Islamists To Yar’Adua: We Want Total Islam-PM News
Written by Adi Femi/Kaduna, with Agency report
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 09:10
As the religious uprising that erupted in Bauchi two days ago spreads to some other states in the North, Islamists have told the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua-led Federal Government that their mission is to enthrone the practice of total Islam in states with large population of Muslims in Nigeria.

The Islamists said they reject western education and democracy in all the states in the North.

P.M.News gathered in Kaduna this morning that Ustaz Yusuf and prominent Islamic fundamentalists have vowed to mobilize their members in Borno, Kano, Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and other states in the North to join the fight in Kaduna and other states in the North against what the “Jihadists” called “a fight against enemies of Islam”.

According to the group, Western education and democracy in Islam dominated states are anti-Islam which they will no longer tolerate.
•Some members of the Islamic fundamentalist group shot dead during a crossfire with the police in Bauchi.

Believing that the police were constantly used as a state instrument to suppress their agitations particularly in Bauchi where hey have a large number of adherents, the religious extremists moved to attack the Dutsen Tanshi police station yesterday. But the police proved they were battle ready when they took the extremists unawares, killing over 60 members of the group, while several others escaped with injuries and many were arrested.

The Bauchi State government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew throughout the state. But threat of more attacks has thrown most residents of Bauchi and other states in the North into panic.

In Kaduna State for example, for fear of possible strike, some workers did not report at their offices for work, yesterday and today, while those who were present gathered in groups with apprehension, discussing their personal security, in the event of an attack by the group.

The Kaduna State police command has beefed up security in order to forestall possible attack by members of Boko Haram group, a faction of Islamic fundamentalist sect that has threatened to join in the fight against perceived enemies of Islam in Muslin dominated states.

Deputy Police Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, Isaac Eke, told P.M.News that his men were fully prepared and battle ready to maintain peace and order in all parts of the state.

Eke stressed that the alleged threat from the leader of an Islam group, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf to attack Bauchi State and other Muslim dominated states will not be ignored.

He warned religious leaders who made statements capable of breaching public peace to watch their utterances.

The religious crisis erupted in Bauchi on Sunday when a group called “Boko Haram” meaning “Education is sin” in their thousands stormed a police station and attacked it. More than 30 members of the group which had campaigned for imposition of Sharia on the 36 states in Nigeria were killed during the attack. Many of them were wounded and arrested.

A member of the group that was arrested, Abdullahi claimed that the mission of the group was to cleanse Nigeria of all anti-Islam people and install Sharia in all states, stressing that they decided to attack the police station in retaliation for the killings of its leaders.

Declaring 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. curfew later in the day, Bauchi State Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, described the Islamists as militants and urged all Nigerians to view the attack as a national problem.

Soldiers have set up road blocks and imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in the worst affected areas of Yobe, Kano and Borno States.

There have been reports of youths armed with machetes and guns killing police officers and civilians at random.

Nigeria’s military and police have been ordered to use all means necessary to contain the violence, the BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos reports.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that police stations had been attacked and civilians pulled from their cars and shot dead.•Wares of the Islamic fundamentalists scattered on the ground in Bauchi. PHOTOS: AFP.

In the town worst affected by the violence, Maiduguri in Borno State, bodies of residents and militants have been piled outside the police station and in the streets.

A BBC reporter there counted 100 corpses.

Some of the militants are believed to be supporters of a preacher based in Maiduguri, Mohammed Yusuf, who says Western education is against Islamic teaching.

Nigeria’s police are understood to be searching for him.

Late on Monday night there were still reports of shooting in Maiduguri.

Earlier, witnesses told the BBC that a battle had raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State, where a police station and neighbouring buildings were reportedly razed.

There was also attacks on police in Wudil, some 20km (12 miles) from Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.

Security is said to have been particularly 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 are known as Boko Haram, which means “Education is prohibited”. Youths began attacking police stations on Sunday after some of the group’s leaders were arrested.

Correspondents say Boko Haram has aroused suspicion for its recruitment of young men, and its belief that Western education, culture and science are sinful.

Reuters news agency reports that one of the group’s leaders, arrested in Kano State, said his followers were standing up for their faith.

“Even if I’m arrested, there are more to do the job,” Abdulmuni Ibrahim Mohammed is quoted as saying.

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

The country’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

bgees:

yes , islam is a peaceful religion. its just a shame it is frequently hijacked, and i wished these northern hordes from sokoto to jos weren'yt part of nigeria.

OMO IBO:

And what are the leaders of Islam saying about this?

davidylan:

err i think its about time you removed your head from the sands of denial. Islam from Nigeria to Somalia to Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon . . . is this the only religion on earth? Pls show me where this "peaceful" islam is being practiced and why its the only religion everyone loves to "hijack".

WilyWily:

asha80, Gooooood picture i like it if they are Northern Moslems, they look like dead Goats.

McKren:

Some of these comments are of no benefit to the South

We have our Southern brothers living up there and are always vulnerable in the face of crisis like these

I just wish folks will guard their comments sometimes

what we should be doing is putting pressure on the Government to investigate and prosecute the kingpins and sponsors amongst the political class.

WilyWily:

asha80, Gooooood picture i like it if they are Northern Moslems, they look like dead Goats.

bgees:

what about kuwait, the uae, oman and bahrain?
all the places u mentioned are  not economically vibrant countries, i believe poverty and deprivation breeds violence. osama and his followers and admirers are just full of hate and they have found the right tool in these places u mentioned.

Kobojunkie:

The people in the pictures are flesh and blood like your children and your mothers and fathers. Please stand up against this nonsense rather than think that it is not of your concern since it is all in the north.

asha 80:

As if it will yield anything

Kobojunkie:

The people in the pictures are flesh and blood like your children and your mothers and fathers. Please stand up against this nonsense rather than think that it is not of your concern since it is all in the north.

asha 80:

lwkmd.Do you know what they are fighting for?Chinekee see political correctness 

Kobojunkie:

This has nothing to do with being politically correct. . . . it has more to do with practising what you profess first and putting hate or issues you have with their tribe or religion to the side. These are human lives being wasted here. What would your Chineke want you to do? Continue to edge them on?? Come oN!!! This is why I envy people in the west , they seem to have more human feeling than all our african brothers who claim one religion or another .

asha 80:


I am sorry to say this but you are very funny with this statemnent.These people are figthing to islamize the whole nigeria and you are saying that we should support them?

Kobojunkie:

And reasoning is turned upside down in a second.

What particular line of my post did you pull the quote below from?


Is it that you cannot pull yourself apart from your issues for the religion and region long enough to see where edging them on could be considered inhumane?

What has delta to do with this? And should you because they did nothing in that case, demand the same happen to them? Jeeezzzz!!! I am more afraid of people with your mindset.

What makes you think you are any better than them then if you are that way about this?