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Muslim Mobs, Seeking Vengeance, Attack Christians in Nigeria
nytimes.com ^ | May 13, 2004 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 05/12/2004 11:05:51 PM PDT by Destro

Muslim Mobs, Seeking Vengeance, Attack Christians in Nigeria

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: May 13, 2004

KANO, Nigeria, May 12 - Muslim mobs brandishing machetes and clubs attacked Christians in the streets of Kano on Wednesday as security forces struggled to quell a two-day rampage to avenge a massacre of hundreds of Nigerian Muslims.

The police confirmed that at least 30 had been killed in strife engulfing Kano in northern Nigeria. Thousands of people, most of them belonging to the city's minority Christian population, cowered in army barracks and police stations as mobs attacked people outside. Witnesses said dozens more had been killed.

"I saw them put an old tire on his neck and set him ablaze," said Barry Owoyemi, 30, of a dead neighbor. Mr. Owoyemi, a Christian, was taken to safety by police officers who fired their guns in the air to scare away the attackers.

The police said they had been ordered to shoot rioters on sight.

The rampage exploded Tuesday after thousands of Muslims protested the killing of as many as 600 Muslims by a predominantly Christian ethnic group last week in Yelwa, a town in central Nigeria.

The latest rioting threatened to prolong the violence. On Wednesday, in what was apparently a response to Muslim attacks, a group of young Christians in Kano fired shotguns at groups of Muslim men accused of torching houses.

"The Kano situation is an unfortunate development and just a reverberation of what happened in Yelwa," said Remi Oyo, a spokeswoman for President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mr. Obasanjo's election in 1999 started a brittle civilian government after 15 years of oppressive military rule and aggravated long-simmering ethnic, religious and communal tensions. Fighting in Nigeria, Africa's most-populous country, has since killed more than 10,000 people.

Mr. Obasanjo, a Christian and a former military junta leader, ordered security agencies on Wednesday to "put a permanent end" to the violence, Ms. Oyo said, without elaborating.

The police commissioner in Kano, Abdul Ganiyu Daudu, confirmed that 30 people had been killed. Rioters were burning buildings and blocking residents from escaping, he said.

Boniface Ibekwe, a leader of minority Christian Ibo-speakers in Kano, asked the police in the presence of journalists to "stop this killing today or give us six months to leave Kano peacefully."

On Wednesday evening, security forces fired shots and tear gas into the air to disperse crowds before a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

On Tuesday, Kano's most influential cleric started the Muslim protest at the town's main mosque, telling protesters that the Yelwa killings were part of a Western conspiracy against followers of Islam.

The attacks on Yelwa, on May 2 and 4 by ethnic Tarok Christians, left 500 to 600 people dead in the largely Muslim, Hausa-speaking town, said a Red Cross official who had traveled there. Nigerian officials, who routinely minimize violence to avoid inciting revenge attacks, put the death toll at half that.

In February, Muslim militants were blamed in the deaths of almost 50 people in Yelwa, including Christians taking refuge in a church.

Many of Nigeria's 126 million people, split almost evenly between Muslims and Christians, live together peacefully. But religious and ethnic enmities and competition between farmers and herders for fertile lands cause numerous deadly outbursts.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antichristian; attrocities; cairmia; catholiclist; christianity; christians; doublestandard; hatecrime; islam; islamofascism; islamofascists; islamonazis; islamonazism; mediabias; nigeria; religion; religiousintolerance
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To: germanicus

I wish I didn't agree with you but I'm afraid that I do. A holy war is starting and will spread worldwide.

I fear for my grandchildren.


41 posted on 05/13/2004 8:18:47 PM PDT by Mears
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To: Destro

Muslims seek vengeance. Hmmmm... You know Clinton pretty much did nothing in the 90`s, even kissed the butts of people like Arafat and even turned down Bin Laden after the first WTC bombing, the embassy bombings, and everything else they did in the `90`s, and yet they still sought "vengeance" on 911. Maybe liberals can let everyone know just when exactly the vengeance is going to end, oh but that`s right, this is about oil now.


42 posted on 05/13/2004 8:28:23 PM PDT by stillnoprotestsagainstmuslims (Still waiting for the protests against terrorism)
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To: spetznaz

My gramma, who was born in 1892, had told me that the Muslims only goal was to destroy the infidel. I asked her what that meant. I was four at the time. She said, "all of us are the infidel. They must be defeated, and the only one who can defeat them is the great United States. They will prevent the communists from defeating us ever, and they can and will defeat the Muslims. The can and must be destroyed." I didn't get it at the time, or why she was so worried. Later I had learned that Spain had been conquered, and atrocities committed. That people had been enslaved or killed if Christian, or any other religion not Islamic. She was right then, and she was right for today. History has a way of repeating itself.


43 posted on 05/13/2004 11:32:32 PM PDT by Terridan (God help us send these Islamic Extremist savages back into Hell where they belong...)
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To: ought-six

I am 47, and already see the signs of its beginning here on our soil. We are surrounded by idiots who can't possibly win, but who can cause unbelievable kaos and destruction. I do know however that when attacked, our people will rise and not fall until its over, completely. They have no idea what armagedon they will start with us, because they don't believe, thanks to hollywood, that any of us will fight back. Us, we are just waiting and watching. God bless.


44 posted on 05/13/2004 11:37:25 PM PDT by Terridan (God help us send these Islamic Extremist savages back into Hell where they belong...)
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To: Mears

Get over the fear, and fight back. Be prepared. Educate them. I am almost positive that all of our ancestors have faced some kind of attacks before, albeit by animals, or todays animals, the terrorists. We can't prevent everything, nor can the government. But we can't sit on our hands either. I worry for my kids, but I know they will fight for what is right, and for their rights, country and religious survival. They haven't learned to play just video games and sports.


45 posted on 05/13/2004 11:41:29 PM PDT by Terridan (God help us send these Islamic Extremist savages back into Hell where they belong...)
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To: Terridan

"Us, we are just waiting and watching. God bless."

That's a fact. And God Bless you, too. I'll see you when the battle is joined.


46 posted on 05/14/2004 4:48:49 AM PDT by ought-six
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To: Destro
Mr. Owoyemi, a Christian, was taken to safety by police officers who fired their guns in the air to scare away the attackers.

The police said they had been ordered to shoot rioters on sight.

I just TRIED to read between the lines, but I must have missed something.........

47 posted on 05/14/2004 5:27:56 AM PDT by Elsie (Truth is violated by falsehood, but it is outraged by silence.)
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Comment #48 Removed by Moderator

Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: Destro
The Muslims attack the Christians - the Christians fight back- this of course insults the Muslims who then seek "vengeance". How many times I had to listen to attacks on Serbian Christians in Kosovo described as "revenge killings".

Naturally violent vengeance is needed, to punish the audacity of those who would dare defend themselves. All over the world. While Qatie and others in our media become a lackeys for the terrorists, fueling the fires.

50 posted on 05/14/2004 7:28:57 AM PDT by fortunecookie
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To: Destro
This:

The latest rioting threatened to prolong the violence. On Wednesday, in what was apparently a response to Muslim attacks, a group of young Christians in Kano fired shotguns at groups of Muslim men accused of torching houses.

And then:

Many of Nigeria's 126 million people, split almost evenly between Muslims and Christians, live together peacefully. But religious and ethnic enmities and competition between farmers and herders for fertile lands cause numerous deadly outbursts.

So let's see, Muslims torching houses has to do more with dispute over fertile land than it does with forced conversions and murder? And of course it is mostly making the news because the Christians are fighting back.

Consider these stories:

Jihad in Nigeria

Nigeria: A Refugee's Story

Nigeria Woos Zim Farmers

51 posted on 05/14/2004 7:40:32 AM PDT by fortunecookie
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To: ought-six

That's a fact. And God Bless you, too. I'll see you when the battle is joined...

Free Republic will prove to be an information highway during the "dark times"... but as patriots, we will sieze the day. Right along side of you!


52 posted on 05/14/2004 8:41:33 AM PDT by Terridan (God help us send these Islamic Extremist savages back into Hell where they belong...)
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To: Destro

Islamic law is only applicable to Muslims in all the Nigerian states that have it. In fact (in Kano, I believe) young Muslims will wear their clothes like Christians in order to avoid being stopped for some petty charge.


53 posted on 05/14/2004 10:56:24 AM PDT by zimdog
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To: zimdog

Islamic law is not acceptable to Christians.


54 posted on 05/14/2004 10:57:35 AM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro

Islamic law is not APPLICABLE to Christians.


55 posted on 05/14/2004 12:54:47 PM PDT by zimdog
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To: zimdog

Islamic law governs Christians as dhimmis. Any society in which Sharia law becomes a parallel law means that the secular law is doomed.


56 posted on 05/14/2004 4:36:04 PM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
Muslim Mobs, Seeking Vengeance, Attack Christians in Nigeria

This is "news"??

Now this is a "news" headline:

Muslims Seeking Peace, Lend Helping Hand To Christian, Jewish Neighbors

The "lion will sleep with the lamb" waaay before we see the above headline.

57 posted on 05/14/2004 4:42:55 PM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: TonyRo76
Four steps for dealing with a fake religion.


Sounds good! When do we start, and where can I sign up?
58 posted on 05/14/2004 8:48:39 PM PDT by dagoofyfoot
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To: Terridan

"Free Republic will prove to be an information highway during the 'dark times'... but as patriots, we will sieze the day. Right along side of you!"

We will prevail. We'll get bloodied, but we will win in the end, I promise you.


59 posted on 05/15/2004 12:39:17 PM PDT by ought-six
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To: Destro

Islamic law in Nigeria does not apply to Christians at all.

But basing (and applying) law on religious edicts and personal identities does indeed spell doom to secular law.


60 posted on 05/17/2004 11:45:19 AM PDT by zimdog
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