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"They cannot control their anger, they take knives and slaughter." Religion of Tolerance - and Clear Thinking.
Daily Champion (Lagos) 1 October 2007 John Shiklam Kaduna
GENERAL Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Mr Samuel Salifu has condemned the killing of Christians in Tudun Dankande local government area of Kano State.
He called on the state government to bring the perpetrators to book, warning that Christians would no longer condone any attack on them.
Salifu who spoke with newsmen in Kaduna weekend said that reports reaching him from Kano state said there was trouble in Tudun Dankande local government area of the state Friday where nine Christians, including a youth corper serving in the area were killed and their property destroyed over an internet cartoon said to have emanated from a 20-year-old Muslim boy from Bangladesh.
"Information available to me is that almost all the churches within that local government area have been razed down and shops belonging to Christians had also been burnt including their houses. We have been told that they have been ejected and their property brought down and burnt.
"The information given was that they saw a cartoon on the internet and they discovered that this cartoon was drawn by a 20-year-old Muslim boy from Bangladesh and they decided to visit their anger on innocent Christians and their churches.
"I have been told that nine people including a youth corper are confirmed dead and several others injured while the local government in a desperate attempt to cover the dastardly act pretended to be taking the victims to the hospital while in reality they sent some of the victims to Bauchi and some other places around so that people will not go there and see the number of destitutes or refugees caused by this incident.
"That is the information available, so far. What we have done is to ensure that the vice president is informed," he alleged.
He said Christians and their leaders were getting worried because both the Christian leaders and Muslims had been holding series of meetings within and outside the Nigerian Inter Religious Council (NIREC) to see how to bring about peaceful coexistence between followers of the two religions. Salifu regretted, however, that "the more we continue to meet with Muslim leaders the more some of these people attack our people.
"We are pleading with the government to step in. I am directly telling President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua because this may be a very good litmus test of his administration.
" So far, both Christians and Muslims in the country seem to appreciate what he is doing. But if he keeps quiet and talks about rule of law and doesn't try quickly to intervene in what is happening, then he will begin to see that there is a different law running in this country because the Christians will not just continue to watch while people just slaughter them as they like ..."
"It is clear that the cartoonist is from Bangladesh and he is a Muslim, so why should they now visit their anger on Christians unless they are lunatics and if you call them this type of name, they say they are angry, but they go killing.
"They cannot control their anger, they take knives and slaughter. When you tell them what they are doing is wrong, they will turn round and start to kill. Very soon, there would be a lot of blood shed unless they stop this nonsense because the church is getting fed up.
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This is not acceptable. We Muslims are told that killing an innocent person is as though you have killed all of mankind.
This is not acceptable at all for Muslims to be doing this and after reading the article if it is true there is no other proper solution that an eye for an eye i.e. death to those who have committed such a terrible crime.
Muslim continue to over and over again give a bad name to the way of life called Al Islaam. That is why it is important for one to know Islam and not know or understand Islaam by the actions of people.
I say as a revert. There is a very strong possibility that had I known and truly known Muslims before I knew about Islaam I may have not accepted Al-Islaam as my way of life. The things that people (who associate themselves with the name of Islaam) are doing is absolutely pathetic and nothing at all to be proud of.
-------------------- 'Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "Allah's Apostle (صلى الله عليه و سلم) took hold of my shoulder and said, "Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveller." Posts: 2342 | From: Its not where I'm from but where Im going | Registered: Jul 2007
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Wednesday October 10, 2007 NIGERIA: MUSLIM THREAT TO ATTACK CHURCH RAISES TENSIONS Militants drop letters on premises of 3,000-member congregation in Borno state.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, October 10 (Compass Direct News) – Militant Islamists in this city in the northern state of Borno have sent three letters to a church warning that members would be attacked in the next few days, raising tensions where 50 Christians were killed and 57 churches destroyed last year.
Leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria told Compass that the letters were dropped onto the premises of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN), in the Polo Area of Maiduguri, on separate days last week.
Mosque calls to prayer were sounded at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. last night, hours when Muslims do not usually observe prayers, putting police and security agencies on alert. By 6 this morning, police armored tanks were patrolling the streets to thwart any plans to attack Christians.
The Rev. Daniel Mbaya of the Polo Area Church of the Brethren, which has about 3,000 members, had reported the threat to police and Christian leaders. Nigeria’s security agencies and Christian leaders held an emergency meeting yesterday on ways to protect Christians in the event of an Islamic strike on the church.
Rev. Mbaya is no stranger to Nigerian security agents, as Muslims in the city have long opposed the existence of his church.
The church was planted when members of the Church at Wulari EYN Church in Maiduguri encountered difficulties in getting to their sanctuary whenever there was energy crisis, as getting fuel for cars was nearly impossible. To solve the problem, a member of the church, Andrew Balami, then a public officer in the Borno state government, offered his home for worship services.
Balami’s residence became a home church where Bible studies and prayers were being held regularly. The emergence of this house church in the GRA Area of Maiduguri attracted other Christians in the vicinity, and area Muslims soon took their objections to the presence of the church to Borno officials. The Muslim-dominated state government ordered Balami to close the house church or face sanctions it.
Balami did not budge, and harassment of the house church continued. The Borno government ordered a halt to payment of Balami’s salary. He was threatened with dismissal. Eventually Balami was suspended from office for one year.
Balami had received 10 letters from the government warning him against using his house as a church. He was also threatened with legal prosecution, and Balami asked members of the church to relocate. The church members decided to raise funds to build a sanctuary.
They managed to raise 3.5 million naira (US$28,500), which they used to buy a night club property. Construction of the new sanctuary began soon after.
The Borno state government, however, ordered construction to stop. While church leaders pressed for building to continue, Muslims moved into the area in order to claim that a church would be too close to where they worship and hence not allowed. The Christians’ new neighbors told them to leave the property.
Church members resolved to die in the defence of the new sanctuary, Mbaya said. They continued construction while worshiping under makeshift shade on the property. Since its completion, various authorities have ordered Mbaya to report to security agencies almost monthly.
“I have been arrested, harassed and detained by the police, security services, and even soldiers were used to harass me,” Mbaya told Compass. “This year alone, I have been invited by the police more than three times.”
Sanctuary Set Ablaze
The sanctuary was set ablaze on February 18 last year, alongside other churches in the city, by Muslim militants protesting cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper.
On that day, Mbaya returned from a pastors’ conference outside the city. He entered Maiduguri and was able to get to his house before the violence erupted, but there he received a phone call that Muslims were heading toward his church to set it ablaze. He quickly phoned police.
“I drove to the church premises and discovered that already there were hundreds of Muslim militants who had congregated around the church and were setting the church building on fire,” he told Compass.
Mybaya was able to get six policemen to accompany him back to the church as it burned, he said, but the officers did not arrest any of the extremists.
“I and some members of my church who braved the crisis to defend our church building arrested eight of the Muslim militants and then handed them over to the police,” he said. “But they were released soon without trial.”
Besides the church fire, he said, five members of his church were attacked in their homes and critically injured.
“Our church building at the Church’s Farm Centre was also completely burned,” he said. “Mr. Misari, one of our church members at the Farm Centre Church, was stabbed with a knife and left to bleed to death. He was eventually rescued by other church members who took him to the hospital.”
On the whole, Mbaya says Muslim militants attacked Christians for a period of four hours. “They rioted from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. without restraint.”
Convert Dangers
Most of Muslim converts to Christianity in the city, Mbaya said, have been threatened with death from family members and other Muslims.
“Recently, we had one Muslim convert, Hussaini Mohammed. But, because of the threat to his life, we were forced to take him to another state in order to protect him,” he said. “We also have another convert by the name Musa Mohammed Tukur, who has been disciple and has to be taken into hiding because of the threat on his life.”
Rev. Yuguda Zibagai Ndurvwa Rev. Yuguda Zibagai Ndurvwa Whenever Muslims convert, the church takes them into hiding because it is not possible for them to return to their families, he said.
“Becoming Christians means permanent separation from their families if they must remain alive,” he said. “If they return to their families they would certainly be killed.”
The Church of the Brethren in Nigeria has about 10 converts from Islam hidden in different parts of the country.
The Rev. Yuguda Zibagai Ndurvwa, minister in charge of the EYN Church, Wulari area of Maiduguri, corroborated the threat to the local Polo Area church.
“It is not only that church that is facing tough times, but all Christian churches in the city of Maiduguri,” he said.
Ndurvwa said Christians also suffer discrimination in public service and in schools. Kidnapping of children was another problem common to EYN members as well as other Christians in Borno state.
“A member of our church here, Mama Asabe Ladagu, had her appointment terminated at the Ramat Polytechnic because she was seen speaking against discrimination of Christian staff and students of the institution,” Ndurvwa said.
He also cited the abduction of a Christian girl, Maryamu Bulus, a member of his EYN Church, who was forcefully married to a Muslim man.
For Mbaya, doing ministry among Muslims is a challenging task.
“Doing ministry among Muslims is very challenging and very difficult,” he said. “It takes the grace of God to save you, the pastor, as well as the convert.”
The imposition of sharia (Islamic) law, forceful relocation of churches, and lack of land for the building of new church buildings are other problems confronting Christians in this state, he said.
“Government resources are being used to propagate and promote Islam to the detriment of Christianity,” Mbaya said. “A ministry of religious affairs has been created to cater for the religious needs of Muslims, and yet, Christians do not have such privileges.” web pagePosts: 3188 | Registered: Feb 2007
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Muslims will destroy and wipe-out non-Muslims for anything tiny offense to their religion whether it was true or not (like in this case), yet Muslims offend non-Muslims all the time and disparage them!
Look what these Muslims in Indonesia did to this little Christian school girl!
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