Nigeria: Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nigeria: Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others,
destroyed nine churches*
61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored 'insult'
to Islam
Posted: October 5, 2007
Compass Direct News
Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others,
destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern
Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school
students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s
prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.
The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in
Nigeria's northern state of Kano.
According to Compass Direct News, which specializes in reporting on
Christian persecution worldwide, there are 1,500 students at the high
school, called Government College-Tudun Wada Dankadai, of which only 14
are Christians, and only seven of those actually live on campus. The
Christian students at the school insist no one ever saw the alleged
cartoon, and furthermore that no one in the tiny minority group of
Christians would have dared such a feat, especially during Ramadan.
"How can we take such a risk when we know that we are a minority and
cannot stand [against] them?" Christian student Shehu Bawa told Compass.
"This is a lie created to have a reason to attack us."
Eighteen-year-old student Iliya Adamu told Compass he was getting ready
to go to class when a group of Muslim students stormed into his dorm and
began to beat him.
"I was surprised that they were beating me without telling what I did,"
Adamu said. "I asked to know what was happening, and they claimed that
one Christian student had gone to their mosque to draw a cartoon of
Muhammad. In spite of my denying the act, they kept beating me."
Seeing the Muslim mob beating a Christian classmate named Sule La’azaru,
Adamu ran to the principal's office for refuge, soon to be joined by the
remaining Christian students there, according to the report.
Despite the attempts by the Muslim teachers to stop the rampage, Muslim
students began throwing stones at the Christian students through the
window of the principal's office, wounding student Ayuba Wada in the head.
"I was inside the office of our principal, with the others, when
suddenly the Muslim students began throwing stones at us," Wada told
Compass. "It was through this way that my head was broken. I was
bleeding, and no help came as the situation became more riotous."
Eventually, the rampaging Muslim students broke into the principal's
office, but the principal's arrival saved Wada's life, while the other
Christians holed up there managed to escape the mob.
One of the Christian students, Shehu Bawa, told Compass his arrival on
campus that morning was punctuated by shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is
Great) "all over the school." In fact, he said, "The Muslim students
were now attacking every Christian student on sight. Four of us ran into
the office of the vice principal, but when it was finally broken into by
the Muslim students, we ran out and escaped."
What about the alleged cartoon of Muhammad, rumors of which instigated
the attacks?
"We suspect that either one of the Muslim students in the school did
this to create an excuse for us to be attacked, or that a Muslim fanatic
from the town might have done this to spark off a fight among Muslims
and Christians," said Bawa. "How could we have done this when Muslim
students are always around the mosque day and night because of the Ramadan?"
The rampage spreads far and wide
After attacking the few Christian students in their school, the
rampaging Muslim students poured into the streets of Tudun Wada, joined
now by other Muslims. For the next four hours, reports Compass, the
growing mob burned down Christian churches, vandalized Christian
property and murdered innocents.
Among the churches burned were: St. Mary’s Catholic Church; St. George’s
Anglican Church; Evangelical Church of West Africa; Assemblies of God
Church; First Baptist Church; a Pentecostal church called the Mountain
of Fire and Miracles Church; an African independent church, the Cherubim
and Seraphim Church; and two other Pentecostal churches, The Chosen
Bible Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
The 10 Christians murdered included: Augustine Odoh and his younger
brother Cosmos Odoh, Another Christian, Joseph Eze, was also killed.
When Compass filed its initial report, the corpses of the three
Christians were lying at the City Hospital in Kano city. Seven other
Christians murdered were buried in a common grave Wednesday, but
government workers did not allow relatives or church leaders to identify
the corpses.
The dozens of injured are being treated at the Assumpta Clinic,
Nomansland in Sabon Gari area of Kano city.
According to Musa Ahmadu Haruna, the priest of St. George’s Anglican
Church, Tudun Wada Dankadai, whose church was burned, no Christian
student in the school could have drawn an image of Muhammad.
"None of these students is capable of drawing a cartoon on a mosque," he
told Compass Direct. "That is a frame-up to find a reason to attack us."
Another pastor, Rabiu Danbawa of the Evangelical Church of West Africa,
said that upon hearing of the waves of attacks on Christians, he moved
toward the town's center to see for himself what was transpiring.
"I stood as they set fire on our churches one by one," he told Compas
Direct. "There was nothing I could do," he said, adding, "I did not know
the fate of my wife and my children." When he went to the local police
station for help, Danbawa found the police turning away Christians who
had run there to escape the attack. "We were told to leave, as our
safety could not be guaranteed," he said, in tears, according to Compass
Direct. "Women and children all scampered to the bush, only to be
attacked by the Muslims who had already hid themselves in the bush
awaiting their Christian prey."
It wasn't until several days later that Danbawa found his wife and
children safe.
Accoroding to reports from Compass, Danbawa and his family are now
refugees in Dogon Kawo village, along with other Christian victims. None
have food or shelter, he said.
Even Christian policemen were not immune, with about 30 officers and
their families being attacked and their homes looted and set on fire.
Last week's massacre comes in respose to a call in July by the Sultan of
Sokoto, Abubakar III, to Muslims in northern Nigeria to rise against
Christianity. Kano's state government has led the way in northern
Nigeria for the implementation of sharia Islamic law.
Mark Lipdo, director of the Stefanos Foundation, which ministers to
persecuted Christians in Nigeria, told Compass he's shocked that the
Nigerian government has done nothing to help the injured and displaced.
"It is surprising that an overwhelming thing like this that has
displaced thousands of Christians is not known to the Nigerian
government," he said, noting that the government initially downplayed
the mass rampage. "The government must act to check such unprovoked
attacks against Christians."
And Haruna of St. George’s Anglican Church said, "We are living under
persecution in Kano state, and yet, we are being told that we are under
a democratic government. Do Muslims really want us to co-exist together
as a nation? I doubt so."
In May, Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population,
fears the imposition of Islamic law throughout that nation.
Muslim rioters in Nigeria in 2006 were incensed over cartoons of
Muhammad published in Denmark, and more than 130 Christians in the
Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Onitsha were slaughtered.
The reports documented six children burned to ashes in front of their
father, according to Voice of the Martyrs.
Nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed
in these regions.
"If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or one
foot," explained Rev. Obiora Ike. "Do you think that's the result of an
illness? That is the result of sharia law."
More than 10,000 Christians have been martyred in the region since the
Islamic law was imposed in the region in 1999, and Voice of the Martyrs
has helped surviving family members through its Families of Martyrs Fund
with Care Packs, Village Outreach packs and words of encouragement to
believers who stand for their faith "amidst volatile, uncertain
conditions."