election. Now they are angry despite experts and observers concurring that this is the fairest and most independent election in recent Nigerian history.

Note some key words: Muslims felt “entitled” to the presidency and seek to “correct” the fact that a Christian won elections—which they assumed “a temporary matter.”

Of course, had elections empowered a like-minded Muslim, the same jihadis would still be there, would still have the same savage intent for Christians and Westerners—Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden.” But there would not be a fullblown jihad, and Obama would be singing praises to Nigerian democracy and elections, and the MSM would be boasting images of Nigerians with ink-stained fingers.

Yet the same jihadi intent would be there, only dormant. Like Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood—whose ultimate goal is “mastership of the world”—they would not need to expose themselves via jihad, would be biding their time and consolidating their strength.

Now, back to the Egyptian clerics, specifically Sheikh Yassir al-Burhami—yet another leader in Egypt’s Salafi movement, who teaches that Muslims must preach peace when weak but wage war when strong. Discussing the chances of a fellow Salafi, Burhami asserts:

We say—regardless of the outcome of the elections—whether he [his colleague, the aforementioned al-Shahat] wins or loses, we will not permit an infidel [kafir] to be appointed to a post where he assumes authority over Muslims. This is forbidden. Allah said: “Never will Allah grant to infidels a way [to triumph] over the believers [Koran 4:141].” We are not worried about losing elections or al-Shahat losing votes. We will not flatter or fawn to the people.

What will you and your associates do, Sheikh Burhami—wage jihad? Of course, that will not be necessary: unlike Nigeria, most of Egypt is Muslim; one way or another, “elections” will realize the Islamist agenda.

Thus, whether by word (al-Burhami) or deed (Boko Haram) those who seek to make Islam supreme prove that democracy and elections are acceptable only insofar as they enable Sharia. Conversely, if they lead to something that contradicts Sharia—for instance, by bringing a Christian infidel to power—then the perennial jihad resumes.

Raymond Ibrahim is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

But Nigerian officials assure us that the end of Boko Haram is near, only weeks after admitting that the jihad group had friends and supporters in high levels of the Nigerian government. Sounds as if the claims that the jihadis' end is near are just face-saving.

"Troops swoop on Boko Haram, claim end of sect is near," from The Guardian (Nigeria), January 24 (thanks to Clark):

SECURITY agents operating under the aegis of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on Operation Restore Order (ORO) in Maiduguri have killed four persons suspected to be members of the fundamentalist Islamic sect Boko Haram.

But the uncovering of vehicles laden with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) cast a shadow over this victory.

The vehicles with the IEDs said to be owned by members of Boko Haram were uncovered in Kano where about 200 people were killed by the sect last Friday.

It was learnt that two vehicles, Honda and Camry cars, were discovered to have contained the explosive devices at Gorondutse and Sheka parts of the metropolis.

Though there is no official reaction to the discovery, it is believed that the explosives may have been abandoned by Boko Haram members.

To ensure the return of peace to the state, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, yesterday led hundreds of Muslim faithful in a special prayer session.

However, commercial banks that initially opened had to shut down at about 10.00 a.m. when false news filtered into town that the state government had declared yesterday a work-free day.

Armed soldiers and plain clothes security personnel patrolled strategic points within the metropolis and stern-looking security operatives barred residents from gaining access to any of the police formations within the metropolis.

Suspected Boko Haram members took their terrorism to Minna, Niger State as they set ablaze a Christian missionary home, Bethany Home, and destroyed property worth millions of naira.

Although no life was lost in the attack, occupants of the home, mostly orphans and the less-privileged were rendered homeless as a result of the attack.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin yesterday assured that Boko Haram might soon run out of suicide bombers.

Oh, that's a relief!

All of this is supposed to usher in a paradise under Sharia, just as soon as they can kill and terrorize enough people who would stand in the way. "Scores dead as assailants target northern Nigerian city," by Nima Elbagir and Hassan John for CNN, January 21:

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria imposed a 24-hour curfew Saturday in the northern city of Kano after assailants killed scores of people and wounded others in a hail of gunfire and coordinated bombings of eight government sites.

A military official told CNN that at least 156 people were dead and feared the number would rise.

"The hospitals are not equipped to deal with the influx and severity of the injuries, so we are expecting that figure to go up further," the official said.

Nwankpa Nwankpa, a Red Cross information officer in the capital, Abuja, said 50 people were injured in the attacks. He said that search and rescue operations are underway and volunteers are working to assist the injured.

The attacks targeted several police stations, barracks and the building housing the assistant inspector general of police in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city.

A passport office, state security headquarters and the immigration office were also hit, police said.

Terrified residents barricaded themselves in their homes, said Rev. Murtala Mati of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

"The government is really trying but we are afraid ... we are all scared," he said.

During the attack, assailants entered a police station, freed detainees and bombed it, authorities said. They later canvassed the area in a car led by motorcycles, spraying targets with gunfire.

Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the blast in a phone call to the Daily Trust, according to journalists at the newspaper.

Nigeria closed its borders Saturday with Cameroon and Niger, whom it has accused of allowing the militants to move freely into Nigeria.

The government has put in place a state of emergency, and a large deployment of troops has been sent to the north of the country....

Boko Haram's conduct suggests it wants an open civil war between Christians and Muslims, which would make it easier for it to claim territory and impose Sharia.

Keystone Kops, Nigerian edition. It will be harder to capture Sokoto a second time. "Top Nigerian cop suspended over suspected sect member escape," from Agence France-Presse, January 17:

Nigerian authorities on Tuesday suspended a top police officer for alleged negligence in the escape of a suspected member of the Islamist Boko Haram sect arrested over a deadly Christmas bomb attack.

The principal suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, who was arrested on Saturday, was handed over to a police commissioner for further investigation. He was then ordered to be taken to Abaji, near Abuja, for further investigation, police said in a statement.

"In the course of undertaking this important procedure, the policemen on escorts with the suspect were attacked by the suspected sect gang members and in the process the suspect was freed," it said.

"The police view this development as a serious negligence on the part of the commissioner of police and have since queried and suspended him from duty," it added.

The identity of the senior police officer was not disclosed.

He and members of his team will be prosecuted if a criminal case is established against them, it also said.

At least 44 people, mostly worshippers, were killed during the attack on Saint Theresa's Roman Catholic Church in Madalla, outside Abuja, on Christmas Day. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack....

Today on FrontPage Magazine (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I discuss the Nigerian jihad against Christians, which, as JW readers know, only gets more savage by the day:

The New Year's resolution for "Sunnis for Da'wa [Islamization] and Jihad"—also known as Boko Haram, or "Western education is forbidden"—is to create a Christian-free Nigeria, beginning, naturally, with the north, where Muslims outnumber Christians.

Right at the start of 2012, Boko Haram issued an ultimatum giving Christians living in northern Nigeria three days to evacuate or die—an ultimatum the group has been living up to, so much so that Nigeria's President Jonathan recently declared a state of emergency.

This, of course, is not to say that Boko Haram has not been long targeting Christians, as the New York Times—which all but apologized for the group's terrorism—would have it.

Boko Haram and other Muslims have been terrorizing Nigerian Christians for years, killing thousands of them, and destroying hundreds of their churches. Just last November, hundreds of armed Muslims, many from the group, invaded Christian villages, "like a swarm of bees," killing, looting, and destroying. At the end of their four-hour rampage, at least 130 Christians were killed. Forty-five other Christians in another village were slaughtered by another set of "Allahu Akbar!" screaming Muslims.

Likewise, another jihadi attack from last November, enabled by "local Muslims," left five churches destroyed and several Christians killed: "The Muslims in this town were going round town pointing out church buildings and shops owned by Christians to members of Boko Haram, and they in turn bombed these churches and shops." In one instance, a local Muslim pleaded with Boko Haram members not to burn down a particular church—not out of altruism, of course, but rather because that Muslim's home was adjacent to the church, and might also have caught fire. The church was spared....

Defensive jihad is a jihad that has found its excuse. Abubakar Shekau claims Boko Haram's rampages have been out of retribution, but they are an intensification of the group's behavior all along, emboldened in the face of a central government that has been slow to respond.

Logically, it does not add up: Boko Haram is in it for revenge? Sure, that's why their name translates as "Western education is unlawful," and why they have been consistently targeting people, institutions, and practices that get in the way of their vision of a state governed only by Sharia.

The excuse came after the rampages, and is a move to seek broader support among Nigeria's Muslims. "Boko Haram: Nigerian Islamist leader defends attacks," from BBC News, January 11:

The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants has defended recent attacks on Christians, saying they are revenge for killings of Muslims.

In his first video message, posted on YouTube, Abubakar Shekau referred to attacks on Muslims in recent years in several parts of northern Nigeria.

Boko Haram militants attacked several churches on Christmas Day, killing dozens of worshippers.

This has led to some reprisals in the mainly Christian south.

Mosques in two states have been attacked.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 160 million people, is divided between a largely Muslim north and a south where most people are Christians and some animists.

Thousands of people have fled their homes following the recent attacks, leading some people, including Nigeria's president and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, to make comparisons with the 1967-70 civil war when the south-east tried to secede.

'Religious cleansing'

In the latest attack, four people have been shot dead by attackers on motorbikes while they filled up their car with petrol in the north-eastern Yobe state, the local police chief has told the BBC.

Police chief Lawal Tanko did not release the identities of those killed, or the attackers.

The AFP news agency quotes local residents as saying those killed were southerners. Shootings from motorbikes are a Boko Haram trademark.

Yobe state is one of those areas where President Goodluck Jonathan has recently declared a state of emergency but the police chief said he had not yet received the details.

In the 15-minute video, Mr Shekau, wearing a red and white turban, a bullet-proof vest and sitting in front of two Kalashnikov rifles, said he was responding to recent statements from Nigeria's President Jonathan and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, the Christian Association of Nigeria.

He warned President Jonathan that Nigeria's security forces would not be able to defeat the group. [...]

Defending the latest spate of violence, Mr Shekau referred to the killing of Muslims in places like Jos, Kaduna, Zangon Kataf, Tafawa Balewa in recent years.

Some of these places have seen bitter communal clashes but correspondents say they are often based on long-standing disputes over resources such as land, or are whipped up by politicians, rather than being based on religious differences.

"We are also at war with Christians because the whole world knows what they did to us," Mr Shekau said in the video, speaking in Hausa - the most common language in northern Nigeria.

"They killed our fellows and even ate their flesh in Jos," he said, referring to reports last year of isolated cases of Christian youths burning and eating their rivals in Plateau state, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in a series of clashes over the past two years.

Appalling, if true, but are we to believe this month's rampages are just now revenge for that?

Christian Association of Nigeria head Ayo Oritsejafor said on Saturday that his members would protect themselves against the attacks, which he said suggested "systematic ethnic and religious cleansing".

On Tuesday, he told the BBC World Service there should be dialogue with Muslim leaders to halt the violence.

Mr Shekau said the group could only hold talks with the government in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

He said the group's primary targets remained the security forces, who he said had summarily executed their former leader Mohammed Yusuf after he was arrested in 2009....

Jihad against refueling. "Suspected Islamists kill 4 again," from AFP, January 11 (thanks to Twostellas):

KANO, (AFP) – Suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram on Wednesday shot dead four Christians who were believed to be fleeing violence-torn Maiduguri, residents said.

“Their car had just pulled up at a filling station outside the town to refuel when suspected Boko Haram gunmen in another car also pulled up and opened fire on the Igbos, killing them on the spot,” said a resident of the city of Potiskum who sells groceries nearby.

Members of the Igbo ethnic group are overwhelmingly Christian and generally originate from the country’s east. The attack occurred on the outskirts of Potiskum.

“The car the victims were travelling in was stuffed with bags and other personal effects and it was clear they were heading for the east,” the resident said.

They were thought to be traveling from Maiduguri, a city wracked by violence blamed on Boko Haram.

The intrepid mujahedin, keeping the world safe from unarmed civilians enjoying themselves. "Sect kills 8 in beer parlor attack in Nigeria," by Njadvara Musa for the Associated Press, January 10:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen from a radical Islamist group opened fire Tuesday night at a beer parlor in northeast Nigeria, killing eight people including four police officers as part of their ongoing sectarian battle against the oil-rich nation's government, authorities said.

The shootings come as the sect known as Boko Haram has promised to target Christians in Nigeria's Muslim north, expanding its campaign of assassinations and bombings. The sect is blamed by the government for killing at least 63 people in less than week, according to an Associated Press count, as it continues its campaign to impose strict Islamic — or Shariah — law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Tuesday night's attack occurred in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state. Local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said the six gunmen began shooting as patrons drank beer, which the local Shariah law technically opposes, though bars remain open for those living there.

"We didn't confront the gunmen at the beer parlor," Lawan said. "Any police that goes there went on his own."

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is blamed for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. In a recent attack, it killed 20 Christian Igbo traders holding a meeting in Nigeria's northeast.

The group also claimed credit for attacks that killed at least 42 people in Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja. The group also claimed an August suicide car bombing that targeted the U.N. headquarters in the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100.

Nigeria's central government has been slow to respond to the sect. On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared regions of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states to be under a state of emergency, meaning authorities can make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered international borders near Borno and Yobe state to be closed.

However, the attacks have not stopped.

Boko Haram's promises to target Christians in Nigeria's north have sparked fears and led some Christians to flee the area. There also has been retaliatory violence in Nigeria's Christian south, including an attack Tuesday on a mosque and a Quran school in Benin City that killed at least five people.

That is morally and tactically idiotic. If Nigeria is to save itself from the jihadists, it cannot shoot itself in the foot with collective punishment of un-involved parties, or with abuses by undisciplined and unprofessional security forces.

Boko Haram has been attacking public gatherings. Here, they attacked two homes. "Army: Muslim sect kills 2 Christians in Nigeria," from the Associated Press, January 10:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's army says suspected members of a radical Muslim sect have killed two Christians in separate attacks despite an increased security presence in the area.

Col. Victor Ebhaleme said Boko Haram gunmen attacked two Christian homes Monday evening in back-to-back attacks in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

At least 54 people have been killed in recent days by Boko Haram, according to an Associated Press count.

Boko Haram says it has started specifically targeting Christians, exploiting religious tensions in Africa's most populous nation.

President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency just over a week ago in parts of the country most affected by the feared sect attacks.

That is exactly what is going on. Boko Haram's ultimatum for Christians to leave northern areas has come and gone, and attacks have increased in frequency.

Boko Haram wants as wide a civil war as it can instigate, and thus a freer hand to push its agenda through slaughter. It wants to create a security vacuum to be filled with more Sharia, and a civil war would make the entire country hostage to the fulfillment of its demands. "Nigeria Christians liken attacks to civil war run-up," by Ola Awoniyi for Agence France-Presse, January 8:

The head of Nigeria's Christians has warned that attacks on the faithful that have killed more than 80 people suggest "religious cleansing" and compared it to the run-up to the 1960s civil war.

The intensifying violence as well as warnings from Christian leaders that they will defend themselves come at a crucial moment for Nigeria, with the country also facing nationwide strikes on Monday over soaring fuel prices.

The stark warning from Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, on Saturday came with at least six gun and bomb attacks targeting Christians since Christmas having killed more than 80 people.

Attacks have seen victims gunned down while their eyes were closed in prayer in church, caught up in a gruesome bomb blast while leaving Christmas services and shot while gathering to mourn the death of a friend.

In the latest violence, residents said gunmen shot dead three people believed to be Christians as they were playing poker on Saturday night in the northeastern town of Biu.

Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed most of the violence, which has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict in a country whose 160 million population is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

A purported spokesman for the group a week ago gave Christians living in the north a three-day ultimatum to leave the region. In claiming subsequent attacks, the spokesman said they were in response to the ultimatum.

At mass on Sunday in the capital Abuja, worshippers were frisked and made to pass through metal detectors upon entry -- measures that have been in place for several weeks.

In the economic capital Lagos, which has not been hit by attacks, churchgoers were told to be on alert for any suspicious movements.

Oritsejafor said on Saturday that Christians would defend themselves, though he added that he was not advocating reprisals.

An emergency meeting of church heads concluded "that the pattern of these killings does suggest to us a systematic ethnic and religious cleansing," he said.

The ethnic groups are being targeted because of their religion.

"We are reminded by the occurrences of these killings of the genesis of the civil war that took place here in Nigeria."...

That would partly explain why Christians in the north have not been able to rely on the government to protect them from Boko Haram's jihadists. "Nigerian leader says Boko Haram threat worse than civil war," by Wole Oyetunji for Agence France-Presse, January 8:

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Sunday unrest blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram was worse than the 1960s civil war, with sect sympathisers in the government and security agencies.

The president, speaking at a church service in the capital Abuja, did not give details of the threat he vaguely described amid intense speculation over Boko Haram's aims, including its possible political links.

The group is thought to have varying factions with differing aims.

Boko Haram wants rule by Sharia alone, and has consistently attacked people, institutions, and practices that would stand in its way.

"The situation we have in our hands is even worse than the civil war that we fought," Jonathan said, referring to Nigeria's 1967-70 conflict that killed more than a million people.

While the death toll linked to violence blamed on Boko Haram has not reached anywhere near that level, Jonathan cited the unpredictability and pervasiveness of the threat.

"During the civil war, we knew and we could even predict where the enemy was coming from ... But the challenge we have today is more complicated."

Describing the extent of the problem, he said Boko Haram members and sympathisers could be found throughout society.

"I remember when I had a meeting with elders from the northeast and some parts of the northwest where the Boko Haram phenomenon is more prevalent," he said.

"Somebody said that the situation is bad, that even if one's son is a member, one will not even know. That means that if the person will plant a bomb behind your house, you won't know."

He added that "some of them are in the executive arm of government, some of them are in the parliamentary/legislative arm of government, while some of them are even in the judiciary.

"Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies."

At another point in the same speech, Jonathan said "politicians who justify killings in order to gain cheap political points are unpatriotic ...."

Boko Haram has been blamed for intensifying violence that has killed hundreds, including attacks targeting Christians and churches in recent weeks.

Jonathan's comments come with his government under mounting pressure to stop the violence and amid warnings from Christians that they will defend themselves....

Boko Haram is trying to spark a civil war. The central and local governments' inability or unwillingness to engage the group and protect Christians has left a vacuum of security. If they are attempting to defuse the situation or keep the remaining peace by not responding to Boko Haram, those governments are instead allowing a situation to develop where they risk losing control.

More on this story. "Nigeria sect kills 15; Christians vow defense," by Jon Gambrell and Njadvara Musa for the Associated Press, January 7:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — A radical Muslim sect attacked a church worship service in Nigeria's northeast during assaults that killed at least 15 people, authorities said Saturday, as Christians vowed to defend themselves from the group's widening sectarian fight against the country's government.

Surely Abuja is not so craven as to calculate that it could appear even-handed if it waits until mutual hostilities break out in full to move against both sides. Or will it take that development for officials to get serious -- to lose control before they try to re-assert it? They appear indifferent to preventing a much greater national tragedy.

The attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram came after it promised to kill Christians living in Nigeria's largely Muslim north, exploiting long-standing religious and ethnic tensions in the nation of more than 160 million people. The pledge by the leader of an umbrella organization called the Christian Association of Nigeria now raises the possibility of retaliatory violence.

In the last few days alone, Boko Haram has killed at least 44 people, despite the oil-rich nation's president declaring a state of emergency in regions hit by the sect.

Speaking Saturday to journalists, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, vowed the group's members would adequately protect themselves from the sect. He declined to offer specifics, raising concerns about retaliation.

"We have decided to work out means to defend ourselves against these senseless killings," Oritsejafor said.

He later added: "We cannot sit back and watch people being slaughtered like animals every day, going to the church, shooting people, killing them. This is unacceptable."

In Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, gunmen covered their faces with black cloth when they attacked Apostolic Church on Friday night, local police commissioner Ade Shinaba said. Shinaba said at least eight worshippers died in that attack.

At a nearby beauty salon, at least three others were killed in a similar attack.

"Three gunmen with their faces covered with black cloth burst into my salon and started shooting at customers, chanting, 'God is great, God is great,'" said Stephen Tizhe, 35.

Responding to the violence, Adamawa state Gov. Murtala Nyako ordered a 24-hour curfew throughout the rural state. The violence comes ahead of a planned gubernatorial election later this month.

In the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, gunmen set two banks ablaze with gasoline bombs, starting a gunfight with police that lasted three hours Friday, local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said. At least two people were killed in the fight, he said.

On Saturday, sect gunmen also shot and killed two Christian students who attend the University of Maiduguri in nearby Borno state, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.

No arrests have been made in any of the attacks, authorities said.

The attacks came after gunmen claimed by Boko Haram attacked a town hall earlier Friday in Mubi, Adamawa state, killing at least 20 people who had gathered for a meeting of the Christian Igbo ethnic group. On Thursday night, the sect also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least eight people.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an Associated Press count. It has targeted churches in the past in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.

The group claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 42 people in Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja. The group also claimed an August suicide car bombing that targeted the U.N. headquarters in the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100.

Nigeria's central government has been slow to respond to the sect. On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared regions of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states to be under a state of emergency, meaning authorities can make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered international borders near Borno and Yobe state to be closed....

The intrepid, manly mujahedin, keeping the world safe from beauty parlors as well as so many churches. On the other hand, the jihadists don't seem to do as well when they have to fight like men. "13 killed in attacks in northeast Nigeria," by Jon Gambrell for the Associated Press, January 7:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Members of a radical Muslim sect attacked a church in northeast Nigeria during a worship service, part of a series of assaults that killed at least 13 people, authorities said Saturday.

The church shooting came as Boko Haram members attacked a beauty salon and fought government forces Friday night as part of its continuing sectarian battle against Nigeria's weak central government. In the last few days alone, the group has killed at least 44 people, despite the oil-rich nation's president declaring a state of emergency in regions hit by the sect.

In Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, gunmen covered their faces with black cloth when they attacked Apostolic Church, local police commissioner Ade Shinaba said. Shinaba said at least eight worshippers died in that attack.

At a nearby beauty salon, at least three others were killed in a similar attack.

"Three gunmen with their faces covered with black cloth burst into my salon and started shooting at customers, chanting, 'God is great, God is great,'" said Stephen Tizhe, 35.

In the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, gunmen set two banks ablaze with gasoline bombs, starting a gunfight with police that lasted three hours, local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said. At least two people were killed in the fight, he said.

No arrests have been made in either attack, authorities said.

The attacks Friday night came after gunmen claimed by Boko Haram attacked a town hall earlier that day in Mubi, Adamawa state, killing at least 20 people who had gathered for a meeting of the Christian Igbo ethnic group. On Thursday night, the sect also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least eight people.

In a statement Friday to The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record in Nigeria's north, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in Gombe and Mubi.

"We want to prove to the federal government of Nigeria that we can always change our tactics," the spokesman said.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an Associated Press count. It has targeted churches in the past in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.

The group claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 42 people in a Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja. The group also claimed an August suicide car bombing that targeted the U.N. headquarters in the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100.

Nigeria's central government has been slow to respond to the sect. On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared regions of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states to be under a state of emergency, meaning authorities can make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered international borders near Borno and Yobe state to be closed.

However, the areas where the recent church and town hall attacks happened are not in the areas marked by the president.

Boko Haram appears doing everything it can to spark a civil war in northern Nigeria. The central government's unwillingness or inability to respond to it leaves a vacuum that will lead to Boko Haram's targets defending themselves independently from a government that can't or won't.

If the government is trying to keep the peace or keep the situation from escalating by not engaging Boko Haram, it is actually setting up a situation that may see it lose control. "20 killed as Nigerian gunmen attack Christian mourners," by Mike Pflanz for the Telegraph, January 6:

It was the latest in a series of attacks blamed on radical Islamists who have vowed to wage a religious war on Nigeria's Christians and drive them from the country's majority-Muslim north.

This is a separate attack from the church shooting reported earlier today.

Several dozen Christians had come together for a meeting in a town hall in Mubi, in Adamawa state, to mark the deaths the day before of several people killed in the town.

Up to four gunmen surrounded the building and opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles, killing up to 20 people and leaving another 15 badly injured.

"We started hearing many gunshots through the windows," said Okey Raymond, 48, who was at the meeting.

"Everyone scampered for safety, but the gunmen chanted: 'God is great God is great' while shooting at us."

Mr Raymond said he hid under a table and escaped through a rear door. The gunmen also carried knives and machetes, the local police commissioner said.

No arrests have been made in the attack, and no one has claimed responsibility.

A purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mubi is close to the Cameroon border and is not in an area covered by a state of emergency declared by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president, following two weeks of sectarian violence.

The country's population of 160 million people is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

While Boko Haram has been blamed for increasingly deadly attacks for months, including an August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja that killed 25, the violence has taken on a different dimension with recent church attacks.

A wave of Christmas bombings that killed 49 people, most of them outside a Catholic church as services were ending, has provoked outrage in Nigeria and intensified fears of more sectarian clashes....

The mujahedin certainly like their cowardly ambushes, here attacking Christians in a church with their eyes closed in prayer. The jihadists never seem to do as well when they have to face a regular army and fight like men. An update on this story. "Gunmen kill six in attack at Nigerian church: pastor," by Aminu Abubakar for Agence France-Presse, January 5:

Gunmen stormed a church in northern Nigeria Thursday and killed six people as they were praying, the pastor said, as an ultimatum from Islamists for Christians in the region to leave expired.

"It was around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT)," John Jauro told AFP of the attack in the city of Gombe.

"I was leading the congregation in prayers. Our eyes were closed when some gunmen stormed the church and opened fire on the congregation. Six people were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded."

He said there was confusion as worshippers sought to flee at the Deeper Life Christian Ministry Church.

A police spokesman declined to comment until Friday, saying he was on his way to the church with the state police commissioner.

The attack comes after a purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram on Sunday issued a three-day ultimatum for Christians living in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north to leave the region.

There was however no claim of responsibility for the attack.

The ultimatum came after President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday declared a state of emergency in parts of four states hit hard by violence blamed on Boko Haram, particulary Christmas bombings that killed 49 people.

Gombe is outside the areas affected by the state of emergency decree.

On Wednesday night, bomb blasts hit two northeastern cities that are included in the emergency declaration.

No casualties were reported after the bomb attacks in Maiduguri and Damaturu, claimed by the same purported spokesman for Boko Haram who issued the ultimatum to Christians.

One of the bombs in Maiduguri, Boko Haram's stronghold, destroyed a house near a customs barracks, according to a customs source and resident. The Damaturu blast occurred at an open-air pub.

In a separate incident, two civilians were shot dead on the outskirts of Damaturu, a hospital source said.

The attacks were the first in the state of emergency areas since Jonathan's declaration in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer....

And the Nigerian government continues to be unable and/or unwilling to rein in Boko Haram. "Islamist militants in Nigeria warn Christians to leave north within 3 days," by Tim Lister for CNN, January 2:

(CNN) -- The militant Islamist group Boko Haram has issued an ultimatum giving Christians living in northern Nigeria three days to leave the area amid a rising tide of violence there.

A Boko Haram spokesman, Abul Qaqa, also said late Sunday that Boko Haram fighters are ready to confront soldiers sent to the area under a state of emergency declared in parts of four states by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday.

"We will confront them squarely to protect our brothers," Abul Qaqa said during a telephone call with local media. He also called on Muslims living in southern Nigeria to "come back to the north because we have evidence they will be attacked."

Recent weeks have seen an escalation in clashes between Boko Haram and security forces in the north-eastern states of Borno and Yobe, as well as attacks on churches and assassinations. Nearly 30 people were killed on Christmas Day at a Catholic church near the federal capital, Abuja -- a sign that Boko Haram is prepared to strike beyond its heartland.

Human rights activist Shehu Sani told CNN that the latest Boko Haram threat is credible, but many Christians born and raised in the north have nowhere else to go.

"The killings will continue," he said, and Boko Haram may respond to the state of emergency by taking its campaign of violence to areas not yet affected....

Nigeria has almost equal numbers of Christian and Muslims, with the south predominantly Christian. Boko Haram and other Islamic groups claim the north has been starved of resources and marginalized by the government of Jonathan, who is a Christian.

Boko Haram (which according to the group means "Western civilization is forbidden") is demanding the imposition of Islamic sharia law across Nigeria.

Christian leaders have demanded a stronger response to the attacks from the government and the Muslim community. Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, complained last week that the response of Islamic leaders had been "unacceptable and an abdication of their responsibilities."

"The Christian community is fast losing confidence in government's ability to protect our rights," Oritsejafor said....

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Nigeria: Gunmen kill 2 in restive NE; death toll rises to 42 in Xmas attacks blamed on sect," from the Associated Press, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

LAGOS, Nigeria — Gunmen killed two civilians in a northeast Nigeria town plagued by attacks from a radical Muslim sect, an official said Friday, as a hospital official said one more person died from Christmas attacks blamed on the sect, raising the toll to 42.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Hassan Ifijeh Mohammed told The Associated Press that the attack occurred after Friday afternoon prayers in a market near a mosque in the city of Maiduguri. Mohammed said the gunmen wounded a third person.

He said authorities believe the incident could either be a robbery attempt or another attack by a feared radical sect known as Boko Haram which has carried out a series of attacks and assassinations in the area....

A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency reported 37 deaths as of Thursday evening in the blast near Abuja.

Four more people were killed in other Christmas violence blamed on a radical Muslim sect that wants to impose Shariah law in Africa’s most populous nation.

The Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the coordinated Christmas Day attacks launched across Africa’s most populous nation.

Here on Jihad Watch, it seems that not a few days pass without a new story of Boko Haram jihadi attacks on Nigeria's Christians. Despite all this documentation, a New York Times report appearing soon after the Christmas Day church attacks absurdly informs us that "Boko Haram, until now mostly targeted the police, government and military in its insurgency effort, but the bombings on Sunday represented a new, religion-tinged front..."

The report also engages in other apologetics and obfuscations -- for instance, the canards that poverty-causes-terrorism and "heavy-handed" governments provoke jihad.

I discussed all this yesterday in a Hudson NY article (via RaymondIbrahim.com), an excerpt of which follows:

Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25, in what has been described as "Nigeria's blackest Christmas ever." The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, "the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion." Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church.

As usual, the world offered the requisite, if perfunctory, condemnations. Of note, however, is the word so many Western leaders, from the White House to the Vatican, used to characterize this latest Muslim attack on Christians—"senseless"—a word that implies no motive, no goal, no rhyme, no reason.

Although Boko Haram has been bellowing its straightforward and far from "senseless" goals for a decade—enforcing Sharia law and, in conjunction, subjugating if not eliminating Nigeria's Christians—one can see why so many are decrying the Christmas Day bombings as "senseless": the mainstream media's coverage offers little by way of context or continuity concerning the attacks.

Consider the New York Times' coverage, as reported by Adam Nossiter, in an article titled "Nigerian Group Escalates Violence With Church Attacks":

The sect, known as Boko Haram, until now mostly targeted the police, government and military in its insurgency effort, but the bombings on Sunday represented a new, religion-tinged front, a tactic that threatens to exploit the already frayed relations between Nigeria's nearly evenly split populations of Christians and Muslims…

This sentence is fraught with problems. For starters, Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigerian Christians for years, killing thousands of them, and destroying hundreds of their churches. Considering that just last Christmas Eve, 2010, Boko Haram bombed several churches, killing nearly 40 Christian worshippers, the New York Times' characterization of these latest attacks as "represent[ing] a new, religion-tinged front" is not only unconscionable, but unprofessional....

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: the violent jihad murderers of Boko Haram are growing bolder and bloodier by the day, and the Nigerian government does not and apparently cannot move to stop them. "Nigeria lacks the leadership to quell militant threat of Boko Haram," from Reuters, December 27:

ABUJA // Nigeria lacks competent leaders to tackle its security problems, a former military ruler said yesterday, following Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches by Islamist militants that killed more than two dozen people.

Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner who lost the last presidential election in April to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, said the government was slow to respond and had shown indifference to the bombings.

The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose Sharia across Africa's most populous country, claimed responsibility for three church bombings, the second Christmas in a row it has caused destruction at Christian houses of worship.

Security forces also blamed the sect for two explosions in the north and fear is growing that Boko Haram is trying to ignite a sectarian civil war between Christians and Muslims who, for the most part, coexist in peace.

"How on earth would the Vatican and the British authorities speak before the Nigerian government on attacks within Nigeria that have led to the deaths of our citizens?" Mr Buhari said in a statement published by Punch newspaper. "This is clearly a failure of leadership at a time the government needs to assure the people of the capacity to guarantee the safety of lives and property."

He said the government needed to do more than spend more on security to deal with the problem.

Mr Jonathan, a Christian from the south who is struggling to contain the threat of Islamist militancy, called the attacks "unfortunate" but said Boko Haram would "not be (around) forever. It will end one day"....

Good luck, Jonathan.

The Christmas church bombings included one in the central city of Jos, a religious and ethnic region lying in the heart of the divide between the mercantile, largely Muslim pastoralist peoples of the north and the traditionally farming, largely Christians in the south.

Nigeria's 160 million people are split almost evenly between Christians and Muslims, who usually live side by side in peace, but their cohabitation in the "Middle Belt" has sometimes been a source of tensions over land and influence.

Jos in particular has seen many hundreds killed in periodic outbreaks of ethnic and sectarian violence.

The attacks on the churches on one of global Christianity's most important feast days appeared aimed at touching off this latent tinderbox, just as targeted sectarian attacks in Iraq have tried to provoke Sunni-Shiite strife.

In December last year, Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for Christmas Eve bombings around Jos and attacks on churches and clashes that resulted in more than 80 deaths.

The militant movement, whose name means "Western learning is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, is concentrated in Nigeria's more remote northern states. It became active in 2003, with an avowed aim to introduce Sharia across Nigeria.

The latest attacks will fuel the fears of Nigerian and western security experts who increasingly link Boko Haram to a wider violent militant Islamic jihadist threat from North Africa across the Sahara....

The intrepid mujahedin, keeping the world safe from tidings of comfort and joy. "Explosions Rip Through Churches in Nigeria," from the New York Times, December 25:

A series of explosions were reported Sunday across Nigeria, including one at a Catholic Church near the capital that killed at least 25 people, Nigerian authorities said. A radical Muslim sect, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility.

At least three of the five explosions appeared to target churches during Christmas services, according to media reports. One explosion struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a town about 25 miles north and west of the capital, Abuja.

Rescue workers there recovered at least 25 bodies and officials continued to tally the wounded in various hospitals, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with the National Emergency Management Agency.

His agency has acknowledged it did not have enough ambulances immediately on hand to help the wounded. Mr. Luguard also said an angry crowd that gathered at the blast site hampered rescue efforts as they refused to allow workers inside.

“We’re trying to calm the situation,” he said. “There are some angry people around trying to cause problems.”

Witnesses said that St. Theresa’s Church was filled for the Christmas service when the bomb exploded.

“Mass just ended and people were rushing out of the church and suddenly I heard a loud sound ‘gbam’. Cars were in flames and bodies littered everywhere,” Nnana Nwachukwu told Reuters.

Timothy Onyekwere told Reuters that he was in the church with his family when the bomb exploded.

“I just ran out. Now I don’t even know where my children or my wife are,” Mr. Onyekwere said. “I don’t know how many were killed but there were many dead.”

Some said the blast was inside and others thought it came from just outside the church.

A Reuters reporter at the blast site said that the church’s front roof had been destroyed in the blast, as had several houses near it. Five burnt out cars were still smoldering.

A Boko Haram spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Qaqa, claimed responsibility for the attacks in statements to the media. In the last year, Boko Haram has carried out increasingly bloody attacks in its campaign to install strict Shariah or Muslim law across Nigeria, killing at least 491. The same group also claimed responsibility for a series of Christmas Eve bombings a year ago in the northeast city of Jos that left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.

A second explosion on Sunday struck near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in Jos, a government spokesman, Pam Ayuba, said. Mr. Ayuba said gunmen later opened fire on police officers guarding the area, killing one officer. Two other bombs were found in a nearby building and disarmed, he said....

Jihad causes poverty, in Boko Haram's drive to "fix" the country by breaking it. More on this story. "Clashes between sect, police kill 61 in Nigeria," by Jon Gambrell and Ndjadvara Musa for the Associated Press, December 24:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Fighting between a radical Muslim sect and paramilitary forces in Nigeria has killed at least 61 people over several days of violence in the nation's northeast that has left churches bombed and people hiding in fear, authorities said.

In hard-hit Yobe state, where at least 50 people died, the government on Saturday ordered a dusk-till-dawn curfew following attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. In Maiduguri, the capital of neighboring Borno state, bombs reduced at least three churches to rubble and raised fears of further attacks by a group that claimed Christmas Eve bombings last year that killed dozens.

The fighting began Thursday in the two states, with gunfire and explosions heard into the night and the following day in an arid region that borders Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and the town of Potiskum bore the brunt of the violence.

In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, a mortuary official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter told The Associated Press at least 11 bodies had been brought in from the violence. Authorities blamed Boko Haram for firebombing at least three churches around the capital, attacks that killed one pastor and his young child.

This is just the latest in a series of bombings over the last year by Boko Haram. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, wants to implement strict Shariah law across a nation of more than 160 million people that is home to both Christians and Muslims.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.

While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties. The sect is responsible for at least 465 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.

Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say. That, as well as its increasingly violent attacks, have some worried the group will carry out further attacks around Christmas and New Year's.

Last year, a series of Christmas Eve bombings in the central Nigerian city of Jos claimed by Boko Haram killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 74 others.....

Boko Haram's jihadists think they can establish paradise under Sharia, just as soon as they can kill enough people standing in their way. "Day of violence in northern Nigeria kills at least 24," from Reuters, December 23:

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Clashes between a violent Islamist sect and security forces in Nigeria's northeastern city of Damaturu have killed at least 24 people in the past day, police said on Friday.

A sustained gun battle broke out between Nigerian security forces and suspected Islamist militants in Damaturu on Thursday, and several explosions were heard.

Then on Friday suspected sect members opened fire on a group of policemen shortly after Friday prayers in the city, killing four, local police officials said. [...]

Confrontations between security forces and the Boko Haram sect have become increasingly frequent in the past couple of weeks, as the north's simmering conflict escalates, though the insurgency remains low level and sporadic.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "Western learning is forbidden" has been blamed for scores of shootings and bombings in the north, including a spate of attacks in the past few weeks across the region.

Despite many crackdowns, Nigerian security forces have so far been unable to contain Boko Haram violence. This year the group struck in the capital Abuja twice, including a suicide car bomb attack against the U.N. headquarters that killed 26 people.

Even before any potential bombings, the threats attempt to intimidate and terrorize the population, and they generate costs of time, manpower, and money. Jihad causes poverty. "Bomb threats in Nigerian city hit by Xmas 2010 blasts," from Agence France-Presse, December 16:

Fliers threatening bombings of churches and other areas have been posted in the Nigerian city of Jos, where Christmas Eve 2010 attacks and reprisals killed dozens, authorities said Friday.

A number of fliers were found on the ground in the city, which has long been hit by waves of clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups that have left thousands dead.

The pamphlet signed by someone named Idris Musa and written in poor English listed some 21 targets in the planned attacks.

"We entire Muslim of Plateau State will never give up until we have our right ... Nothing can stop us from bombing these areas before December 26, 2011," said the flier seen by AFP.

Jos is the capital of Plateau state, located in central Nigeria.

A spokesman for a military task force in Plateau said authorities were taking the threats seriously.

"There is a pamphlet in circulation threatening to attack some targets, including churches, private businesses and government institutions in Jos between now and December 26," Charles Okeocha told AFP.

"As security agents, we are not taking the threat lightly. We have beefed up security to avoid any unpleasant situation."

Jos lies in the middle-belt region between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation.

Dozens were killed last year on Christmas Eve in Jos in multiple bomb attacks claimed by the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram as well as in subsequent clashes....

But not just soccer: "The explosions occurred in predominantly Christian areas of the city." "Bomb blasts targeting football fans kill one in Nigeria," from Agence France-Presse, December 11:

Three bomb blasts, targeting bars as fans watched a Spanish football match on television, rocked the Nigerian city of Jos officials said Sunday, with one death and 10 injuries reported.

The bombs were said to have been planted near outdoor bars -- called "viewing centres" in Nigeria -- late Saturday in the city as the victims watched a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Jos has been hit by waves of violence between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups in recent years.

"There were three blasts, all targeting soccer viewing centres," said Mark Lipdo, an official with the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian NGO.

"The bombs were detonated outside the viewing centres, which was responsible for the low casualty recorded," he added.

"One person was killed in the blast," he said, adding that the victim had been decapitated by the explosion.

Of the people wounded, four were in critical condition, including two in a coma.

Red Cross official Manata Bambe, while declining to be drawn on the death toll, confirmed that 10 people had been sent to hospital with "various degrees of injuries from the blasts."

Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the governor of Plateau state, where Jos is the capital, also reported three blasts with one person killed, though he said seven were wounded.

The explosions occurred in predominantly Christian areas of the city.

A military task force operating in the Jos area on Sunday announced a night-time ban on motorcycles. Many bombings in Nigeria have been carried out by assailants on motorcycles.

Violence in recent years in Jos and the surrounding area between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups has left thousands dead.

Plateau state lies in the middle-belt region between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria's north has been hit by scores of attacks blamed on the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed 24 people.

The Islamist group also claimed responsibility for a string of bomb blasts on Christmas Eve 2010 in Jos, but it was unclear whether it was involved in Saturday night's attacks.

What makes Boko Haram an "Islamist sect," rather than an "Islamic" one? The fact that they murder people in the name of Islam. They don't read a different Qur'an from that of other Muslims. They don't say a different shahada. They don't have different beliefs. They just act upon the teachings of the Qur'an and Muhammad exhorting warfare against unbelievers, and that earns them the artificial Western designation of being "Islamist" rather than "Islamic." Otherwise Muslims in Nigeria and elsewhere have made no effort to separate people who believe the way Boko Haram does from their communities.

"6 killed in volatile northeast Nigeria," from News24, December 4 (thanks to Kenneth):

Bauchi - Gunmen killed three people on Sunday, including a policemen and a soldier, when they bombed police buildings and a bank in northeast Nigeria, a region beset by attacks by Islamist sects.

The attackers fired assault rifles and threw explosives in the attack early on Sunday on two police stations in Azare, a town in northeast Bauchi state, where the Islamist sect Boko Haram has been blamed for an assault earlier this year.

"One policeman, one soldier, one civilian and three suspected attackers were killed," Ikechukwu Aduba, Bauchi police commissioner, told Reuters.

Witnesses said a bank was looted and the two police buildings were set ablaze.

Boko Haram, whose name translates at "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has been blamed for dozens of attacks in northeastern states this year, most of which are aimed at figures in authority....

All they would have to do is get someone on the right plane, as al-Qaeda did with the failed underwear bomber, or get a few of their men in the country and start issuing instructions. "Alarm bells over Nigeria Islamist group: US Congress," from Agence France-Presse, November 30:

A US congressional report on Wednesday flagged Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist sect as an "emerging threat" that could represent an eventual security risk to the United States and its interests.

The group has been blamed for scores of attacks in Nigeria, including the August suicide bombing of the United Nations' Nigeria headquarters in the capital Abuja that killed at least 24 people, and is believed to have ties to Al-Qaeda.

The Congress report, presented at a hearing of the House of Representatives subcommittee on counter-terrorism and intelligence, said that US interests are also at risk.

"Boko Haram has quickly evolved and poses an emerging threat to US interests and the US homeland," said the 28-page report written by the panel.

"The United States should work with the government of Nigeria to build counterterrorism and intelligence capability to effectively counter Boko Haram," it said.

The document added that the Islamist group "has the intent and may be developing capability to coordinate on a rhetorical and operational level with Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Shebab."

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for multiple gun, bomb and suicide attacks this month in Damatur, targeting police and churches and killing 150 people in addition to the UN attack, and US lawmakers said they believe that the risk to the United States has been underestimated.

The group's "fast evolution in targeting and tactics mirrors other Al-Qaeda affiliated groups and is worrisome," the subcommittee's chairman, Representative Patrick Meehan, said at the start of the hearing.

"While I recognize there is little evidence at this moment to suggest Boko Haram is planning attacks against the (US) homeland, lack of evidence does not mean it cannot happen," he said.

Peter Pham, an expert with the Atlantic Council thinktank, testified at the hearing that for the moment, the Nigerian group's reach is "still somewhat limited."

"Nevertheless, the fact that the group has been able in recent months to expand its operations beyond its base in northern Nigeria ought to be a wake-up call to both the Nigerian government and the international community," Pham told lawmakers.

This story popped up briefly in the mainstream media around the time of the incidents in rather vague reporting: a bunch of people died in another round of violence for which the alliterative "sectarian strife" has become a stock media phrase. Here, finally, is more of the story.

"At Least 45 Christians Killed in Plateau State, Nigeria," from Compass Direct News, November 28 (thanks to O):

BARKIN LADI, Nigeria, November 28 (CDN) — Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.

Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders.

Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.

“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”

Almost all churches in the town cancelled or held reduced worship services on the first Sunday (Nov. 27) after the crisis was contained, as nearly all area Christians have fled to Jos or have left Plateau state, long hit by ethnic property conflicts fueled by anti-Christian sentiment. In March 2010 ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, suffered attacks from Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land, resulting in hundreds of deaths in three villages near Jos.

In the attack on Thursday (Nov. 24), the Fulani Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” said farmer Choji Pamjamo, 51.

“On Thursday at about 9 a.m., the Muslims’ call to prayer was made at the Izala [Islamic sect] mosque,” Pamjamo said. “And shortly after that, we saw hundreds of armed Muslims invading the town from all directions, attacking and killing Christians. They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ as they were burning properties belonging to Christians.”

Pamjamo confirmed Christian leaders’ account of an attack on a Church of Christ of Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the Sabon Layi (Rantya) area of Barkin Ladi the previous night (Nov. 23), saying that among the four Christians killed was Bible teacher Yakubu Pam.

David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning....

These attacks appear to be a continuation of an earlier rampage by Boko Haram in Nigeria's Yobe state. An update on this story. "4 dead, churches burned in north Nigeria attack," from the Associated Press, November 27:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Witnesses and authorities say at least four people died in an apparent attack on a northeast Nigeria city that saw churches and businesses burned to the ground.

It's probably safe to assume it was an attack.

The attack happened Saturday night in the city of Geidam in Nigeria's Yobe state, which sits near the country's arid border with Niger.

Jihad causes poverty:

Witnesses say attackers blew up a local police station and attacked a bank, as well as set fire to businesses and at least eight churches.

The attacks come after a Nov. 4 attack in the state capital claimed by the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram that killed more than 100 people.

Meanwhile, police blamed the sect for two killings Sunday morning in neighboring Borno state.

In heaven there is no beer, and Boko Haram wants to kill you for drinking it here. Once again, the group consistently attacks institutions and practices that stand in the way of their imposition of Sharia law. "Suspected Islamists bomb police station, bank in Nigeria," from Agence France-Presse, November 26:

Gunmen suspected to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram on Saturday bombed a police station, a bank and a beer parlour in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state, residents said.

The gunmen threw explosives into a police station and a beer parlour in Geidam town, 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the state capital Damaturu, they said.

The attackers, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, also bombed a bank near the police station and carted away money from its vault.

Gaidam is the home town of the Yobe state governo Ibrahim Gaidam.

"The attackers who are from all indications members of Boko Haram came in a large number and attacked the police station with explosives and gunshots and burnt it down", resident Abba Kashim said.

"They also bombed and robbed a bank nearby," Kashim said on the phone from Geidam.

Idrissa Galda, member of a local vigilante group, said the attackers also bombed a beer parlour and burnt down adjoining shops.

The attackers kept firing indiscriminately and residents remained indoors Galda said.

Details of casualties were still unclear.

"Many people have been trapped in the attacks but it is difficult to say how many have been affected," Galda said.

Another resident, Umar Maina, said the attackers engaged the police in a shootout.

"There were three explosions in all followed by incessant gunshots and I learnt from phone calls I made that the police station, a bank and a beer parlour were the targets of the explosions", Maina said.

Maina said the attackers were heading for the prison.

We have pointed out on many occasions (see, for example, here, here, and here) that the poor and marginalized bear the brunt of Sharia's brutality and institutionalized discrimination. For example, there are those who cannot buy their way out of trouble with devices like diyya, or blood money, and there are also those who suffer disproportionately because they are marked for marginalization by Sharia itself: women and non-Muslims.

There are but two ways in which Sharia is a defective system and simply bad government. "Sharia favours the rich, claim Nigerian rights activists," by Rose Collyer for RFI, November 24 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Boko Haram’s deadly insurgency is fuelled by their desire to see stricter Islamic law, or Sharia, in northern Nigeria. Civil rights activists have voiced their concerns that poor people would bear the brunt of a more severe form of Sharia.

Sharia has been practised to varying degrees for as long as Islam has been in Nigeria. But in 1999, the then-governor of Zamfara State, Ahmed Sani, called for criminal cases to be tried in Sharia courts.

Civil rights activists in Nigeria complain that Sharia hands down harsh sentences to poor Muslims, while the rich use it to their advantage.

Islamophobes!

Ahmed Sani, the architect of Sharia in modern Nigeria, is a case in point. He married a child bride from Egypt last year and condoned his actions citing Sharia, which permits men to marry wives as young as 13.

Child marriage persists in the Muslim world because of the example of Muhammad, who consummated his marriage with a nine-year-old at the age of fifty-four (Sahih Bukhari 7.62.88).

Civil rights activist, Shehu Sani stood up to Ahmed Sani, who is no relation, “for those of us who were human rights activists and Muslims we had a duty to our conscience and to our people to stand up to Ahmed Sani. Because we were concerned that Sharia would be used against the poor and to hunt down political enemies.”

Several Sharia cases have brought condemnation from the international community. Most of them have involved poor women accused of adultery who face being stoned to death.

But some argue that it is Nigerian legal system that is at fault.

“Sharia has afforded women so many rights," says Remi Atunwa, a barrister and practising Muslim. "For example it stipulates that if a woman doesn’t want to cook, then her husband is obligated to get her a maid.”

That's a new one. Curiously, Atunwa did not touch lashes and stonings, women's testimony being worth half that of a man (Qur'an 2:282), polygamy (Qur'an 4:3), domestic violence (Qur'an 4:34), rules for inheritance and divorce, and child marriage.

But “people manipulate the system for political and religious reasons," she adds. "And the average person either doesn’t understand the system or doesn’t have the means [financial], required to navigate it.”

She just confirmed the very problem at the heart of this story: the rich can play the system (though it's all a "misunderstanding"), while the average citizen must accept the hand (or hand amputation) that is dealt them by the courts.

Nigeria’s 70 million Muslims already have the choice of having civil cases heard in a Sharia law court. Twelve northern states also allow the resort to Sharia in criminal cases. What Boko Haram is demanding is for Sharia to replace common and customary law in the 19 states that make up northern Nigeria.

The group also wants to see a stricter form of Sharia implemented, as in Saudi Arabia or Iran where stoning and amputations are not uncommon. The problem is that there are several million non-Muslims living in these states. And that wealthy Nigerians tend to be able to escape justice more than the rest of the population.

Islamic law forbids Muslims to leave Islam. These murders were revenge upon one Muslim who dared to exercise his freedom of conscience. "NEWS ALERT: Nigeria Militants Kill Children Of Christian Convert, Missionaries Say," by Stefan J. Bos for BosNewsLife, November 23 (thanks to Mackie):

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- A militant group seeking to enforce Sharia, or Islamic law, throughout Nigeria, has shot and killed two children of an ex-terrorist and "murderer" because he converted to Christianity, well-informed missionaries told BosNewsLife Wednesday, November 23.

Boko Haram, meaning “Western education is a sin”, carried out the killings this month after discovering that a former fellow fighter refused to kill a Christian and instead accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, explained Rae Burnett, Africa Director of the U.S. based Christian Aid Mission (CAM) group.

Burnett told BosNewsLife that the father and Boko Haram militant "was poised to slit the throat of his Christian victim" during November attacks in northern Nigeria that killed at least over 130 Christians, including missionaries, when "he was suddenly struck with the weight of the evil he was about to commit."

Dropping his machete, the man ran to the nearest church, asking a pastor for help, Burnett said....

"When the call came, the ministry leader was grieving the loss of several close missionary friends who were murdered in the Yobe State slaughter. He immediately met with the confessed killer and joyfully led him to Christ. He is discipling him in a secret location because of the extreme danger."

Burnett declined to identify the former Muslim militant and missionaries, citing security concerns.

"After meeting the Lord, the converted terrorist [and] murderer called his former colleagues to testify what had happened to him without disclosing where he was," she said.

CHILDREN KIDNAPPED

However, "Upon discovering the man's conversion to Christianity, Boko Haram members invaded his home, kidnapped his two children and informed him that they were going to execute them in retribution for his disloyalty to Islam. Clutching his phone, the man heard the sound of the guns that murdered his children," the CAM official added.

There was no known published comment about the specific attack by Boko Haram, but the reported murders were part of what President leader Goodluck Jonathan called "heinous violence" which began November 4 mainly in and around Damaturu, the capital of Nigeria's northern Yobe state.

Christian missionaries said that during the attacks Muslim "extremists" of Boko Haram also demanded that Christians recite the Islamic creed. Those who refused, were reportedly butchered on the spot.

Additionally, "among the "devastation and destruction left in the wake of Boko Haram's violence were 10 church buildings set aflame while Christians remained trapped inside," added Burnett, who has close knowledge about the situation.

Though "severely traumatized," the former Boko Haram fighter who lost his children "is growing in the knowledge of Christ through the loving care he is receiving from his brothers and sisters in the ministry that is sheltering and training him," she said. "He knows he is called to become a missionary to Nigerian Muslims."...

Burnett said several ex-Muslims facing "the danger of persecution or death from the Islamic community and even family members," are brought to "a safe location while they are discipled and trained in the Word of God."...

The Boko Haram's "goal is to force Sharia law throughout Nigeria" targeting "secular education by bombing schools and universities, " the CAM director said. She added that while attacks are often prompted by local issues, they also aim at "anything that is perceived to be foreign influence."...

"Polio was affecting eight northern Nigerian states - two more than a few months ago."

This is the human cost of conspiracy paranoia about elaborate plots against Muslims. Even though the main event was eight years ago, suspicion still surely lingers, and untold numbers of Nigerians did not receive the vaccine, and did not have their children vaccinated. They are now surely among the victims.

If groups like Boko Haram have their way and manage to stamp out citizens' ability to become educated and think critically in sufficient numbers, such paranoia will spread all the more freely, and there will be even more of a cost in years to come.

"Polio in Nigeria 'shows big increase'," from BBC News, November 21:

A four-fold increase in polio has been reported in Nigeria, with the disease spreading to other countries, a World Health Organisation official says.

Forty-three cases were reported in Nigeria this year, compared to 11 last year, the official, Thomas Moran, said.

Curbing the polio virus in Nigeria is key to eradicating the crippling disease in Africa, he said.

In 2003, northern Nigeria's Muslim leaders leaders opposed vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.

Nigeria is one of four countries in the world - along with Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - where polio is still a major health risk.

'Strong leadership'

Mr Moran told the BBC the disease had also spread to neighbouring Niger, Mali and Ivory Coast.

"The success of polio eradication in Africa rests on Nigeria interrupting the virus," he said.

Polio was affecting eight northern Nigerian states - two more than a few months ago, the head of Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), Dr Ado Muhammad, told the BBC.

Mr Moran said the Nigerian government had shown "strong leadership" in the campaign to eradicate polio and the WHO had been carrying out large scale vaccination programmes to prevent the disease from spreading.

"The immunity profile of Nigerian children is far better [now], which limits the risk of international spread of the virus," Mr Moran said.

He also stressed that the number of children affected remained low.

"You can call it a four-fold increase but it is still very low transmission in a country as large as Nigeria with almost 50m children under five," he said.

At the Commonwealth summit last month, the leaders of Nigeria, Canada, the UK and Australia pledged millions of dollars towards the global effort to eradicate polio.

In 2003, the northern Nigerian state of Kano backed Muslim religious leaders in opposing an immunisation programme, claiming it was a Western plot to make people infertile.

Health experts say this led to many people becoming infected by polio.

The clerics and the state government later dropped their opposition to the immunisation programme....

Feeding the crocodile, in hopes that it will eat them last? "Nigeria security says politicians sponsor Islamists," from Reuters, November 21:

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian politicians are funding members of a radical Islamist sect responsible for dozens of shootings and bombings this year in the north and capital of Africa's most populous nation, the state security service (SSS) said on Monday. Boko Haram, whose name translates as "Western education is forbidden", has carried out near daily attacks in the remote northeast in Borno state, where Nigeria borders Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Although parts of the sect say they want sharia law more widely applied across Nigeria and threaten international targets, most factions are focused on local issues and carry out politically motivated attacks.

Even the "politically motivated" attacks that appear in press reports show a connection to the desire for Islamic rule.

The SSS, Nigeria's intelligence agency, said in a press briefing that on November 3 they arrested Ali Sanda Umar Konduga who admitted to being one of the spokesmen for Boko Haram, using the name Usman al-Zawahiri.

"He was a former political thug operating under a group widely known as ECOMOG," said Marilyn Oga, an SSS spokeswoman.

ECOMOG was a militia group funded by politicians several years ago in Borno and some former members have now joined Boko Haram, diplomats and security experts have said.

"His arrest further confirms the Service position that some of the Boko Haram extremists have political patronage and sponsorship. This is more so as al-Zawahiri has so far made valuable confessions in this regard," Oga added.

The SSS said a politician in Borno recruited al-Zawahiri, who attended the press briefing, gave him a new name to portray him as an extremist and paid him to send threatening text messages to judges and rival politicians.

Al-Zawahiri is also the name of the leader of al Qaeda.

Borno state is one of the 13 out of 36 Nigerian states not governed by the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Al-Zawahiri, speaking in the northern Hausa language and translated by SSS officials, named members of the PDP who he said paid him to disrupt the leadership of the state.

An update on this evolving story. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat. Here again, one finds "regional" jihadist conflicts finding common cause with one another and cooperating. All share the aim of imposing Sharia law, the purpose of jihad in all its forms.

The conflict is local, but the agenda is global. "Al Qaeda-linked group finds fertile territory in Nigeria as killings escalate," by Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister for CNN, November 18:

(CNN) -- Two weeks ago, dozens of armed men descended on a town in northern Nigeria and killed more than 100 people in a coordinated series of bombings and gun attacks.

Many of those targeted were Christians, but police stations and mosques deemed "insufficiently Islamic" were also attacked.

The town was Damataru, capital of the Nigerian state of Yobe, and the assailants belonged to the group Boko Haram, which translates from the local Hausa as "Western education is outlawed."

In two years, Boko Haram has morphed from a radical Muslim sect into an insurgency responsible for dozens of attacks in Nigeria and beyond. Western intelligence analysts believe it is also developing links with al Qaeda affiliates in Africa.

Boko Haram's targets include police outposts and churches, as well as places associated with 'western influence.' Its signature attack is a Karachi-style drive-by shooting from a motorbike, but this year it has begun a campaign of suicide vehicle attacks. [...]

Think jihad globally, wage jihad locally:

According to U.S. officials, the groups have since forged a partnership -- with AQIM sharing its evolving expertise in suicide bombing.

"We know that there are increasingly frequent contacts, and indeed, training of members of Boko Haram by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and that's of great concern," Ambassador Anthony Holmes, U.S. Africa Command's civilian deputy said earlier this month. Algerian officials, long concerned at the growth of AQIM, have voiced the same concerns. And last week a senior Nigerian military officer told Reuters: "Boko Haram is al Qaeda."

In a global poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2009, a higher percentage of Nigerian Muslims (54%) stated they had confidence in Osama bin Laden than in any other Muslim-majority country. [...]

How about now?

That was not a trivia or informational question. They were demanding the shahada, or Islamic statement of belief. Any Christian who was not willing to abandon his beliefs and bear witness that "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" was killed. In other words, Boko Haram was seeking out Christians to kill, as further proven by the death toll.

An update on this story. "Violence in Yobe State, Nigeria Aimed Mainly at Christians," from Compass Direct News, November 11:

DAMATURU, Nigeria, November 11 (CDN) — They stormed this town in Yobe state, northern Nigeria like a swarm of bees, and at the end of their four-hour rampage, some 150 people had been killed – at least 130 of them Christians, according to church sources.

Hundreds of people are still missing, and the destruction included the bombing of at least 10 church buildings.

More than 200 members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram sect stormed the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, at 5 p.m. on Nov. 4, and soon the terrorists had blocked all four major highways leading into town. Some of them charged the police headquarters, commando style, killing all officers on duty, while the rest broke into two banks – First Bank Nigeria PLC and United Bank for Africa, stealing millions of naira. Boko Haram also bombed police stations and an army base in and around Damaturu.

Having successfully dislodged security agencies after a series of gun battles and the detonation of explosives, the terrorists then led other area Muslims to the only Christian ward in town, New Jerusalem in Damaturu, home to more than 15,000 Christians, church leaders said.

The Christian leaders in Damaturu told Compass that out of the 150 casualties reported in the Yobe attacks, more than 130 were Christians. When the Muslim extremists went to New Jerusalem, they said, any Christian they met who could not recite the Islamic creed was instantly shot and killed or slaughtered like a lamb.

Qur'an 47:4: "Strike at their necks..."

The Rev. Idris Garba, the 41-year-old chairman of the Yobe state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass the attack “is a Jihad against the church.”...

Jihad causes poverty. Not only are there now displaced persons, but where residents have to flee a town, they take their buying power and ability to generate wealth with them. All of this slaughter is supposed to achieve a paradise under Sharia if the jihadists can kill enough people who stand in the way.

The one thing Boko Haram is apparently succeeding in is expelling the Christians, after which it will look for targets among Muslims it regards as apostates, and therefore lawful for killing under Sharia. In that regard, the "apostasy" sword cuts both ways: one can accuse, but can also be accused, and marked for death. "Residents flee northeast Nigeria city after attack," from the Associated Press, November 8:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Residents have begun to flee a northeast Nigerian city where a radical Muslim sect launched attacks that killed more than 100 people.

Rev. Idi Garba said Tuesday that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital. Garba said streets remained deserted, without soldiers or police protection.

More than 100 people died in bombings and gunfights Friday in Damaturu, an attack claimed by a radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has been carrying out a string of targeted assassinations for more than a year by gunmen on motorcycles and carrying out bombings in northeast Nigeria. At least 360 people have been killed in those attacks this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

Jihad causes poverty, sapping resources, damaging infrastructure, disrupting cultural and intellectual life, scaring away investment, and above all, destroying human life. Somewhere in there, all of that is supposed to bring about an earthly paradise under Sharia. Funny how it keeps not working.

An update on this story. "US: Bomb attacks possible in Nigeria capital," by Jon Gambrell for the Associated Press, November 6:

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A radical Muslim sect reponsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in northeast Nigeria this week could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in the oil-rich nation's capital, the U.S. Embassy warned Sunday.

The unusually specific warning from U.S. diplomats identified possible targets of the sect known locally as Boko Haram as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. Those hotels draw diplomats, politicians and Nigeria's business elite daily in the country's central capital of Abuja.

The embassy said the attack may come as Nigeria celebrates the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.

Deb MacLean, an embassy spokeswoman, declined to offer further details about the threat or the source of the information Sunday.

The warning came as a Nigerian Red Cross official said Sunday that more than 100 died in a series of attacks in northeast Nigeria launched by the radical Muslim sect, as sect gunmen shot and killed another police officer.

Ibrahim Bulama told The Associated Press he expected the number of dead to rise as local clinics and hospitals tabulate the casualty figures from the attacks Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.

While the hard-hit city remained calm and its Muslim inhabitants celebrated a religious holiday Sunday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet, Bulama said.

Like their counterparts in Thailand, Boko Haram's jihadists attack representatives of (or collaborators with) institutions connected with the existing, non-Sharia state:

Meanwhile, the sect known locally as Boko Haram killed a police inspector Sunday in the city of Maiduguri, the sect's spiritual home about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Damaturu. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.

Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector to death, Midenda said. The sect members later allowed his family to drive the car away, he said....