No, not the greasy Islamophobes. The Islamic supremacists and jihadists of Nigeria want to bring the whole country under the sway of Sharia. “Residents of Nigerian village live in fear of renewed massacres,” by Jonathan Clayton for The Times, March 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):
A thick, pale scar cuts across Jessica Chuwang’s cheek. It slices through a blood-encrusted ear and runs deep down her neck. Jet black eyes, full of fear, dart from her father back to the strangers gathered outside the door of the small tin-roofed home.
“She is very nervous, we all are — we fear they will be back anytime,” her father, Pam Chuwang, tells The Times. “People are receiving text messages saying they are coming back to finish the job.”
This Nigerian village, on the outskirts of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, lies on the fault line between Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and Christian south.
This month it bore the brunt of one of the most brutal attacks the region has witnessed. In an area where thousands have died over the past decade in violence pitching rival Fulani Muslims and Christian Beroms against each other, its ferocity shocked the nation and has ignited fears that ancient disputes over land and cattle are entering a new, bloodier dimension.
On March 7 armed Muslims, some reportedly in army uniforms, entered the village at about 3am. As the shooting began panicked villagers fled for their lives, only to be hacked to death by gangs armed with knives and machetes who were lying in wait. Some even used nets to catch their victims before hacking them to death. […]
Estimates of the number killed vary enormously but the villagers insist that it is about 500 — more than double official figures. Two other villages nearby were also attacked but the worst of the violence and the highest death toll took place in Dogon Na Hauwa. […]
People have returned but no one is working. Instead, they sit around in small groups comparing notes on the attack and the latest rumours. At least 100 Muslim families who lived among the Christians left before the attack. They have yet to return.
“They were warned the attack was coming,” said Daniel Jik, assistant village headman, who lost two children and eight grandchildren in the attack. He pointed to the mass grave where they lay together. “They even beheaded one woman and we had to bury her body alone because they took the head as a trophy.” Across dusty, sun-baked fields, the village church, now a blackened ruin, still smoulders. […]
Poverty Causes Terrorism Alert:
Sanusi Mato, a moderate Islamic politician, said that the Government was not tackling the root cause of the rivalries: poverty. “The problem is not religious, but political and economic, but it is allowed to take on religious and ethnic dimension and that is very dangerous.”
I.e., pay off the Muslim community and this will stop happening.
Some Christians say, however, that what is happening in Jos is just the tip of the iceberg. Northern Nigeria has become increasingly Islamised over the past decade with most states adopting Islamic law and many Christians fleeing southwards.
“They now want to extend this into the middle belt, but we will never accept it,” Toma Jang Davou, head of the parliamentary forum of the Berom Christians, said. “They say they will not be happy until they dip the Koran in the waters of the Atlantic.”