Woe betide you if you dare to point out that in Islamic history and theology jihad has always had, and still has, a violent aspect. This in itself will be enough to earn you the label of “Islamophobe” and worse. Unfortunately, however, all too many Muslims around the world seem to have no difficulty believing that jihad involves violence against unbelievers.
Why don’t those 138 Muslim scholars who wrote to the Pope and other Christian leaders write to these Muslims and explain to them how they’re getting Islam all wrong?
“Nigeria: Two Christians Murdered In Kaduna,” from Compass Direct (thanks to Davida):
KADUNA, Nigeria, October 22 (Compass Direct News) — One man has been killed with a sword and another bludgeoned to death in this city in central northern Nigeria following Muslim leaders” appeal to wage violent jihad against youthful Christians.
Muslim extremists on October 12 murdered Henry Emmanuel Ogbaje, a 24-year-old Christian, at an area known as Gamji Gate. The following day, church leaders said, a young Christian identified only as Basil was beaten to death with wooden clubs in the same area.
Ogbaje was a Sunday school teacher with the Military Protestant Church at Kotoko Barracks in Kaduna, while Basil, church leaders said, was a member of the Our Lady of Apostles Catholic Church. He was from Kagarko Local Government Area.
Elder Saidu Dogo, secretary of the northern Nigeria chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass that Islamic leader Sheik Gumi had urged Muslims to wage jihad against Christians during Tafsir, the reading and interpretation of the Quran, in televised broadcasts during the Islamic month-long observance of Ramadan.
“I saw Sheik Gumi on the television, NTA [Nigeria Television Authority], during that period preaching this inciting sermon — in fact, the same sermon was again broadcast by NTA Kaduna, on September 21 and 22,” Dogo told Compass. “He specifically called for a jihad, and that when they go killing they should not kill the elderly people, because the elderly have spent their years already, but that Muslims should kill young Christians.”
Dogo said that Sheik Gumi justified his call for jihad by saying in the same way Muhammad captured the Arabian peninsula, and Usman dan Fodio influenced northern Nigeria. Sheik Gumi concluded that because the British took northern Nigeria from the Islamic reformer (1754-1817) by force, Muslims “should fight to take over Nigeria by going to war against Christians.”