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Nigeria: Christians slaughtered over cartoon
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John Henry
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Oct 08, 2007 03:58 PDT
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Again! 10 Christians slaughtered over alleged
Muhammad cartoon
61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored
'insult' to Islam
October 5, 2007
(c) 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Remains of burned Baptist church (Courtesy
Compass Direct)
Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed
nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria,
according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students
claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet,
Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.
The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in
Nigeria's northern state of Kano.
According to
Compass Direct
News, which specializes in reporting on Christian persecution
worldwide, there are 1,500 students at the high school, called Government
College-Tudun Wada Dankadai, of which only 14 are Christians, and only
seven of those actually live on campus. The Christian students at the
school insist no one ever saw the alleged cartoon, and furthermore that
no one in the tiny minority group of Christians would have dared such a
feat, especially during Ramadan.
"How can we take such a risk when we know that we are a minority and
cannot stand [against] them?" Christian student Shehu Bawa told
Compass. "This is a lie created to have a reason to attack us."
Eighteen-year-old student Iliya Adamu told Compass he was getting ready
to go to class when a group of Muslim students stormed into his dorm and
began to beat him.
(Story continues below)
"I was surprised that they were beating me without telling what I
did," Adamu said. "I asked to know what was happening, and they
claimed that one Christian student had gone to their mosque to draw a
cartoon of Muhammad. In spite of my denying the act, they kept beating
me."
Seeing the Muslim mob beating a Christian classmate named Sule La’azaru,
Adamu ran to the principal's office for refuge, soon to be joined by the
remaining Christian students there, according to the report.
Despite the attempts by the Muslim teachers to stop the rampage, Muslim
students began throwing stones at the Christian students through the
window of the principal's office, wounding student Ayuba Wada in the
head.
"I was inside the office of our principal, with the others, when
suddenly the Muslim students began throwing stones at us," Wada told
Compass. "It was through this way that my head was broken. I was
bleeding, and no help came as the situation became more riotous."
Eventually, the rampaging Muslim students broke into the principal's
office, but the principal's arrival saved Wada's life, while the other
Christians holed up there managed to escape the mob.
One of the Christian students, Shehu Bawa, told Compass his arrival on
campus that morning was punctuated by shouts of "Allahu Akbar"
(Allah is Great) "all over the school." In fact, he said,
"The Muslim students were now attacking every Christian student on
sight. Four of us ran into the office of the vice principal, but when it
was finally broken into by the Muslim students, we ran out and
escaped."
What about the alleged cartoon of Muhammad, rumors of which instigated
the attacks?
"We suspect that either one of the Muslim students in the school did
this to create an excuse for us to be attacked, or that a Muslim fanatic
from the town might have done this to spark off a fight among Muslims and
Christians," said Bawa. "How could we have done this when
Muslim students are always around the mosque day and night because of the
Ramadan?"
The rampage spreads far and wide
After attacking the few Christian students in their school, the rampaging
Muslim students poured into the streets of Tudun Wada, joined now by
other Muslims. For the next four hours, reports Compass, the growing mob
burned down Christian churches, vandalized Christian property and
murdered innocents.
Among the churches burned were: St. Mary’s Catholic Church; St. George’s
Anglican Church; Evangelical Church of West Africa; Assemblies of God
Church; First Baptist Church; a Pentecostal church called the Mountain of
Fire and Miracles Church; an African independent church, the Cherubim and
Seraphim Church; and two other Pentecostal churches, The Chosen Bible
Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
Children of murdered Christian (Courtesy
Compass Direct)
The 10 Christians murdered included: Augustine Odoh and his younger
brother Cosmos Odoh, both members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Another
Catholic, Joseph Eze, was also killed. When Compass filed its initial
report, the corpses of the three Catholics were lying at the City
Hospital in Kano city. Seven other Christians murdered were buried in a
common grave Wednesday, but government workers did not allow relatives or
church leaders to identify the corpses.
The dozens of injured are being treated at the Assumpta Clinic,
Nomansland in Sabon Gari area of Kano city.
According to Musa Ahmadu Haruna, the priest of St. George’s Anglican
Church, Tudun Wada Dankadai, whose church was burned, no Christian
student in the school could have drawn an image of Muhammad.
"None of these students is capable of drawing a cartoon on a
mosque," he told Compass Direct. "That is a frame-up to find a
reason to attack us."
Another pastor, Rabiu Danbawa of the Evangelical Church of West Africa,
said that upon hearing of the waves of attacks on Christians, he moved
toward the town's center to see for himself what was transpiring.
"I stood as they set fire on our churches one by one," he told
Compas Direct. "There was nothing I could do," he said, adding,
"I did not know the fate of my wife and my children." When he
went to the local police station for help, Danbawa found the police
turning away Christians who had run there to escape the attack. "We
were told to leave, as our safety could not be guaranteed," he said,
in tears, according to Compass Direct. "Women and children all
scampered to the bush, only to be attacked by the Muslims who had already
hid themselves in the bush awaiting their Christian prey."
It wasn't until several days later that Danbawa found his wife and
children safe.
Accoroding to reports from Compass, Danbawa and his family are now
refugees in Dogon Kawo village, along with other Christian victims. None
have food or shelter, he said.
Even Christian policemen were not immune, with about 30 officers and
their families being attacked and their homes looted and set on fire.
Last week's massacre comes in respose to a call in July by the Sultan of
Sokoto, Abubakar III, to Muslims in northern Nigeria to rise against
Christianity. Kano's state government has led the way in northern Nigeria
for the implementation of sharia Islamic law.
Mark Lipdo, director of the Stefanos Foundation, which ministers to
persecuted Christians in Nigeria, told Compass he's shocked that the
Nigerian government has done nothing to help the injured and displaced.
"It is surprising that an overwhelming thing like this that has
displaced thousands of Christians is not known to the Nigerian
government," he said, noting that the government initially
downplayed the mass rampage. "The government must act to check such
unprovoked attacks against Christians."
And Haruna of St. George’s Anglican Church said, "We are living
under persecution in Kano state, and yet, we are being told that we are
under a democratic government. Do Muslims really want us to co-exist
together as a nation? I doubt so."
As
WND reported in May, Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half
the population, fears the imposition of Islamic law throughout that
nation.
Indeed, as
WND has reported, Muslim rioters in Nigeria in 2006 were incensed over
cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark, and more than 130 Christians
in the Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Onitsha were slaughtered.
The reports documented six children burned to ashes in front of their
father, according to Voice of the Martyrs.
WND also
has reported nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have
been destroyed in these regions.
"If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or
one foot," explained Rev. Obiora Ike. "Do you think that's the
result of an illness? That is the result of sharia law."
More than 10,000 Christians have been martyred in the region since the
Islamic law was imposed in the region in 1999, and
Voice of the Martyrs has helped surviving family members through its
Families of Martyrs Fund with Care Packs, Village Outreach packs and
words of encouragement to believers who stand for their faith
"amidst volatile, uncertain conditions."
Previous stories:
Crackdown on Christians could go nationwide
Widow of
slain Christian: 'Forgive them'
Christian
pastor accused of being 'imposter'
Government
treats own citizens like POWs
Playground
dispute could bring death penalty
Church
brother taken hostage by Hindus
Court
orders preacher into 'exile'
Photos
document persecution of Christians!
Does
release of church leader signal change?
Christians
jailed for walking near Olympic hotel
Anti-Christian rage hits previously quiet area
Evangelists beaten for handing out tracts
Tortured
brickmakers refuse to embrace Islam
Fabricated
evidence lands man 6 years in jail
3,000
Christians added
daily
in
China
Attack
shows Communists still persecute Christians
Christians
face Christmas beatings, church burnings
Pastors'
convictions for quoting Quran overturned
Christian
teen recovering from attack by Islamists
Encourage
someone in jail just for being Christian!
Teen saved
from forced conversion to Islam
Bible-ban
buster ships off 100,000th Bible – to Egypt
Lies
aren't changing, but impact is, says ministry
Vision inspires missionary to return to North Korea
Missionary says Christian church meets '3 or 4' at a time
From torturing to tears: A warden repents
Teen's testimony of faith unstopped by death
Ambush by 'radicals' leaves pastor in hospital
Teen escapes from Muslim kidnappers in Egypt
Volunteers take on, defeat Chinese Bible ban
Boy slave 'crucified' by Sudanese Muslim
Christian preacher injured when bus rams SUV
Machete
attack survivor working on rehab
Christian men face execution
Pastors seek police help, get beatings
Christian beaten for drinking water
Christian Pakistani teen escapes death
130
Christians murdered over cartoons
Founder of Voice of the Martyrs jailed, tortured by Communists for
years
Nigeria's
war on Christians
------------------------
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron." (1 Timothy 4:1-2)
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