By BosNewsLife Africa Service with reporting by BosNewsLife’s Paul Jongas in Nigeria and Stefan J. Bos
NAIROBI, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Christians in northeastern Nigeria are mourning an evangelical pastor and at least some 150 other people killed by militants who want to establish an Islamic state.
The latest attacks began Monday, July 14, when fighters of the Islamic group ‘Boko Haram’, or ‘Western education is a sin’, attacked Dille village in Borno state, killing Pastor Taiwo Dokun pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and some 44 other villagers, Christians said.
Witnesses said he was shot dead when he tried to escape. The whereabouts of the late pastor’s wife and their three children remained unknown Sunday, July 21.
“The family could have been abducted by the insurgents who took away many of the residents of the town. The pastor’s family members have not been found since the attack and have not called any one,” a church member told reporters, without revealing his name.
The pastor’s residence was reportedly completely razed by the insurgents. Other homes and shops were also torched, forcing villagers to flee the area into nearby hills, residents said.
VIOLENCE SPREADING
Soon after violence spread to other areas in northeastern Nigeria. Since Friday, July 18, at least more than 100 people were killed, and militants were seen hoisting their black and white flag over the north-eastern town of Damboa.
Hundreds of people in another north-eastern area, Askira Uba, are fleeing after receiving letters from the Boko Haram threatening to attack and take over their villages, Abbas Gava, a spokesman for the Nigerian Vigilante Group said.
“Nine major villages are on the run,” he told repoters.
Survivors said on Saturday that the insurgents had attacked the town of Damboa before dawn on Friday, July 18. firing rocket-propelled grenades, throwing homemade bombs into homes and gunning down people as they tried to escape the ensuing fires. Most of the town had burned down. Many Christians were believed to be among the dead.
The town had reportedly been under siege for two weeks, since Boko Haram dislodged soldiers from a new tank battalion camp on its outskirts.
CHRISTIANS WARNED
Boko Haram earlier warned Christians to leave northern Nigeria, as it seeks to establish a strict Islamic state in this nation of 170 million people.
Nigeria’s Defence Ministry said it repelled an attack and killed at least 50 insurgents for the loss of six soldiers, including the commanding officer, but locals said many soldiers had died. The military was reportedly driven from the base after militants twice ambushed military convoys.
It came amid concern over the whereabouts of more than 200 Christian schoolgirls, who have been held in captivity for three months.
Boko Haram has also detonated bombs as far away as Lagos, the commercial capital in the south-west, as part of its increasingly violent Islamic campaign.
More than 2,000 civilians were killed in some 95 attacks during the first half of 2014, according to investigators of the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. That compares with an estimated 3,600 people killed in the first four years of the insurgency, adding to pressure on Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan to improve security, including for Christians living in heavily Muslim areas.
• When tolerant and democratic non-Muslim societies give in to the Muslim religious privileges, many of their toxic anti-non-Muslim components creep in exponentially as their population grows as explained below:
Muslims up to 5% of the population (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA) : Stay as segregated minority, start Mosque construction, use oil money to influence liberal Journalists for public relations and open Islamic Study Chairs in major universities, proselytize from vulnerable groups, clog streets with open-air congregationary rug prayers, develop sleeper cells for Jihad;
Muslims 5 to 10% (France, Kenya, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland) : Push for those Islamic believes that are in conflict with the values & tradition of diverse societies, ask breaks on jobs for 5-times prayers, establish madrasa education, display of veil by their females, demand to rule themselves by Sharia;
Muslims 10 to 25% (Burma, Cyprus, INDIA, Israel, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Thailand) : Tend to increase lawlessness and chaos such as mob violence after Friday prayers for alleged blasphemy or Koran burning destroying national monuments (India) and car-burnings (France). Many actions of native non-Muslims population in full compliance with their own culture, constitution and traditions of freedom of speech will offend Islam resulting in uprisings such as opposition to Mohammad cartoons, post false blogs using non-Muslim on-line names, force partition of countries, create mayhem by terror and ethnic cleansing, keep their daughters confined while seducing young non-Muslim girls to marry forcing conversion, shelter illegal Muslims migrants from all over the world and breed more to increase Muslim population ratio;
Muslims 25% to 90%:- Once the population of Muslims reaches 25%, forced conversions, hair-trigging riots and ethnic cleansing will start to ensure that the figure reaches 95%. As long as the figure is fewer than 25% the only ways to increase Muslim population are illegal immigration, conversion of poor and illiterates, and high birth rates like rabbits; with the exception of few countries such as NIGERIA (always in turmoil despite huge oil income), there are very few countries in the world where the population of Muslims is between 25% and 90%. Indonesia and Malaysia are examples of countries that have seen rapid Islamisation and discrimination of minorities in recent decades.
Muslims from 90 to 99% (Albania, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia,
Chad, Chechnya, Egypt, Gaza, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Nigeria, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, West Bank) : notice violent jihad, face hair-trigger riots, jihad lashkars, unfettered persecution of non-Muslims, use Zakat funds to spread Islam and terror, target killings, sporadic ethnic cleansing, death for conversion (apostasy and proselytizing), Rule by Sharia, start conspiracy theory, subdue and impose Jizya tax on non-Muslims only, military coups, dictatorships, disappearances of dissidents, enforcement of dreaded Blasphemy Law, some genocide, drive infidels out with frenzy to make 100% Muslim state;
100% Muslim population (Afghanistan, GAZA, Libya, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen) : Should usher Darul-Islam, the Islamic world of Peace; here everybody is a Muslim, Madrasa their schools, Mullah their intellectuals and Koran is the only word. Unfortunately, peace in Islam is a mirage as it can NEVER be achieved, even in 100% Muslim states. By then the entire society becomes radicalized and more-radicalized, Crazy Muslims intimidate, spread hatred thru network media by morphed pictures, spew venom and satisfy their blood-lust by killing less-radicalized Muslims such as Sunnis killing Shias and vice versa. Worst, the Islamic state becomes either a brutal Islamic Sheikhdom as Saudi Arab with free oil money or a terrorist state like Pakistan using terrorism as a state policy with nuclear bomb in the control of genocidal army or Somalia, the nation of pirates, all claiming to follow the guidance emanating from the same source- KORAN.