down churches to protest a newspaper article defending the Miss World contest, a Christian relief group said Friday, November 22.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which helps persecuted Christians, said the violence in the capital of Nigeria’s Kaduna State was part of demonstrations against the ThisDay newspaper which questioned Muslim opposition to the Miss World contest.
A Journalist commented in the paper that Prophet Muhammad would not have been averse of marrying one of the Miss World participants, this year in Nigeria, would he be alive today.
That angered thousands of Muslims who chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they marched to the editorial office Thursday, November 21, to search for This Day Chief Correspondent, Josephine Lohor, CSW said.
"When they failed to find her they set fire to the office, and went on the rampage, attacking at least two hotels and burning down four to ten churches," said CSW, which has been in Nigeria to investigate the plight of Christians.
NON-MUSLIMS "SINGLED OUT"
In a statement to BosNewsLife, CSW stressed that "Non-Muslims were singled out for the attack, with several people reported to have been burned, bludgeoned or stabbed to death."
The attackers apparently arrived in Kaduca City in a convoy of buses bearing Arabic inscriptions, which CSW said made some observers believe that they belonged to an Islamic organization.
Local Christian leaders have linked these and other violence "to forces of Islam responsible for the bombing of the Twin Towers in America, attacks on Christian churches and Aid workers in Pakistan, and on the nightclub in Bali, Indonesia," CSW said.
Pressured by the protests, This Day has apologized for the article, in an effort to try to calm the situation, but the area remained tense Friday November 22, several news reports said.
CURFEW ORDER
The Kaduna State Government issued a curfew to combat the violence, but local Christian leaders fear more attacks, CSW reported.
"Beneath all this is a plan against the Church. It would seem that they (the Muslim radicals) are looking for the slightest excuse (to have) a religious fight," Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, was quoted as saying by CSW.
"If this is a matter of the newspaper against the Islamic view, then why have at least four churches been burned down and several Christians been killed? Did the churches sponsor the publication or own the newspaper? What does this have to do with the lives that have been lost?," he wondered.
GROWING ANGER
The latest violence comes amid apparently growing anger among Muslims about United States policy towards Iraq and the Middle East. Scholars have suggested that Islamic extremists view the U.S. as a major Christian country and that Christians in Nigeria are seen as representing American interests and a threat to Islam.
"A recent fact-finding visit to Nigeria by a CSW team found that far from this being a tribal or inter-ethnic conflict, this is primarily a religious issue," said CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas. "In every attack, Christians are targeted, usually by Hausa-Fulani Muslims, he noted.
Thomas said that "Muslim members of other tribes are left unmolested while Christians and churches bear wave after wave of attack." He added that CSW has been urging the Nigerian state and federal governments "to uphold the country’s constitution and to be steadfast and impartial in keeping the peace."
INCREASED VIOLENCE
The most populous African nation of over 110 million people, has seen an increase in interreligious violence since several northern states began to call for what is known as full Shari’ah Law in 1999. So far over 6,000 people are believed to have died as a direct result of Shari’ah related clashes, including many Christians.
Besides the recent violence, previous attacks include the burning down of 3 churches and Christian and a Christian business in 2001, when the U.S started airstrikes against the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. Posters of Osama Bin Laden were pasted to the gutted remains during that violence in Kaduna City, CSW discovered.
After that incident a similar anti-U.S. protest turned violent in Kano where Muslim militants invaded the city’s Christian quarter and reportedly killed at least 100 people.
A CSW team also uncovered what it said was "evidence of orchestrated attacks on Christian settlements" in predominantly Christian Plateau State "that usually involve gangs of 300 to 600 well armed Islamic extremists."
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