Posted on 02/18/2006 12:49:35 PM PST by Eurotwit
NIGERIAN rioters killed at least 15 people today after a Muslim protest against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed descended into violence, a police spokesman said.
Witnesses said that protesters turned on the Christian minority in the northern city of Maiduguri, burning shops and churches, after police dispersed a rally called to condemn European newspapers that printed the caricatures. A police spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Haz Iwendi said that army troops and police reinforcements had been deployed to the city and that a curfew had been imposed to bring about a return to order.
"We've arrested 115 people. Some 15 persons were killed by rioters, and 11 churches burnt," he said.
The victims were the first to die in Nigeria as anger over the drawings of Islam's prophet mounts among its 60 million Muslims, roughly half the population.
Mohammed Auwal, a civil servant said by telephone: "When the protesters gathered for the protest at Ramat square they were ordered by a police detachment to disperse but the crowd insisted on holding the protest."
"The policemen then fired canisters of teargas to disperse the crowd. "When news went into town about what happened at the square, a mob attacked motor spare-parts shops of Christian Igbo traders at Monday market in the city, looting and burning them," Auwalu said.
A local reporter, Abdullahi Bego said from the scene that at least 20 shops had been looted and vandalised and churches had been burned to the ground.
"There are a lot of anti-riot police squad all over the city and their presence has helped quell the rampage," Mr Bego said.
Ibrahim Bukar, a student, said: "I have been indoors since the riots broke out but a friend told me he saw two dead bodies at the scene of the looting."
In recent weeks there have been protests around the world - some peaceful, some violent - by Muslims angry over the publication in European newspapers of cartoons satirising Islam's holiest figure, the Prophet Mohammed.
In a radio broadcast following the violence, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff said: "The Borno State government is shocked and disgusted."
Sheriff, a Muslim like the vast majority of Borno State residents, said that while he sympathised with the feelings of Muslims offended by the cartoons, Nigerian Christians should in no way be blamed for them.
He promised that the perpetrators of the violence would be punished.
In Abuja, Information Minister Frank Nweke called on religious leaders to rein in their angry followers.
"The federal government, while it does not begrudge any group the right to defend their faith and religion, also believes that certain actions - such as burning of churches - are not the best way," he told reporters.
Northern Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, but major cities have significant Christian minorities, mainly members of the Igbo ethnic group who operate successful small businesses, trading especially in car parts and alcohol.
Since 1999 a dozen northern states, including Borno, have attempted to reintroduce Islamic Sharia law, exacerbating latent tensions between the communities and triggering several bloody riots.
Sometimes external factors such as the cartoon controversy trigger the fighting. In September 2001 news of the attack by al-Qaeda hijackers on New York and Washington.
bump for publicity
These cartoon riots have given psychologists a boon of observable data. No doubt, rioting muslims, their souls on fire over cartoons, reveal some things about primitve humans, namely, how readily they threw themselves into battle, like an army of ants for a decaying stump, believing it to be the temple of God, and how easily they justified their savageries under the nimbus of divine direction.
You're welcome little jeremiah.
You're welcome Little Jeremiah.
Note: The Cartoon Jihad links have been updated here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1581292/posts?page=45#45
PERSECUTION.ORG - NIGERIA
http://www.persecution.org/newsite/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=10&PHPSESSID=1b056403874ef9361fdffd44a7f5b46a
===
February 17, 2006
http://www.persecution.org/newsite/newsdetail.php?newscode=2251&PHPSESSID=1b056403874ef9361fdffd44a7f5b46a
PERSECUTION.org (COMPASS): Abuja, Nigeria - "STATE IN NIGERIA ACCUSED OF SEEKING TO TRAIN JIHADISTS Government accuses Kano of trying to turn vigilantes into parallel police force" by Obed Minchakpu (February 17, 2006)
This is war. This uproar, the incenting of it, is a war action. And attack, and a big one. It was planned, plotted and carried into action. Those who call themselves "peace-lovers" to excuse, or those who use what are in other times, genuine G-d fearing reasons to object to the images to excuse the rioters are by so speaking directly causing MORE BLOODSHED and VIOLENCE.
There is a time to speak and a time to stay silent.
Those who fear G-d and look carefully into the season we are in will be wise, imo, to not speak up in any way to excuse the rioters, to defend the complaint against the drawings and images, or to in-these-hours to rebuke those who publish such images and those who create them. Even when the images are the most profane. (Which, btw, these original Danish cartoons were not, imo. And anyway discussion about such issues related to profane images is dangerous, harmful in this hour.)
Why?
Because this is a time of war, the enemy is at and in the walls, all such excuses and rebukes thus are in-this-hour sedition and treason.
Note: The following post is a quote:
---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1581335/posts
Nine abducted in Niger delta ( 3 Americans, 1 British )
CNN ^
Posted on 02/18/2006 3:12:03 PM PST by hipaatwo
A Nigerian group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of nine foreign workers during its attack on an oil facility Saturday.
Along with three Americans and a Briton, the group says it kidnapped two Thais, two Egyptians and a Filipino.
The U.S. Embassy in the capital Abuja and the British Foreign Office has confirmed the abductions of their citizens.
In an e-mail, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta called the kidnappings "impromptu and directly related to attacks on Ijaw communities in Delta state by the Nigerian military."
"This is not the promised strike," the group warned. "That will take place on a grander scale."
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Thank you for the ping Cindy.
"Witnesses said that protesters turned on the Christian minority in the northern city of Maiduguri, burning shops and churches, after police dispersed a rally called to condemn European newspapers that printed the caricatures."
Algerian Christians had nothing to do with the offending cartoons in question. This speaks volumes about the lack of goodwill in Islamic culture.
NOTE: The Cartoon Jihad links have been udpated here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1581361/posts?page=14#14
I bet it correlates with after service times on Fridays (Mosque days). When the Imam whups 'em up.
Remember the mysterious college student who apparently* blew himself up outside an Oklahoma State University football game? I don't know if you followed those threads. I did, and some really strange stuff appeared. The university president is a closeted homosexual, used to be (IIRC) a US senator. There may be a Saudi connection. Someone sent me a freepmail with link/s to a site that told of a Saudi "party house" in DC to which notables are invited, prostitutes of each sex are provided, and videos taken, which are then used as blackmail.
The OSU president (if those are the right initials) did not seem greatly interested in the truth of the bombing, and did his best to cover up any possible jihadi connection. There were other oddities as well.
So blackmail may figure in as well as idiocy, greed, and treason.
*Apparently because there was the possibility, however remote [no pun intended] that perhaps he had handlers who may have detonated his bomb for him.
PhiKapMom knows a lot about this.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
ping
Terrorism...
Islam is an insane murder cult. Period.
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