Posted on 02/24/2006 8:05:44 AM PST by tkathy
Muslims flee Christian attacks
Cartoons spark killings, violence in latest wave of Nigerian strife
BY EDWARD HARRISAssociated PressONITSHA, Nigeria — Christians in this southern Nigerian city burned Muslim corpses and defaced wrecked mosques Thursday after days of sectarian strife that has killed more than 120 people across the country.
With 80 people killed, Onitsha has borne the brunt of the violence that followed weekend protests over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
A Muslim district of about 100 homes was burned to the ground, and crumpled corrugated tin roofs lay on top of the remains of smoldering houses Thursday.
Ifeanyi Ese, a 34-year-old Christian, stood amid the concrete rubble of a mosque.
"We don't want these mosques here anymore. These people are causing all the problems all over the world because they don't fear God," he said.
He angrily scrawled "Mohammed is a man, but Jesus is from above" with a burned stick on a shattered wall.
At least nine charred bodies lay in dirt streets as passers-by hurried past, holding cloths to their noses against the stench. Three other bodies burned on a pyre of flaming tires.
About 5,000 Muslims fled the city and took refuge across the Niger River in the neighboring town of Asaba. Several hundred sat beneath trees at a police barracks there, asking for help to travel northward as babies wailed.
Trucks that usually carry fruit and other goods to market were packed with Muslims heading north. It was not known how many Muslims lived in Onitsha.
Adam Mohamed, a 40-year-old Muslim motorcycle mechanic, said mobs attacked and robbed Muslims as they fled across a bridge connecting the two cities.
"Some were killed. Others were thrown from the bridge into the water," Mohamed said. "These people attacked us, burnt our mosques and killed our people. But by God's grace, I escaped."
Thousands of Nigerians have died in sectarian strife since 2000, when mostly Muslim northern states began implementing Islamic Shariah law. Nigeria's 130 million people are almost entirely split between the two faiths, with Christians a majority in the south.
The most recent killings began when Muslim protests against the cartoons Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri turned violent and 18 people, mostly Christians, were slain.
Twenty-five died in similar violence in the northern city of Bauchi, sparking reprisals against Muslims in Onitsha.
A spokeswoman for the Nigerian Red Cross, Umo Okon, said 925 people were killed, injured or displaced in violence in Onitsha in the past two days.
Emeka Umeh, who heads Civil Liberties Organization, a leading human rights group, said at least 60 people were killed in Onitsha on Tuesday, followed by 20 Wednesday.
Most Muslims in the city Thursday seemed resigned to their fate.
"The prophet told us to accept what happens to us because it is our destiny," said Abdul Salaam Danbuzu, a 26-year-old shepherd from neighboring Niger. "We're a small community and now we must all leave. All we can do is run."
Deaths also were reported by residents in violence Wednesday against Muslims in Enugu, a mainly Christian and ethnic Igbo-dominated city about 60 miles north of Onitsha.
The latest outbreak of fighting is the worst to hit Nigeria since 2004, when Muslim-Christian skirmishes in northern Nigeria's Plateau and Kano states killed more than 700 people.
The cartoons that reignited Muslim-Christian tension in Nigeria have become the object of protests around the world since they were published in a Danish newspaper. One caricature shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse.
Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.
Payback is a b#tch....
We can count on our *brave* media to be all over this story. If the religions were reversed...not so much.
ya beat me to it...dang it.
Here's one NIMBY I agree with.
March on Christian Soldiers
of course this will get far more press than all the muslim attacks on everybody else..
OK, I'll expose myself here to an accuracy check. Within the first two sentences, I'm immediately thinking, "Reuters," though nothing in your posting says it.
Now I'll go check.
(LATER)
Hm, Associated Press. Close, but no cigar. Reuters hates America with a molten, volcanic hatred. Associated Press only with a garden variety burning hatred.
Dan
Kinda reminds me of when one of my sisters was fighting with one of my others sisters and ran to my father and said, "Daddy, she hit me (whisper here) back".
Even peaceful people will eventually fight back.
Muslims flee Christian attacks
Cartoons spark killings, violence in latest wave of Nigerian strife
That's been a loooong overdue statement!!
Amazing.
When the muslims were slaughtering Christians, I don't remember hearing a peep out of the AP.
Is it even possible to get more press than we have now?
Of course we all know that If the situation were reversed and Muslims were (as usual) killing Christians, the headline would read "Nigerians flee insurgent attacks".
Fletcher J
Yes Muslims always flee when you kick back
Those Nigerians are showing us what we should do
Turn around is fair play. No tolerance for the intolerant.
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