Dozens of people have been killed after Islamist militants staged three attacks in northern Nigeria, taking the total killed in two days of violence to 150.

A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes.

Witnesses told the BBC a gun battle raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State and a police station was set on fire.

Some of the militants follow a preacher who campaigns against Western schools.

ANALYSIS
By Caroline Duffield, BBC News, Nigeria
Tensions are never far from the surface in northern Nigeria. Poverty and competition for scarce resources, along with ethnic, cultural and religious differences have all fuelled sudden violence.

But the latest violence is not between communities, it involves young men from religious groups, arming themselves and attacking local police.

Fringe religious groups in Nigeria have claimed links to the Taliban before - individuals have also been accused of links to al-Qaeda. But Nigeria is very different to countries like Mali or Algeria, where groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operate.

The idea of radical Islamist militants gaining a serious foothold in Nigeria is usually dismissed, because of the strength of local identities and traditions.

The preacher, Mohammed Yusuf, says Western education is against Islamic teaching.

There has also been an attack in Wudil, some 20km (12 miles) from Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.

A curfew is in force in Bauchi, the scene of Sunday's violence.

Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence in the country.

Nigeria's 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two groups generally live peacefully side by side, despite occasional outbreaks of communal violence.

Militants chanting "God is great" attacked the Potiskum police station at about 0215 local time (0115 GMT) - the same time as the raid was launched in Maiduguri.

The police station and neighbouring buildings in Potiskum have been razed to the ground, eyewitnesses say.

Two people have been confirmed dead and the police have made 23 arrests.

Fringe group

The corpses of civilians are scattered around the streets of Maiduguri, after being pulled from their cars and shot, eyewitnesses say.

The police and army are patrolling, firing into the air, apparently trying to clear civilians from the area.

There are unconfirmed reports of a jailbreak in the town.

In Wudil, three people have been killed and more than 33 arrested. The senior police officer in Wudil has been wounded.

Security is said to have been beefed up in Plateau State, to the south of Bauchi, where hundreds were killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians last year.

Mr Yusuf's followers in Bauchi are known as Boko Haram, which means "Education is prohibited".

They attacked a police station on Sunday after some of their leaders were arrested.

Correspondents say the group is seen locally as a fringe group and has aroused suspicion for its recruitment of young men, and its belief that Western education, Western culture and science are sinful.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8169966.stm

[size=14pt]Islam and violence, I really wonder [/size]

@Nezan: Wonder no more! You and the "Islamic leader", Muhammad Yusuf, if what they say he said is true, both of you have displayed abject ignorance! He should have known that Islam challenged man to investigate and discover the signs of Allah which are abundant around us and in ourselves! Allah indicates that the fire will burn the skin and the one who is being burnt will feel the torment of punishment, by knowing the pain. Later it is discovered that under the skin there are receptors that tranport the painful sensations that the skin feels to the brain, whereby the experience of pain is realised. If the brain is dead, or the limb is not attached to healthy brained person, pain will not be expressed by the person, or the limb that is cut off.

A whole lot of Muslim nations and people are educated, and I do not know how this guy in whatever place he lives in thinks that Islam abhors education?! I think if there is a muslim Kalifah, this Muhammad Yusuf should have been warned about his lack of understanding of the injuctions in Quran and ahadith. And if he continues to be declared incompetent to be an Imam or a person in authority except in his own household alone, if at all.

its simple, education exposes the quran's contradictions like the inheritance law, no wonder they were reluctant to have it translated, they don't want the west to uncover their secrets.

Why is it that all religious attacks start with muslims? Or is it that mohammed conquered by the sword and taught them to do likewise? All muslims have a tendency for violence, <I shudder>

How many religions are there in Nigeria? When the Christians intetionally agitate the muslims, there could be repercussions, you know. Even though I do not advocate for all these quick responses, each time that results in mayhems, the Christians should not be innuor from blames! I wonder how you can preach "turn the other cheek," while your behavior is actually throwing stones at the glass house!

why should a religion of peace respond with repercussions?

olabowale:

How many religions are there in Nigeria? When the Christians intetionally agitate the muslims, there could be repercussions, you know. Even though I do not advocate for all these quick responses, each time that results in mayhems, the Christians should not be innuor from blames! I wonder how you can preach "turn the other cheek," while your behavior is actually throwing stones at the glass house!

how? just by daring to exist? the level of nauseating obfuscation from these muslims can be annoying.

So each time muslims expose their penchant for death and violence the christians should not be inured from blame? Why? Are we the ones who indoctrinated the Boko Haram dudes?

This militant forces had started long time in Maiduguri. Those young guy are secondary schools leavers and higher institutions drop out claiming western education is wrong. It involves children of northern leaders as well. I wouldnt mention names just to avoid publicity. The fraternity once in 2002 had the intention of attacking the govt in borno state, which they did. Many of them lost thier life in which some were arrested. Amongst them were my friends and students recruited from Lagos. Even, they threatened some of us that didn't support their movement. Nobody condone their violence activities, it is VERY wrong and the irony of it is that most young ones there were brainwashed.

^^^
I wonder who you're deceiving. Show me your friends and i'll tell you who you are.
Am sure Abuzola was among those arrested as members of that savage sect. . .

Sleek29, what do you mean by, 'education exposes the contradictions in the Qur'an'? Is your own Bible accurate? Don't make me laugh.
If there are errors in the Qur'an muslims are supposed to remain in the dark, about would Allah (SWT) have made reading the Qur'an obligatory on us like He did? And before you start telling lies about how the fight was started in order to conceal the contradictions in the Qur'an, you should ask yourself whether Jesus Christ commanded you to spread false information or to make assertions about things you are not sure of in order to 'win souls'.

Sleek29, what do you mean by, 'education exposes the contradictions in the Qur'an'? Is your own Bible accurate? Don't make me laugh.
If there are errors in the Qur'an muslims are supposed to remain in the dark, about would Allah (SWT) have made reading the Qur'an obligatory on us like He did? And before you start telling lies about how the fight was started in order to conceal the contradictions in the Qur'an, you should ask yourself whether Jesus Christ commanded you to spread false information or to make assertions about things you are not sure of in order to 'win souls'.

fellis:

Sleek29, what do you mean by, 'education exposes the contradictions in the Qur'an'? Is your own Bible accurate? Don't make me laugh.
If there are errors in the Qur'an muslims are supposed to remain in the dark, about would Allah (SWT) have made reading the Qur'an obligatory on us like He did? And before you start telling lies about how the fight was started in order to conceal the contradictions in the Qur'an, you should ask yourself whether Jesus Christ commanded you to spread false information or to make assertions about things you are not sure of in order to 'win souls'.

Simple go and ask boko haram and other islamists why they tag education a western thing, they simply know that it brings light and so they prefer to remain in darkness, now tell me WHY DO I HAVE TO PRAY IN ARABIC ?, WHY DO I HAVE TO READ THE QURAN IN ARABIC?, WHY DO I HAVE TO DRESS ARABIC?, WHY CAN'T ONE PRAY IN HIS MOTHER TONGUE, it isn't different from ifa religion and other religions because they all demand that you speak and pray or recite incantations in its original dialect but the God i serve created all this diverse languages, CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A RELIGION BUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!!!, religion has brought more good than bad,it has divided societies, destroyed so much and of course we have religious Christians(Catholics) who carried out the crazy crusades, this is completely drifting away from what Christ really stands for, A Christian is supposed to preach the gospel and when you find it difficult to convert them, you pray for them not KILL THEM LIKE ISLAM TEACHES.

Why told you that muslims were asked to kill those that they can not succeed in converting?
About it being compulsory for muslims to pray in Arabic and not their mother tongue, that applies to only the five daily prayers, and not to the ordinary supplications people make individually to Allah. The reasons for this are many. One of them is because during the five daily prayers, there are Qur'an verses and supplications that muslims are supposed to recite. These recitations are the revealed and appropriate ones to make and they should be made in Arabic because their Arabic form is the pure and original one. No translation, no matter how carefully carried out, can be the exact same thing as the original one. Language structures differ. Another reason is because muslims have been told to pray in congregations, whenever they can and of course they cannot pray in unity when everyone is busy speaking a different language. And again, Islam is not a national or regional or tribal thing. Islam is a universal religion, covering every race, every people and Arabic is the language of the Islamic heritage.
We do not speak Arabic because Islam is similar to ifa religion and before you start comparing Islam to idol worshipping, go and find out the origin of your easter and christmas, and why christmas is celebrated on December 25th.

And,
Nobody made it obligatory for you to dress in Arabic, whatever that means. What is compulsory is wearing modest/decent clothing. We read the Qur'an in Arabic, quite alright, but we are also supposed to know the translation of what we read, if we do not speak Arabic as our mother tongue. We have not been prohibited from trying to know the meaning of the Arabic words of the Qur'an. Why we still preserve its original Arabic form is because that is the purest and most accurate version of the Qur'an. And like I said earlier, no translation can replace the original.
I wonder how come you did not know all this, and you claim that you were once a muslim. What type of Islam were you practicing before?

@fellis
Please, lets be honest. Have you ever heard or seen where christians would start up a fight against the moslems and kill them because the moslems do not believe in christianity? I hope you know that all the religious riots we have ever had in this countries were initiated by the moslems killing christian because according to them, they are unbelievers. Of course in the course of self defence, the christians fight back. One of the posters said that christians are suppose to turn the other cheek when slapped. i guess that is why the moslem folk have always taken advantage of christians because they know that they wont fight back but gone are those days oh. The christians are very ready and always on the alert so that if any moslems comes up to kill them, they will fight back and that I hope you know is not a sin. Fighting back in self defence, especially when it comes to such wars is not a sin. I dont know why the moslems would always try to make it look as if the Jihad/holy war as you ppeople call it is not supported by the moslems. You people claim that Islam is a religion of peace. Who then are those that fight the christians and intigate their fellows to kill the christians? every jihad is discussed in the mosque by your leaders according to what i learnt and when the killers come around, they only look out for christians to kill. They do not kill those of you that belong to the Islam religion.Please, can you enlighten me on this whole religious crisis stuff? If it is not initiated and supported by moslems, why then do they look out for christians only and spare the moslems?

@fellis-----------ALLAHU AKBAR,your response is fantastic.MAY ALMIGHTY ALLAH INCREASE YOUR WISDOM OF UNDERSTANDING AND GRANT YOU PARADISE

afix:

@fellis-----------ALLAHU AKBAR,

That was exactly what the boko haram guys were chanting. I hope we are not going to have another bloody jihad here on NairaLand?

@afix, Amin. May Allah grant you the same.
@mightlove,
Someone mentioned, on this thread, littleb to be precise, that the reasons given for the fight by the media are not the real reasons for the fight, and that those fighting are only using Islam as a cover up. Also, not all the crises that spring from the north are religious crises, some of them are actually political, please keep that in mind. As for those who go ahead to fight innocent and peaceful people and claim that Islam justifies doing that, I can honestly tell you that what they are doing is wrong and that Islam does not encourage such behaviour.
In the Qur'an, the principle of fighting is self-defensive and muslims are taught to respect life in all forms and avoid treating others unjustly. Qur'an 2v190 says, 'Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not be aggressors. Indeed Allah does not love aggressors'. Aggresion involves violent acts or threats directed at peaceful and/or undeserving people and the Qur'an expressly forbids that.

^^^continuation,
In Islam, when nobody oppresses you nor fights you, you have to be peaceful with them, regardless of who they are. Even when they are allowed to fight in order to defend themselves, they ar supposed to cease fighting when their opponent no longer shows hostility. The command to do that is in Qur'an 8v61. It says, 'But if they incline to peace, incline thou to it as well, and place thy trust in Allah. Verily, He alone is All-hearing, All-knowing.
It is true, sadly that some muslims have committed aggression in the past and have used Jihad as an excuse, but this is probably due to ignorance about the teachings of their religion.
Islam forbids injustice and trouble making. There are different verses in the Qur'an that show that it does.

This is why i despise muslim terrorist. They obviously have been miseducated and brainwashed into thinking that everything education is evil. Wo keeps deceiving and brainwashing these people that everything western and technological is evil. Maybe they should start walking around naked since their clothes were also made through western knowledge.


- Algebra is an Moor/Arabic nvention i.e. europeans did not create algebra, Moors (i.e. muslims black africans in conjuction with Arabs) actually created algebra hence i am not suprised they are too dumb to realise this.

- The presence of Astronomy, Alkaline etc. in europe have roots in the Black Moors that once ruled Europe, so people should stop deceiving themselves that western education is evil, considering that most of what the west started with was actually brought to them starting from Egypt, through Greece, through Romans and then through the Moors/Arabs.

- The numbers that we are using in mathematics comes from both India and Arabic in one form or another, it is not roman numbers. It is easy to understand that roman numbers are useless and unusable for everyday work.

- The truth is that there is no moderate muslims, we only have passive muslim. Every muslim is a potential terrorist.

I am not suprised that some muslims on this forum are trying to compare them to MEND , shior wonders shall never end.

As the Yorubas say, "ïf you push the goat to the wall and it has no where else to go, it would turn and face you" i hope a word is enough for the wise.

Muhammad taught his followers to oppress or kill non-Muslims. Generally, Jews and Christians were allowed to live as such, provided they paid a special tax. This tax is Jizya, a tax revenue given to the Muslims to make up for revenues they lost from no longer dealing in pagan activities. If the Jews and Christians refused to pay this extortion tax they would have to convert to Islam or be killed. Non-Jews and non-Christians, such as idolaters or pagans, had to convert to Islam or be killed. Generally they didn't have the option of paying the tax. Here is the verse that teaches Muslims to oppress Jews and Christians:

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, (which is Islam that abolishes all other religions ) of the people of the Book, (meaning the Jews and the Christians ) until they pay the Jizya (the tax imposed upon them) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued . (with humiliation and submission to the government of Islam.) 9:29."

We see that Muhammad had many people murdered. By request, by command, by implication, Muhammad had many people murdered, many killed while they slept. There were no trials, no judgments, no dialog, if you insulted Muhammad, if you doubted his credibility and if you spoke out, you were murdered. Men and women, young and old, all were killed because of Muhammad's hatred. Here is a summary of the seven terroristic murders committed at Muhammad's requests or efforts:

1) Ibn Sunayna, a Jewish man who was murdered because he was simply a Jew

2) Abu Afak, a 120 year old man, murdered while he slept

3) Asma Marwan, mother of 5 children, murdered while she slept

4) A slave women, mother of two children, murdered while she slept

5) A one-eyed shepherd, murdered while he slept

6) A very old women, literally ripped in half by Muslims who captured her on a raid.

7) A slave girl, who was murdered because she poked fun at Muhammad.

@Bawomolo: « #6 on: Yesterday at 06:33:13 PM »
]quote]why should a religion of peace respond with repercussions?

[/quote] I am not there on ground. Humans reacts to situation in three different ways; Indifference, forgive or revenge. Even in revenge, Allah caution against excessive more than the offense. Most people forget religion in extreme condition. Thats how you will know a true believer and the only in the mouth group.


@davidylan (m): « #7 on: Yesterday at 06:58:55 PM »
[quote]how? just by daring to exist? the level of nauseating obfuscation from these muslims can be annoying.
So each time muslims expose their penchant for death and violence the christians should not be inured from blame? Why? Are we the ones who indoctrinated the Boko Haram dudes?

Boko haram? Thats a tribe or what? Anyway,I do not want to know how they got angry with each other. Thats not my issue. I simply responded to the guy who said that when Mslims are provoked, they react accordingly, as expected.

Look, am older than you and I simply make a statement and see how much ammo that you already pointed to me as their intended target! What happened to your turning the other cheek, David? If you are this hard as a Christian, while claiming turning the other cheek at all time (folks; David will never do that!), what will you do if you are a muslim, where at least it is permssible to revenge as ong as you do not avenge with the innocent, and no take more than what you lost?
David, oh David, you are a hard heared person. Where is the benefit of Bible in your behavior? Even the deemed light? Come to my type of Islam, aboro. And you to bawomolo!

Violence and Islam goes hand in hand.

Islam only means submission. It does not mean peace.

t.truth:

Violence and Islam goes hand in hand.

Islam only means submission. It does not mean peace.

Violence is sanctioned in islam with enormous rewards promised.sura4:74.while d criminal mohammad gave himself d divine order to fight.sura4:84