Posted on 09/17/2003 11:15:45 PM PDT by Destro
PERSECUTION
Christians Slaughtered, Persecuted Under Islamic Law
By Paul Strand
Sr. Washington Correspondent
September 17, 2003
Six-thousand Nigerians have been killed in riots over Sharia law. Nigerian Christians realize Sharia turns them into a discriminated against class of people — many have lost or will lose their jobs, some have lost or will lose their lives.
CBN.com – It is a crushing form of Islamic law known as Sharia, and in northern Nigeria, disciples of the Arab world's radical Wahhabi brand of Islam are using Sharia to lord it over Christians and other religious minorities.
In the last decade, this repressive rule has moved out from just one Nigerian province to dominate almost half of Africa's most populous nation.
Harsh Sharia law discriminates against non-Muslims, and even demands the death of Muslims who dare to convert. In Sharia's name, Muslim mobs have burned hundreds of churches and killed thousands of non-Muslims.
Six-thousand Nigerians have been killed in riots over Sharia law. Nigerian Christians realize Sharia turns them into a discriminated against class of people — many have lost or will lose their jobs, some have lost or will lose their lives.
Murderers acting in the name of Sharia and jihad killed seven of Christian-believer Hajara Magaji's immediate family right in front of her three years ago. Many of the killers were her long-time neighbors.
"We pleaded with the people, but they told us, ‘This is the end of your life,’" Hajara recalled. "They began to stone us and pulled out guns and they started the house on fire, but there was no way out because outside people were waiting with knives. I had six children and they killed the oldest four all at once, along with my daughter-in-law with her baby, and also my husband."
They also tried killing Hajara with machetes and clubs, slashing away at her ankle, beating her upper body, cutting a deep gash into her skull. Twenty-one of her Christian relatives and friends died that day at the hands of their Islamic neighbors.
Hajara said, "They were just chanting the words ‘Allah akbar’ and they were saying, 'This is the jihad, this is the jihad.’"
Muslim leader Ibrahim Kufena says he suspects such accounts are fiction. " I don't think this is true," he said.
He insists people other than Muslims pay rioters to burn and to kill and then blame Muslims for the mayhem. "Maybe people who have political intentions to cause confusion," he speculated. In fact, Kufena says most Muslims and Christians in the north get along just fine.
But Christian leader Saidu Dogo says Sharia has been used to keep Christians from building churches, owning property, many times getting jobs. And sometimes it has justified outright persecution.
"They look for churches to burn, Christians to attack and so many people were killed," Dogo said.
Dogo states the poor natives of Nigeria could not have financed this takeover of the north by themselves. He says he knows of at least $4 billion from outside radical regimes handed over to local Nigerian Muslims to spread Sharia and the Arab brand of fundamentalist Islam. "The money comes from the Arab world — countries like Saudi Arabia, Libya, etc.," Dogo said.
Nina Shea of Freedom Watch fights for religious freedom in such places as Nigeria. She says terror sponsors like Saudi Arabia and Sudan come in and offer money and help to radicals. And this is happening all over western Africa.
Shea says the result is that non-Muslims in the areas under Sharia now face a policy of "annihilation or assimilation. They will either have to leave or convert or die," she said.
The violence is likely to go on, not only because Muslims feel they must impose their law and their will, but because Christians like Hajara will not give in.
"They came out to tell me I had to join them because we could only coexist with one another in peace when we are all Muslims. But even if it means them killing me, cutting my neck with a knife, I can never denounce my Savior," she said.
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