₦airaland Forum

Numbers 31:17-18
17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. 18 But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.

(HOW CAN A FOOT SOLDIER IN ANCIENT TIMES IDENTIFY IF A WOMAN IS VIRGIN THAN THROUGH “TESTING” HER VIRGINITY”).

Luke 12:49-52
I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
50But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
51Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
52For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

Matthew 10:34 34
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

1 Samuel 6:19

19And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
(note: the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament, lest Christians claim they no “longer” follow the Old Testament)


flakkygirl (f)
Ondo state, Nigeria
Posts: 5

Offline

Re: Letter To Boko Haram: This Is Great
« #38 on: Today at 01:43:27 PM »

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so all these things are in the quran. It simply means these people re not open to logical reasoning. They are only interested in blood shed. No body in their sane mind need to be told before this act leads thm farther away from islam even if they where ever interested. Thank God for my faith.

@Flakkygirl How are you open to logical reasoning after reading the quoted bible verses above? Use the same reasoning faculty you use in accepting these bible verses to understand why muslims comprehend their koran after reading those koranic verses.

toks2009   Re: Letter To Boko Haram: This Is Great
« #32 on: Today at 12:49:22 PM »  

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Who is fooling who?

Is it not obvious that the principal reason these bombings are taking place and will go on is because we have a southern president?

If Buhari happens to be the head of state i bet we will not have any of this nonsense going on.

Lets open our eyes fellow citizens of a failed nation(Nigeria), until we go our seperate ways,there will never be peace in the land.

Let us split up for good and let northerners lead the north and let every body be on their own,this is the only way forward.

Anyway,whether we like it or not, president Goodluck might just be the last president we will have as one Nigeria.    




You are totally wrong,it was clearly on record that the current Boko Haram uprising started when Yar adua was in power.in fact he ordered the killing that resulted in many of their followers dead in maiduguri before he flew to Brazil for a state visit with Turai. see how you just contribute without knowing the fact. If you do your research very well you will discover that Boko haram dont give a sh-t about who is Buhari contrary to wide opinion.they are brain- washed driven by ignorant interpretation of koran.

Those referring to Papal or Vatican Newspaper position on Islamic Banking missed the point. Nobody is saying that the spirit and letters of Islamic Banking Operation is not beneficial and i understand the Pope was urging Europe to buy into that to salvage the economic crisis, you were therefore portraying his position out of context! There is a world of difference in the European context and what is obtainable here. Nigeria is a highly Volatile Country which can be easily ignited by religious sentiments especially by our Muslim brothers. (Gideon Asoluka from my area as a case study)
The Cardinal has expressed the reservations of the local church and indeed that of most Nigerians of discerning minds. He is therefore speaking in the Nigerian context. The way Sanusi and his cohorts are going about this smacks of suspicious intent and it behoves on the Chief Cleric to speak. Unfortunately, as one of the commentators noted here, there may not be any chick to slap as in most cases, these perpetrators of violence prefers cutting off the head! when the situation gets out of hand.
Bad luck for them these days, Tooth For Tat

OK for you islamic banking is beneficial and you have no problem with it except that Nigeria is a volatile country. Good because Boko haram is volatile,so Nigeria should not introduce educational programmes? because Nigeria is volatile we should not practice democracy?see how you think.

A group of Nigerian businessmen approached the CBN for licensce to operate an islamic bank,the CBN looked at it and gave them approval with guidelines.how does this equate to a CBN governor championing the establishment of an islamic bank.Would it have been different if the present governor is a christian?
The question no one has yet to answer is how is it illegal to establish an islamic bank in nigeria?how does it affect you negatively as a christian?
what has boko haram got to do with the legitimate demands of all nigerian muslims-northsouth/east/west?or are we saying all nigerian muslims are boko haram?
"he have an agenda,its a crusade,they want to islamatize nigeria," C,mon guys remove the speck in your eyes first.

this is the kind of discussion one expect from youths of our generation.not the usual ethnic hate.we must realise that across nija people are all suffering and government policies affect all equally.so why should we blame a westerner for a bad policy of obj?how hv the presidency of obj benefited the west?we all face the same issue,our elite and they assemble from across all ethnic group.until we begin to look at issues that effect us commonly we will continue to look for answers.

"When you fight corruption,corruption fights back".SLS has stepped on many toes in his quest to stamp out corruption in our banking system.you dont expect this people not to fight back with all they got.A group call the Reinnesance group sponsored by the Ibru clique took out millions of dollers in advert on Nigerian and foreign daylies for several months all with the aim of discrediting Sanusi.But in the end the truth prevails.
This group still exist and will take out name in various forum to achieve their purpose and the easiest catch to use is that of religion as its often the spark in Nigeria.
OMG Islamic banking what is the issue here dont get? It is not a national bank hence tax payer money is not use in it. It is not compulsory so you have the choice to join or not to. The modus oparandus is clear so it is not illegal.
Therefore whats the hue and cry about? OK i get,the word ISLAM? so much for our secularism.Just read some comments here , wow

The response below clearly shows some people just do not understand the culture and sensitivity in the North before making comment on issues.It is a common practice among muslim north that when you have finish an assignment and you are leaving to another place you literarily seek for forgiveness from those you have been together with be it in a family,office retirement,or when your embarking on a long journey.its just cultural.

"THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM IS SIMPLE.GOVERNMENT SHOULD GRANT THEM AMNESTY AND PAY THEM MONTHLY ALLOWANCE,WHILE SPONSORING ALL OF THEM ON GOVERNMENT SCHOLARSHIP TO MALAYSIA AND OTHER FOREIGN UNIVERSITY"
AT LEAST THAT HAVE WORKED FOR MEND.  

A group calling itself the The Rainnesance group sponsored by Cecelia Ibru associate took an advert everyday for more than one year in most Nigerian daylies trying to tarnish the intergrity of SLS but could not succed.Reason the man is doing his job professionally with only the desire to purge nigerian banking system in mind.
So you can write all you want about him i dont care because wise Nigerians know the truth.Imagine saying that SLS benefited from Kano or Northern agenda LOL.If you have ever read Sanusi,s write up ten years before he became the CBN Governor,you would have known that he has been a champion of the fight against Northern Aristocracy and islamic fundamentalist even though his lineage is fulani royalty.

@Calaway,dont,know,weather,to,respond,to,you,or,not,since,its,obvious,you,are,underage.However,for,the,benefit,of,false,information,i,should,just,say,here,that,i,am,not,Hausa,and,have,no,connection,with,hausa,whatsoever,at,least,progenically.Secondly,i,do,not,approve,the,killing,of,innocent,human,beings,for,whatever,reason,be,they,baby,or,adult.However,we,must,guard,our,utterances,because,spreading,hate,speech,will,never,stop,the,killings.We,must,also,be,objective,in,our,analysis.coming,out,to,categorically,declear,that,only,hausas,are,the,killers,in,jos,is,outright,lie.Now,you,say,we,should,ignore,reports,by,internationally,recognise,human,right,group,because,it,does,not,suit,your,line,of,reasoning,this,is,abolute,biase.Many,people,says,the,previous,GOC,is,biased,he,was,changed,and,still,yet,same,people,are,claiming,the,current,batch,of,soldiers,are,biase.Most,of,them,are,now,replaced.We,are,watching,because,very,soon,claim,and,counter,claim,will,soon,continue.
In,this,theatre,of,anachy,what,do,we,expect,from,all,rational,human,beings?to,remove,ourself,from,religious,and,ethnic,bigotry,and,appeal,to,the,conscience,of,reason.Believe,me,i,know,because,i,have,a,strong,attachment,with,jos.Stories,of,Hausa,protecting,their,christian,brothers,and,viceversa.surely,this,two,communities,will,one,day,see,no,gains,in,killing,their,fellow,brothers.surely,i,repeat,surely,peace,can,never,be,achieved,by,false,rumour,propagation,or,hate,speeches.@calaway.please,grow,up.



Report to moderator 41.206.12.1

@dvee2

IF A HORSE KNOWS ENOUGH TO TELL YOU IT IS WRONG TO LOOK FOR A REASON TO JUSTIFY THE KILLING OF BABIES AND STRANGERS, IT KNOW LOADS MORE THAN YOU. OR U R JUST PLAIN EVIL LIKE YOU KIN.


@Calaway,dont,know,weather,to,respond,to,you,or,not,since,its,obvious,you,are,underage.However,for,the,benefit,of,false,information,i,should,just,say,here,that,i,am,not,Hausa,and,have,no,connection,with,hausa,whatsoever,at,least,progenically.Secondly,i,do,not,approve,the,killing,of,innocent,human,beings,for,whatever,reason,be,they,baby,or,adult.However,we,must,guard,our,utterances,because,spreading,hate,speech,will,never,stop,the,killings.We,must,also,be,objective,in,our,analysis.coming,out,to,categorically,declear,that,only,hausas,are,the,killers,in,jos,is,outright,lie.Now,you,say,we,should,ignore,reports,by,internationally,recognise,human,right,group,because,it,does,not,suit,your,line,of,reasoning,this,is,abolute,biase.Many,people,says,the,previous,GOC,is,biased,he,was,changed,and,still,yet,same,people,are,claiming,the,current,batch,of,soldiers,are,biase.Most,of,them,are,now,replaced.We,are,watching,because,very,soon,claim,and,counter,claim,will,soon,continue.
In,this,theatre,of,anachy,what,do,we,expect,from,all,rational,human,beings?to,remove,ourself,from,religious,and,ethnic,bigotry,and,appeal,to,the,conscience,of,reason.Believe,me,i,know,because,i,have,a,strong,attachment,with,jos.Stories,of,Hausa,protecting,their,christian,brothers,and,viceversa.surely,this,two,communities,will,one,day,see,no,gains,in,killing,their,fellow,brothers.surely,i,repeat,surely,peace,can,never,be,achieved,by,false,rumour,propagation,or,hate,speeches.@calaway.please,grow,up.

calaway Re: Jos Burning Now!
« #320 on: Yesterday at 09:47:15 AM »

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@ Agbaworo,

[b]It is only the Hausa that kills everybody on the plateau including babies and strangers even students[b][/b]!!!!! They are public enemy No.1.
Even the General Useni you talked of is only opposing govt(PDP) cos he belongs to a differnet political party DPP Remember that is was the same set of Generals that led the resistance killed off over 600 hausa trouble makers in YELWA SHENDAM of plateau state. that area has since been very peaceful thanks to Useni and co. So my friend the perceived friend of Hausa know who their real enemy are. Condemn evil and Nigeria can move forward carrying you along or run the risk of stigmatization defending the killing of Babies and all Human life.

@Calaway,one,need,to,only,look,at,your,comment,above,to,deduce,your,a,thirteen,year,old,playing,with,the,mouse.

We are receiving terrible news from the village where Zamani Farms is located, called Kuru Jenta, on the way to Jos Airport Evidently the village has been set on fire and the Muslims in the village, including our workers some of whom are Muslims, have been surrounded and fear they are about to be executed. We have tried unsuccessfully to reach army and police authorities in Jos. Please, if any of you in Abuja have access to any authorities who can help stop this situation we would very much appreciate it.

The post was followed a few hours with an defeated sounding email post saying:

First of all, thanks to all of you who tried to help me rescue some of our staff and others in Kuru Jenta. I want to state that I have not yet been able to go to the farm to see for myself what is the situation, but have been in touch with some individuals by phone. According to reports, all of the Muslim houses in Kuru were burnt, and most of the Muslims were killed. Only a few are still alive. Although the person I spoke with (one of our farm staff) was naturally upset and a bit confused, he told me that he believed that except for himself, the other Muslim members of staff of the farm were all killed, along with many other inhabitants of the village.He along with his wife and children were injured but managed to escape, and at that point (this evening) he was attempting to walk through the bush to get to the Police Staff College, which he felt was the nearest place of refuge where they could be safe.

At Kuru, there was not a fight between groups, as had been the case in Jos. Muslim inhabitants were rounded up and shot or burnt in their houses. As I said, I have yet to see for myself, but I received the same report from both Muslim and Christian staff and have no reason to doubt its veracity. Only that I am not sure of the details of the exact number killed

A Human Rights Watch call for investigation posted today gives more details. All of the reports I have heard so far seem to indicate that the killings were carried out by armed invaders:

Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that groups of armed men attacked the largely Muslim population of Kuru Karama around 10 a.m. on January 19, 2010. After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive. The witnesses said they believed members of the armed groups to be Christians.

Community leaders from Jos and journalists who visited the town under military escort later in the week told Human Rights Watch that they saw bodies, including several charred corpses of young children and babies, strewn around town, including dozens stuffed down wells or in sewage pits. According to a Muslim official who visited the town to arrange for burial of the bodies, 121 have been recovered so far, including the bodies of 22 young children. The official told Human Rights Watch that corpses are still lodged in 16 wells. Journalists and community leaders who visited the town said that nearly all of the homes and the three main mosques were burned and destroyed.

One of the town’s Muslim imams wounded in the attack told Human Rights Watch that a Christian pastor tried to stop the attack but was beaten by the armed mob. There are conflicting reports of the police response. One witness reported that at least one police officer participated in the attack, while another said the police abandoned their post shortly before the violence began. Witnesses said the killings took place throughout the day, without police intervention to stop the violence, despite repeated calls to the police.

Human Rights Watch publishes eye witness reports from two witnesses:

A 32-year-old resident of Kuru Karama, described to Human Rights Watch what happened:

“Kuru is an old mining town. There are over 3,000 people who live in the community. When we heard that there was crisis in Jos [on Sunday], we went to the [local] Berom chief on Sunday and Monday, he said we should go back home, and go in peace. We went home and relaxed. On Tuesday [January 19] we sat down in the police station and [all] agreed that nothing would happen in the community. The three Muslim leaders were there; the three pastors were there; the chiefs of the Berom and Hausa were there. We then went home. After 15-20 minutes we saw people dropping [entering the town] from the mountains. They were Berom – the tribe of the governor. They were armed with cutlasses, guns, sticks, and bags of stones. It was not the Christians from our community but those from outside who came. Before they reached the area, we called the pastors who said it was none of their business.

I saw one policeman kill more than three people. This is not what I heard from people; I saw it with my own eyes. We were running away, and we met the policeman. He shot a small boy who fell on the ground, and we hid. We had only stones in our hands. He also killed a woman with a baby.

The children were running helter-skelter. The men were trying to protect the women. People who ran to the bush were killed. Some were burned in the mosque, and some went to the houses and were burned. We think 250-300 have been killed, including babies and children. My brother lost four of his children. I personally saw more than 20-30 bodies of children. Some were sliced into two from the head downward; others were burned; others were amputated. I saw a mother lying down and the baby lying next to her.

I am married with two children and one wife. I was waiting for her [my wife], I could not see her. I left Kuru after 12 midnight [early Wednesday morning]. I ran to neighboring villages. The next evening I saw her. She was wounded badly. The 11-month-old girl, they [the mobs] used an axe and cut her. They are both at the hospital.

I came back on Wednesday evening escorted by the military. I saw dead bodies everywhere. The corpses were there, but now you can just see the blood on the ground. None of the houses are standing. All the mosques were liquidated.”

A community leader who was in Kuru Karama the day of the massacre described to Human Rights Watch what he saw:

“Around 10 a.m. we started seeing people coming around and surrounding us. They said they will take our land, saying we are the non-indigenes. They started throwing stones, shooting bows and arrows, shooting guns; we tried to defend ourselves, but we had nothing.

After they started beating us and we ran back to the village, we started to gather our wives and children and put them in the central mosque because anyone who knows religion knows the mosque and church are safe places. We left a few people in the mosque and then went back to defend ourselves, but we couldn’t make it because we didn’t have anything to protect ourselves with, and we couldn’t run because they had surrounded us. So we had to just try to defend ourselves before they killed us. So along the way they were killing us. They were shooting us, hitting us with knives, burning us. They followed us; we went to another place, and they killed us. We were going round, and round, and round.

I saw what happened in the central mosque. They pursued us. They burned the mosque. They killed people in our presence. They burned the mosque with the women and children in it. There were over 100 bodies in the mosque – women and children. We couldn’t run away. All of us were wounded. They burned the whole village. There are 200-500 Muslim houses and they burned them all. The central mosque is a big mosque and was destroyed. They have killed almost 500 people. Some people ran to the bush and were killed. The dead bodies are in the wells, some in the soakaways. The fighting went on from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. They [the mobs] ran away and left at night.

I have three wives and four children. I saw the dead body of one wife; they had burned half of her. The remaining wives and my four children, I have not seen them. There are those who are burned to ashes, and you don’t know who is who.”

Other reports

Nigeria: New Wave of Violence Leaves 200 Dead-HRW.Org
By siteadmin
Created Jan 27 2011 - 19:20
2010_Nigeria_JosGrave.jpg
Human Rights Watch
Government Should Urgently Protect Civilians, Invite UN Expert to Jos

(Dakar, January 27, 2011) – A deadly spate of sectarian violence in Nigeria’s central Plateau State since December 24, 2010, has killed more than 200 people, Human Rights Watch said today. The victims, including children, have been hacked to death, burned alive, “disappeared,” or dragged off buses and murdered in tit-for-tat killings.

The Nigerian government should act swiftly to protect civilians of all ethnicities at risk of further attacks or reprisal killings, and allow the United Nations secretary-general’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Francis Deng, to visit the state, Human Rights Watch said.

“These waves of senseless killings risk spreading and have taken a terrible toll on the people of Plateau State,” said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The state and federal governments should urgently enlist anyone who can help break this cycle of violence, including Mr. Deng.”

The most recent round of violence and reprisal killings was sparked by a series of bomb blasts on Christmas Eve in two Christian communities in Jos, the state capital. Since then, dozens of Muslims and Christians alike have been targeted and killed, often in horrific circumstances, based simply on their ethnic or religious identity. These latest deadly outbreaks follow a year of inter-communal bloodletting in 2010 that left at least 1,000 dead in the state.

In September 2010, Deng formally requested approval from the Nigerian government to visit Jos in October to help community leaders devise measures to reduce the risk of an escalation in the violence. The Nigerian government has not formally replied or authorized the mission.

Targeted and Reprisal Killings
The Christmas Eve explosions, which ripped through two Christian neighborhoods in Jos, and several days of sectarian clashes that followed the bomb attacks, left at least 107 dead, according to Christian and Muslim community leaders in Jos. A militant Islamist website published a statement by Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group in northern Nigeria, claiming responsibility. There has been no independent confirmation of this claim.

The targeted killings and tit-for-tat violence escalated further in January 2011. Eight Muslim youth in a car heading to a wedding were attacked on January 7 after they took a wrong turn and ended up in a Christian village in Barkin Ladi. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the following day the Nigerian army exhumed and returned to their families the corpses of five of them from shallow graves near the village. The three others remain missing.

The following morning, January 8, Muslim youth in Jos indiscriminately attacked Christians, mostly ethnic Igbo market traders, around the Dilimi market and along Bauchi Road. Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the victims were hacked to death with machetes and cutlasses or burned alive by the mob. Igbo leaders said that 48 Igbo civilians were killed in the attacks, while a health worker at the nearby Bingham University Teaching Hospital confirmed that 18 corpses arrived in the morgue on January 8.

Later that day, at least 14 Muslims were killed by mobs in Christian neighborhoods in Jos and surrounding communities. A passenger on an interstate bus to Jos on January 8 told Human Rights Watch that Muslim passengers were separated from Christian passengers and hacked to death. Four of the passengers were killed at a makeshift roadblock manned by a Christian mob in Ratsat, south of Jos, while two others were killed when the bus arrived at the Gada Biu bus terminus in Jos itself.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that two days later, on January 10, gunmen attacked Wareng village, a Christian community south of Jos, burning homes and killing residents. Four women and seven children were killed in the attack.

Muslim and Christian leaders in Jos told Human Rights Watch that they also knew of dozens of disappearances. They said that, in the past month, 42 Muslims, mostly motorcycle taxi operators in Jos, have been reported missing, while more than 51 Christians have still not been accounted for.

“This terrible cycle of violence and impunity needs to stop,” Dufka said. “Both the state and federal governments have shown a disturbing lack of urgency in addressing the violence and tackling the underlying causes of these deadly outbreaks.”

The federal and Plateau State governments should take concrete steps to break the cycle of violence by ending discriminatory state and local government policies that fuel inter-communal tensions, providing adequate protection for vulnerable communities, and ensuring a speedy and effective investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of the violence, Human Rights Watch said.

Origins of the Crisis
Plateau State is in an area of central Nigeria known as the Middle Belt that divides the predominately Muslim north from the largely Christian south. Local political elites have long battled for power and control of limited resources and have stoked religious tensions to those ends. Widespread poverty and unemployment, fueled by endemic government corruption and mismanagement, have created an explosive social mix as competition intensifies for scarce opportunities to secure government jobs, education, and political patronage.

These tensions have been exacerbated by state and local government policies that discriminate against members of ethnic groups classified as “non-indigene” – those who cannot trace their ancestry to what are said to be the original inhabitants of an area. Non-indigenes, in Plateau State and elsewhere, are openly denied the right to compete for state and local government jobs and are subject to discriminatory admissions policies at state-run universities, denying them important avenues of socio-economic mobility. Discriminatory government policies have effectively relegated thousands of Plateau State residents to permanent second-class status.

Religious and ethnic identity often overlap in Nigeria. The main actors in the deadly struggle for power and resources in Jos have been the Hausa-Fulani and the Berom ethnic groups. The Hausa-Fulani, the vast majority Muslim, are the largest ethnic group in northern Nigeria. They are classified as non-indigenes in Jos, though many are from families that have been there for several generations. The Berom, predominately Christian, along with the Anaguta and Afizere ethnic groups, are designated indigenes.

A Decade of Suffering
In the past decade, more than 3,800 people have been killed in inter-communal violence in Plateau State, including as many as 1,000 in 2001 in Jos and more than 75 Christians and at least 700 Muslims in 2004 in Yelwa, southern Plateau State. In November 2008, two days of inter-communal clashes following local government elections in Jos left at least 700 dead.

In January 2010, several hundred people were killed in sectarian clashes in and around Jos, including a massacre on January 19 of more than 150 Muslims in the nearby town of Kuru Karama. On March 7, at least 200 Christians were massacred in Dogo Nahawa and several nearby villages. Over the next nine months, more than 120 people died in smaller-scale attacks and reprisal killings leading up to the Christmas Eve bombings and renewed sectarian clashes.

Inter-communal violence in Plateau State and northern Nigeria has a history of spreading to other regions. Following the 2004 violence in Yelwa, reprisal killings in Kano State left 200 Christians dead. Muslim attacks against Christians in the northern city of Maiduguri in 2006 led to reprisal killings of more than 80 Muslims in eastern Nigeria.

Members of the security forces have also been implicated in serious abuses. In November 2008, Human Rights Watch documented 133 cases of unlawful killings by the federal police and army sent to Jos to quell the sectarian violence. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that, on January 10, 2011, at least one soldier was seen participating in the attack on Wareng village, which left 15 Christians dead.

Unbroken Cycle of Violence
The federal and Plateau State governments have not only failed to tackle the root socio-economic causes of the violence, they have also failed to break the cycle of killings by holding those responsible to account. In all but a handful of cases – 17 Hausa-Fulani men were convicted by the Federal High Court in Jos in December 2010 – the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. In the absence of effective redress through the courts, communities that have suffered violence frequently resort to vigilante justice and exact revenge by inflicting commensurate harm on innocent members of the other community.

Over the years, the federal and Plateau State governments have set up various committees and commissions of inquiry that have examined these issues, but the reports from these bodies, and the occasional government white paper, have mostly been shelved. Despite repeated outbreaks of violence, the government has largely ignored the findings and failed to implement the recommendations.

The federal government, however, has taken some steps to beef up security in Jos and surrounding communities since early 2010. While the military presence has had some effect in deterring and responding to attacks, the underlying causes of the reoccurring outbreaks of violence remain.

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Nigeria, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/nigeria


Witness Accounts:
A Hausa-Fulani driver described to Human Rights Watch how the eight members of a Muslim wedding party were attacked on January 7 after they took a wrong turn leading to a Berom village south of Jos:

At around 4 p.m. on our way to a wedding in Mangu two of the cars took a wrong turn in Barkin Ladi local government area. The first car, a small Mazda, contained eight people. I was driving the second car. We were all Hausa-Fulani from Jos. The other car was ahead of us. I stopped to ask for directions. We were near Dorawa-Tsohuwa village, a Berom community. When I stopped, some people surrounded the car. There were three people on a motorcycle behind us and four people came out of the bush, two on each side. I am thinking they will tell us the actual direction. We were talking with them in Hausa but they were conversing in Berom language. They said we should come down [from the car] and they were calling others on their phones. I realized that something was going to happen and slammed down the throttle. The two in front of the car stepped aside and we escaped from the danger. I called Jamilu, who was in the first vehicle. Jamilu’s mother is the senior sister of the groom. He told me: ‘We have been surrounded by people. They killed two of us. Me, I am running. They want to kill me.’ I heard the sound of something crash and the phone went off. I called him again but the phone was off.

We went back to Mangu and informed the soldiers what happened. They sent a lieutenant and 10 soldiers in a Hilux [pickup truck] back to the village. They allowed me to come because I knew the exact place where we stopped. We went back but did not see any corpses. The next day we went back again with the security. We entered Dorawa village but the people did not talk. Some of them ran and the soldiers caught two of them. One of them said he was coming back from Barkin Ladi and saw people burying something but he didn’t know what. The security went to the place and found a hole used to explore tin. The security digged and found the corpses of five people. I saw the corpses. Jamilu was among them. They had cut the necks of three, one they broke his head, the other they cut his body and removed his penis. The soldiers took the corpses to the air force base. Up until now the three other corpses have not been found.

An Igbo pharmacy technician described to Human Rights Watch how he was attacked by a Hausa-Fulani mob on January 8 in Jos:

On the 8th of January, some minutes to 11 a.m., I was on my way in a taxi to Terminus Market on Bauchi Road. I saw people block the road. They were beating and burning people. I saw them burn two people. I opened the door of the vehicle to get out. I was wearing a suit. One Hausa man ran across the road and said, ‘Let us kill this unbeliever.’ There was nowhere I could go. They rushed me and beat me with machetes and cutlasses. I defended myself with my hands but I got weak and fell down. After that they sliced my head and they used a dagger to stab me in the rectum. When they were satisfied with the bleeding they said I was dead. They then dragged me to the Bauchi Road bridge and threw me over it. There is no water there in the dry season and I landed on the ground. The Hausa came in groups and looked at my corpse. When they would come I would seize my breath. They thought I was dead. I cried in my mind ‘Jesus, Jesus, save me.’ My body had no life but my mind was very strong. I did this for three hours. The soldiers came around 2 o’clock. I opened one of my eyes and said to them, ‘Kindly help me.’ The soldiers said, ‘This man is not dead.’ One of the young soldiers jumped down, picked me up and took me to hospital. I was cut all over my body. My right hand was shattered. My head was cut around six places. They stabbed me in my anus. My stomach was all scraped up. I went to theater [for surgery] four times. They operated on my hand, but I cannot use it for anything now.

An Igbo shop owner in Jos described to Human Rights Watch how eight men were killed in Jos on January 8:

My shop is in Dilimi, a Muslim area. I deal in electrical parts. I was in my shop around 11 a.m.-12 p.m., when I saw about 40 Muslim youths coming with machetes, daggers, and firewood. There was a man in a Plateau State government vehicle with his son. He was buying from the boys selling clothes in front of my shop. I don’t know whether he was Berom but he was a Plateau man. He looked back and saw them break the glass on the car. He said they should stop. He didn’t know there were so many of them. They hit him with a plank and then set him on fire. His son ran away.

I ran to my neighbor’s shop. He is a Hausa man, a Muslim. He protected me. I stayed in his shop one hour. I was seeing everything that was happening outside. They [the Muslim youth] were chasing everyone who was a Christian. I saw them dragging people. They were going with fuel and machetes. I didn’t see any guns. They blocked everywhere you could run. Some [of the Christians] had blood on their bodies and were running.

I saw them gather four people together and burn them. They smashed their legs and dropped them together, and then put them on fire in the street. I saw them kill two people inside a jeep. They didn’t allow the men to get out. They broke the glass and poured fuel on them. One was an Igbo man. I know his shop. They killed another man across the main road. I saw them roast the body. I saw eight people killed that day.

Around 1:30 p.m. the army come and rescued us. Others that hid themselves came out as well. There were almost 20 or 30 other Christians. The soldiers walked us to the boundary dividing the Muslim and Christian area.

A Muslim passenger traveling on an interstate bus on January 8 described to Human Rights Watch how the Muslim passengers were separated from the Christian passengers and killed:

On January 8, around 2 p.m., I boarded a bus in Lafia, Nassarawa State. It was a Marcopolo bus carrying 64 passengers. At around 6 o’clock [that evening] we were stopped by a roadblock in Ratsat in Jos South [local government area]. The people put a tree and stones in the road. There were about 200 people – men, women, and children. They were Berom. They told us to all come down from the bus and asked, ‘Where are the Muslims?’ They identified four Muslims because they were wearing kaftans [traditional Muslim dress] and asked them where they were coming from. They said they were coming from Lagos. The crowd then started beating them. The people on the bus were all crying that they should leave them. They first beat them with sticks then used their daggers and machetes and killed them. They threw their bodies in the bushes. The driver told us to enter the bus and that we should go, so we left the corpses there. Four of us Muslims survived – two men and two women. We didn’t identity ourselves as Muslims.

I was afraid but the Christians on the bus told us not to be afraid and advised us not to talk. They told us we should identify ourselves as Christians. From there, there were heavy [military] checkpoints on the way. At one point we didn’t move for almost three hours. The driver tried to tell the military what had happened but the soldiers told the driver to ‘go, go, go.’ They didn’t want to hear anything.

Around 11 p.m., we reached the bus terminus at Gada Biu in Jos. As we came down from the bus a group of people surrounded us. They said, ‘Where are you coming from?’ They divided the Muslim passengers from the Christian passengers based on the mode of dress. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt. They asked me my name. I said my name was Daniel. They asked me to pray in Christian and I prayed. I had attended mission school so I knew how to pray. I said, ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ They then said I should tell them the story of John the Baptist. I said I know the story but that I didn’t remember it. I told them I could tell them the story of Jesus Christ. They said ok and said I should step aside. That is how I escaped.

The group that surrounded us took the two Muslim passengers wearing kaftans to one side. They were a Fulani man and woman on their way to Gombe [State]. The other Muslim woman on the bus was wearing a jacket because it was cold and they didn’t confirm she was Muslim. I just kept quiet and was watching them. The men then hit the two Muslims with machetes, cutlasses, and daggers. They killed them there in the terminus. The other passengers were running. After they were finished, the soldiers came in their vehicle and the group ran away.

A Berom man in Wareng, a Christian village south of Jos, described to Human Rights Watch how armed men, including at least one soldier, attacked the village on January 10, killing 15 people:

At around 11:30 p.m., I heard shooting of guns. I didn’t know what to do. The attackers were many. They were speaking Fulani. They came to my house and broke the door. As they entered the house they were shooting. I hid in the second room. They entered inside but didn’t find me. It was God that hid me. One of the attackers was a soldier man. I saw him as he passed by my window. He was wearing the new uniform of the soldiers – not the green uniform but the brown uniform. Later when we were looking around we saw an ID card of a soldier on the ground. Our councilor reported it to the chairman of the local government.

Fifteen people were killed in the attack: four men, four women, and seven children. Thirteen people died that day, two died later at the hospital. The men were killed with gunshot. They killed the women and children with knives. One of the babies died from the smoke when they burned the house. My brother and his wife and two of their children were killed. Their third child was cut on his head. I took the boy that very night to the hospital. They sewed his head and now it is better. I will try to take care of him if I am alive.


Human Rights Watch jos Plateau state

It is the hausas, I just got a call from a friend who is apoliceman there that the hausa hijacked a marcopolo bus in Bauchi road area of Jos town and burnt it today . The bus was coming from maiduguri and contained mostly Ibos. The bus contained over 100 passengers and only 3 passengers escaped.

We need to divide this country, we cannot continue to live with those animals called Hausas. And that Sultan of sokoto is calling on Governor Jonah Jang to resign when his (sultans) sick mind knows that it is his people that are causing confusion in Jos






Kafanchan it is people like you who play the drum beats for war and anarchy without confirmation of your story above.You got a call from your friend what effort did you make to verify this before you place on the internet?
How about this little research about the same incident below:
JOS, Nigeria (AP) — Christian youths attacked a car full of Muslims returning from a wedding in central Nigeria, killing seven people inside the vehicle and sparking retaliatory violence that left one other person dead, an official said Saturday.

It was the latest unrest in a fertile region that saw more than 500 people killed last year in massacres pitting Christians against Muslims.

On Saturday, gunshots echoed through the troubled city of Jos, causing store owners to close their shops and families to hide inside their homes.

The violence began as Christian youths blocked a road leading from a neighboring village Friday night, trapping the Muslims inside their car, said lawyer Ahmed Garba, a member of an Islamic religious council. Garba told journalists Saturday that seven people died in the attack and one person survived.

Garba said once news of the attack spread, Muslims began retaliatory violence in the streets of Jos that has left at least one person dead.

Plateau state police commissioner Abdurrahman Akano said investigators received word of the Friday night attack, but had not found any bodies. That is not uncommon as Muslims traditionally bury their dead as soon as possible.



Manassie Panpe, the Red Cross' state secretary, said officials from the aid organization had found several injured people in the streets Saturday but that information remained scarce.

Nigeria, an oil-rich country of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. Jos is in the nation's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.

The Jos violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands. The government of Plateau state, where Jos is the capital, is controlled by Christian politicians who have blocked Muslims from being legally recognized as citizens. That has locked many out of prized government jobs in a region where the tourism industry and tin mining have collapsed in the last decades.

On Christmas Eve, two bombs went off near a large market in Jos where people were doing last-minute Christmas shopping. A third hit a mainly Christian area of Jos, while the fourth was near a road that leads to the city's main mosque.

Officials initially said at least 32 died from the blasts, while an official with the National Emergency Management Agency told journalists that he had counted 80 deaths from the explosions and the retaliatory violence that followed.

An Internet message attributed to radical Muslim sect known in northern Nigeria as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks. However, the sect had never carried out an attack in that region before,

Terrorism the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear
By this definition of course terrorism abound in the North,So also are terrorist group like MEND in the south.
Change the name call them Alqaeda.Fundametalist or Freedom fighters,it is the method the employed that made them terrorist.they are all blood letting suckers.The North is in denial,so also are southerners in denial that they have a terrerorist group among them MEND.Does it matter where your source of finance is if you are a murderer?

I dont care wether al queda,boko haram,or MEND.If you kill innocent people you should face the full wrath of the law.There are religious fundamentalist in the North,thats a non contest,we all know foreign elements will always want to take advantage of this situation.it is now the responsibility of our security network to nip this in the bud before it goes out of hand or we are all in trouble,NORTH/SOUTH.
However trying to make MEND terrorist group look like saint in comparison to Boko haram is pure hypocrisy.they are all killers and terrorist,full stop.

monstrous mass murder of innocent souls has occurred in Jos again and we are, as always, being insulted with unimaginative, flyblown, and soporific platitudes by our political, media, and clerical elites.

Almost every prominent Nigerian who has commented on this heartless, high-tech mass slaughter has mouthed one of three predictably ready-made bromides: oh, this is all about politics, not religion; it’s a failure of security and leadership; and it’s the consequence of poverty.

This is the safe, standard, prepackaged rhetorical frippery that our elites effortlessly regurgitate whenever violent communal convulsions erupt in any part of the country. But this is getting insufferably trite. If the hypocrisy or intellectual laziness that actuates these thoughtless, simplistic sound bites didn’t have far-reaching consequences for our continued existence as a nation and, in fact, our very survival as a people, one would simply yawn in silence and ignore them.

But it so often happens that after these hypocritical, clichéd phrases are uttered, the nation will be anesthetized into a false sense of security and normalcy, the culprits will never be ferreted out much less punished, and everybody will go to sleep—until the next upheaval recrudesces and jolts us all out of our pigheaded complacence.
A scene from the bombings in Jos

And then the predictably mind-numbing, mealy-mouthed banalities will be invoked again by the elites to explain away what happened, and so on and so forth. This rhetorical formula is safe because it absolves people in political and cultural authority from the triple burdens of thinking, confronting uncomfortable truths, and taking action. That’s why politicians are often ironically the first to blame “politicians” for the episodic fits violence that now habitually punctuate our national life. Well, “politician” is a floating signifier that encapsulates everybody in politics, and what refers to everybody, as they say, refers to nobody. Case closed.
To be sure, political manipulation, inept security and leadership, and poverty are all deeply implicated in the perpetual cycle of violence and recriminations that have become fixtures in our socio-political landscape. But a murderous pervasion of religious doctrines and violent, unthinking ethnic particularism are even greater culprits. People who are brainwashed into believing that those who don’t share their faith deserve to be murdered, or people who are so wedded to their ethnicity that they lack the capacity to tolerate others, are just as dangerous and as culpable—if not more so— as the politicians who “manipulate” them.

Poverty, in and of itself, does not predispose people to violence. There are much poorer countries in Africa than Nigeria that are remarkably peaceful. Take, for an example, Benin Republic, our western neighbor. Or Senegal, an over-90-percent Muslim country that elected a Roman Catholic as its first president. And, of course, security lapses become an issue only in societies that have a predisposition to senseless, unprovoked violence, such as ours.

Now, a group which calls itself Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid Da’awati Wal Jihad hasclaimed responsibility for the deadly bombs in Jos. It also claims to have perpetrated its savage murder of innocents, some of whom may in fact be Muslims, on behalf of Muslims and Islam. But the preponderance of reactions to this unsettling revelation among our Muslim leaders and commentators, including security agencies, has been to impulsively dismiss the group’s claim even when they have no contrary evidence—much like Goodluck Jonathan and his minions unthinkingly exculpated the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) of responsibility for the October 1 terrorist attacks even when the group actually claimed responsibility for the attacks. Same attitude, different personalities. That is the Nigerian story.

One uncomfortable fact that our elites in northern Nigerian have been shy to confront meaningfully and fearlessly is that we do have a worryingly enervating crisis of noxious religious literalism. By religious literalism I mean lazy, literal, and de-contextualized reading of religious texts, which current Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi almost singlehandedly fought for several years in newspaper articles when he was an ordinary banker. I’ve heard so much thoroughgoing hate and blatant call to murder by local, often ignored, religious clerics in the name of sermonizing. These are unmentionable sermons that will curdle the blood of any sane person and cause them to wonder if they share the same humanity as these ignorant, homicidal clerics. Boko Haram’s leader’s video justifying and claiming responsibility for the Jos bombings is an eerie echo of these hateful sermons.

But I know these sermons to be atrociously grotesque perversions of Islam’s core teachings because I am the son of a Muslim scholar who knows as much about Islam as any educated Muslim should. My 80-something-year-old dad taught me to read and write in Arabic before I even learned to read in the Roman alphabet. And my dad’s dad was a Christian. So were many of his brothers and sisters--in a predominantly Muslim community. Yet we lived in peace. My dad always took care to remind us, like all broadminded Muslim scholars do or should, that the references to “unbelievers” in the Qur’an are not to Christians or Jews; they are to seventh-century Arabian idolaters who launched unprovoked attacks against the emergent Islamic religion.

Christians and Jews are properly called “ahlul kitaab” (translated as “people of the book”) in the Qur’an. Although the relationship between early Muslims in the 7thcentury and Christians was not without problems, it was, for the most part, marked by tolerance as evidenced in several Qur’anic verses.


Examples: “Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor shall they grieve" (2:62, 5:69, and many other similar verses); “[A]nd nearest among them in love to the believers will you find those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant” (5:82).

In the second verse, you can almost mentally picture the Nigerian Reverend Hassan Matthew Kukah and many (Catholic) priests.

But ignorant, hate-filled, and hidebound religious literalists have stripped adherents of other Abrahamic faiths of their status as “people of the book” and have dressed them in the borrowed robes of “unbelievers.” And they are straining hard to make gullible people believe that all the scriptural verses about retaliatory aggression against “unbelievers” in the Qur’an refer to Christians and Jews.

Unfortunately, these hitherto fringe perverts of the message of the Qur’an are beginning to enjoy a position of dominance in northern Nigeria’s religious discourse, and many sane, thinking people are afraid to contradict them, lest they be tagged as “hypocrites” or “sympathizers of unbelievers” and then murdered.

I know I speak for millions of silent Nigerian Muslims when I say that these blood-thirsty, homicidal beasts who murdered innocent men, women, and children in the name of Islam don’t represent us. But until enough Muslim leaders and commentators come out to openly denounce these people and the ideology of hate that animates them, they will continue to hijack and appropriate the mainstream, and we will all pay dearly for this--literally and symbolically.

But, first, the perpetrators must be made to face the consequences of their murders. Unfortunately, Goodluck Jonathan has robbed himself of the moral capital to bring these murderers to justice because he also publicly shielded his own MEND kinsmenfrom the consequences of their own savage terrorism against Nigeria.

The question is: can we afford to go on like this, especially now that we are entering a really dangerous phase of mutual annihilation through bombs? Certainly, our elites’ habitual, knee-jerk, platitudinous reactions to communal violence will hasten our collective ruination. But we need to always remember that the consequences of a violent break-up of Nigeria won’t be pretty for everybody.

Tolerance, understanding, and the acceptance of our diversity are the only values that can sustain us a nation.

The centre can no longer hold?Never have i ever been more afraid about the survival of our nation than now.At this point we must all keep our differences apart and cue behind our president in this difficult time.we need to be strong for each other.these hate messages that devides us is like falling into the same trap set by the perpetrators of this crime.our nationhood is being tested.we may choose to be bystanders and co instigators in the destructive disintegration of our fatherland,or we may act in the believe that most powerful nation today have gone through more difficult period in the journey to their nationhood.i chose the later.are u with me?

Claim and counter claim,my religion your religion,the bible says,the quaran says,chriastianity/islam,this is the same hateful thought/speech that fuels this type of violence in the first place.I dont care what you believe,if you spill an innocent soul,hell shall be tour abode.Go back and read your books with open mind.and i mean both books.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday 26 December, 2010

MPAC Strongly Condemns Attacks in Jos and Maiduguri

Nigerians witnessed another bloody days of barbaric and gruesome murders when civilians became soft targets for murderers in both Jos and Maiduguri on Christmas eve. While the Jos blasts claimed 32 human lives and injured 74, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and the Police Command in Borno claimed that the Maiduguri attacks, which claimed 6 people, including a pastor and a retired soldier and injured 25 at two churches, were perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect members.

These incessant acts of terrorism represent another low point for our nation. For more than two decades now, inter-religious tragedies seem to be occurring with depressing frequency as political leaders have failed time and time again to find the solutions to the underlying causes. Most Nigerians actually know that these root causes rest squarely with unscrupulous politicians who have absolutely no value for human lives and no scruples about damaging societal cohesion and peace.

As Muslims, it is important to reiterate unequivocally that the Christians are our brothers and sisters in humanity, co-citizens and most especially people of the covenant of the prophet of Islam (See A Forgotten Covenant below). Their lives and places of worship must be respected and protected from any violation as commanded by Islam. We therefore use these times of murderous attacks during their celebration to remind ourselves of the commonalities of our religious heritages, both of which hold the life of Jesus Christ (AS) to be an example for humanity. The Qur’an states "Behold! The angels said: 'O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter and in the company of those nearest to God.'"

Anger, rage or urge for revenge cannot be a valid justification for ignoring the most basic principles of our religion and its core values of justice, mercy, human dignity, freedom, sanctity of human life and equality for all. As the Qur’an states in Chapter 5, verse 6: "And never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice." Attacking civilians, even during the time of war, or attacking Christian places of worship are clear deviation from the tenets of Islam, which upholds the sanctity of life and forbids crimes against humanity. When such crimes are attributed to people who claim to be Muslims, as Muslim ourselves we cannot be bystanders, we must be involved in constructive intervention at all levels of crime prevention and law enforcement.

We call on all decent Nigerians not to loose heart and to stay determined to work together across barriers of faith and ethnicity, to rid the nation of the scourge of terrorism and those incubating it. Islam does not tolerate the use of terrorism for any purpose, regardless of the identity of the aggressors or the nature of their motives. Furthermore, individual members of society are not allowed to take the law into their own hands and render punishment, regardless of whether a similar crime had been committed against the Muslims or not. The case of these latest victims can be viewed only as a horrible murders for which the perpetrators, whomever and wherever they are, should be hunted down and punished under the full extent of the law.
________________________________________
A Forgotten Covenant
________________________________________

(Also called 'Charter of Privileges': to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai .)

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Prophet Muhammad, SAW), as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
-End-

Link: http://www.mpac-ng.org/mpac-positions/590-mpac-strongly-condemns-attacks-in-jos-and-maiduguri.html

NOT IN MY NAME: I call on all muslim to come out and condemn this act of terrorism by this group whatever there name is. As a muslim i swear by the Almighty that Hell shall be your abode whoever you might be killing women and children unjustly.However as Nigerians we must all guard our utterances because such hateful utterances will always further aggravate the situation rather than calm it.For example falsely showing a picture of burnt people scupping oil from and oil leak in the south and claiming they are Jos victim is cheap propaganda. the second picture is also of previous jos crisis and not the recent bomb incident.Wonder what you aim to achieve with this.I believe and pray our generation will one day overcome this hate.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday 26 December, 2010

MPAC Strongly Condemns Attacks in Jos and Maiduguri

Nigerians witnessed another bloody days of barbaric and gruesome murders when civilians became soft targets for murderers in both Jos and Maiduguri on Christmas eve. While the Jos blasts claimed 32 human lives and injured 74, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and the Police Command in Borno claimed that the Maiduguri attacks, which claimed 6 people, including a pastor and a retired soldier and injured 25 at two churches, were perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect members.

These incessant acts of terrorism represent another low point for our nation. For more than two decades now, inter-religious tragedies seem to be occurring with depressing frequency as political leaders have failed time and time again to find the solutions to the underlying causes. Most Nigerians actually know that these root causes rest squarely with unscrupulous politicians who have absolutely no value for human lives and no scruples about damaging societal cohesion and peace.

As Muslims, it is important to reiterate unequivocally that the Christians are our brothers and sisters in humanity, co-citizens and most especially people of the covenant of the prophet of Islam (See A Forgotten Covenant below). Their lives and places of worship must be respected and protected from any violation as commanded by Islam. We therefore use these times of murderous attacks during their celebration to remind ourselves of the commonalities of our religious heritages, both of which hold the life of Jesus Christ (AS) to be an example for humanity. The Qur’an states "Behold! The angels said: 'O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter and in the company of those nearest to God.'"

Anger, rage or urge for revenge cannot be a valid justification for ignoring the most basic principles of our religion and its core values of justice, mercy, human dignity, freedom, sanctity of human life and equality for all. As the Qur’an states in Chapter 5, verse 6: "And never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice." Attacking civilians, even during the time of war, or attacking Christian places of worship are clear deviation from the tenets of Islam, which upholds the sanctity of life and forbids crimes against humanity. When such crimes are attributed to people who claim to be Muslims, as Muslim ourselves we cannot be bystanders, we must be involved in constructive intervention at all levels of crime prevention and law enforcement.

We call on all decent Nigerians not to loose heart and to stay determined to work together across barriers of faith and ethnicity, to rid the nation of the scourge of terrorism and those incubating it. Islam does not tolerate the use of terrorism for any purpose, regardless of the identity of the aggressors or the nature of their motives. Furthermore, individual members of society are not allowed to take the law into their own hands and render punishment, regardless of whether a similar crime had been committed against the Muslims or not. The case of these latest victims can be viewed only as a horrible murders for which the perpetrators, whomever and wherever they are, should be hunted down and punished under the full extent of the law.
________________________________________
A Forgotten Covenant
________________________________________

(Also called 'Charter of Privileges': to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai .)

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Prophet Muhammad, SAW), as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
-End-

Link: http://www.mpac-ng.org/mpac-positions/590-mpac-strongly-condemns-attacks-in-jos-and-maiduguri.html

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday 26 December, 2010

MPAC Strongly Condemns Attacks in Jos and Maiduguri

Nigerians witnessed another bloody days of barbaric and gruesome murders when civilians became soft targets for murderers in both Jos and Maiduguri on Christmas eve. While the Jos blasts claimed 32 human lives and injured 74, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and the Police Command in Borno claimed that the Maiduguri attacks, which claimed 6 people, including a pastor and a retired soldier and injured 25 at two churches, were perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect members.

These incessant acts of terrorism represent another low point for our nation. For more than two decades now, inter-religious tragedies seem to be occurring with depressing frequency as political leaders have failed time and time again to find the solutions to the underlying causes. Most Nigerians actually know that these root causes rest squarely with unscrupulous politicians who have absolutely no value for human lives and no scruples about damaging societal cohesion and peace.

As Muslims, it is important to reiterate unequivocally that the Christians are our brothers and sisters in humanity, co-citizens and most especially people of the covenant of the prophet of Islam (See A Forgotten Covenant below). Their lives and places of worship must be respected and protected from any violation as commanded by Islam. We therefore use these times of murderous attacks during their celebration to remind ourselves of the commonalities of our religious heritages, both of which hold the life of Jesus Christ (AS) to be an example for humanity. The Qur’an states "Behold! The angels said: 'O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter and in the company of those nearest to God.'"

Anger, rage or urge for revenge cannot be a valid justification for ignoring the most basic principles of our religion and its core values of justice, mercy, human dignity, freedom, sanctity of human life and equality for all. As the Qur’an states in Chapter 5, verse 6: "And never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice." Attacking civilians, even during the time of war, or attacking Christian places of worship are clear deviation from the tenets of Islam, which upholds the sanctity of life and forbids crimes against humanity. When such crimes are attributed to people who claim to be Muslims, as Muslim ourselves we cannot be bystanders, we must be involved in constructive intervention at all levels of crime prevention and law enforcement.

We call on all decent Nigerians not to loose heart and to stay determined to work together across barriers of faith and ethnicity, to rid the nation of the scourge of terrorism and those incubating it. Islam does not tolerate the use of terrorism for any purpose, regardless of the identity of the aggressors or the nature of their motives. Furthermore, individual members of society are not allowed to take the law into their own hands and render punishment, regardless of whether a similar crime had been committed against the Muslims or not. The case of these latest victims can be viewed only as a horrible murders for which the perpetrators, whomever and wherever they are, should be hunted down and punished under the full extent of the law.
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A Forgotten Covenant
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(Also called 'Charter of Privileges': to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai .)

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Prophet Muhammad, SAW), as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
-End-

Link: http://www.mpac-ng.org/mpac-positions/590-mpac-strongly-condemns-attacks-in-jos-and-maiduguri.html