By AMINU BELLO
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 19, 2007; 1:17 PM

SOKOTO, Nigeria -- A man was beaten to death by a mob in northern Nigeria as Muslim sects clashed after the shooting of a popular cleric, witnesses said Thursday. The cleric later died.

Soldiers and police set up roadblocks and patrolled the streets with rifles and tear gas in response to the violence.

An Associated Press reporter saw the body of the man, who was accused in Wednesday's shooting of Sunni cleric Umar Danshiya at a mosque in the capital of the desert state of Sokoto. The cleric was well-known for his anti-Shiite sermons.

Nura Muhammad, who was taking Danshiya home by motorbike taxi after morning prayers, said three gunmen on motorbikes shot the cleric in the head.

Later, a mob of Danshiya's followers wielding sticks and machetes attacked several Shiites in retaliation.

The sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual head of Nigeria's Muslims, said Danshiya had died Thursday morning after lapsing into a coma. Sultan Mohammadu Sa'ad Abubakar appealed for calm, saying on local radio: "Do not take the law into your own hands , the security agencies are investigating."

At the news of Danshiya's death, some supporters cut tree branches with machetes and fixed them to their vehicles, a common form of protest in Nigeria.

Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly equally divided between Muslims and Christians and the country has frequent ethnic and religious clashes. Thousands of people have been killed since the end of military rule eight years ago. Residents say that ethnic or political differences are often exploited by powerful locals for economic and political reasons.

Most Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, as are most Muslims throughout the world. The Sunni-Shiite doctrinal split dates to the early days of Islam.

davidylan:

where are the otuwe's and aproko's? They only appear when its time to defend the indefensible.

alexis:
Don't be surprise dblock, muslims will not utter a word when

1. They sunnis and shittes kill one another in Iraq and Nigeria - They will blame it on America & the jews
2. Young pakistanis militant muslim students take many women and children hostage and fight government troops
3. Indonesian muslim be-head christian girls

But they will raise dust when

1. A silly cartoon is drawn about their prophet
2. An arab is knighted by the queen of england
3. anyone approach the koran with a critical knife

dblock:
I just can't understand how people can kill themselves because of Arabian Mythology.

Last time I checked, Nigerians aren't Arabs.

Why are we concerning ourselves with fables from war torn countries.

Like they say, birds of a feather flock together, so perhaps people, relating with Middle Eastern Religions or Cultures, are obliviously subjecting themselves to the problems of the Middle East.


If some uneducated fools in Nigeria want to kill themselves because of opposite Islamic sects, then why can't they just organize for a detour to Iraq when they are going to Mecca.


It is pure stupidity. Does Islam put bread on the table. What have the Arabs ever done for Nigeria.

They forcibly established their mythology upon our people and thus induced pain and misery upon our people.