“Bishop Kevin? Boko Haram has done it again. They’ve raided the town of Shani, a largely Christian town, and thrown bombs into people’s homes.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, I thought you might want to bring it up at tonight’s outreach and dialogue meeting at Masjid Aurangzeb.”
“Are you kidding? Imam Mahmoud has already told me they condemn the attacks on Christians.”
“Yes, I know that, Bishop Kevin, but maybe you could ask Imam Mahmoud what he is doing to teach Muslims to reject the understanding of Islam that leads to these attacks on Christians–”
“Be serious. Do you want them to think I’m a racist? A bigot? Look, Father Bud, these dialogue sessions are designed to build bridges, not to cause offense. And besides, the chicken and pita over at the mosque is out of this world.”
“Yes, Bishop Kevin, I understand. But what good is building bridges if you constantly avoid difficult or controversial issues?”
“Father Bud, I have just one thing to say to you: you will never be a bishop.”
“Suspected Boko Haram militants raid northern Christian town in Nigeria,” Reuters, November 30, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – Suspected Boko Haram militants, who arrived on motorcycles throwing bombs, raided a mostly Christian town in Nigeria’s northeast after nightfall on Saturday, residents and a military source said.
Residents said scores of people had been killed in the town of Shani, but a police source said they had been unable to verify the death toll as communications to the town had been largely cut off.
“They rode on motorcycles and were more than 30 men. They started throwing bombs into houses…then the Boko Haram fired shots at people fleeing,” resident Ishaya Brimah told Reuters by phone from a nearby village on Sunday.
“They set ablaze the police station, houses and a telecom mast…I saw people fleeing, some bodies on the ground.”
Shani is located in Nigeria’s Borno state, the heartland of Islamist group Boko Haram’s five-year insurgency, which has displaced more than one million people.
The Sunni jihadist movement is fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in Nigeria’s north. The group is suspected to be behind Friday’s attack on the central mosque in the second city of Kano, where at least 100 people died….