Nationwide Crackdown on Christians feared
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nationwide Crackdown on Christians feared*
Fears raised that Islamic law will expand under new president
Posted: May 5, 2007
Voice of the Martyrs
Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population, are
expressing fears Islamic law already being enforced in northern states
will expand nationwide with the inauguration this month of a new "devout
Muslim" president, according to a report from the Voice of the Martyrs.
Musa Yar' Adua was governor of Katsina state in northern Nigeria, where
he and nearly a dozen other governors over recent years have imposed
Islamic religious law as the law of the government, officials said.
As a result, Christians have lost basic rights such as having a location
to meet and meeting there, officials have confirmed.
"We have not been allowed to worship freely, as churches have been
denied places of worship. In the Government Reservation Area, for
example, it is not possible to get land for places of worship by
Christians," Rev. Canon Williams said in a Voice of the Martyrs report.
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, VOM said.
Nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed
in those regions, and documentation of Islamic law is everywhere.
"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.
"The election of Yar' Adua will aggravate the problems of Christians in
northern Nigeria. Our fear is that under a Muslim president, religious
liberty will be eroded," another pastor said in the VOM report.
Under Yar' Adua's supervision in Katsina, the government set up a system
to deliberately deny permission for any Christian churches to acquire
land or build. "Government agencies [also] arbitrarily closed some
churches," according to the report.
In just recent weeks and months, persecution of Christians has increased
there. Alhassan Adamu, the secretary of the board of an evangelical
Christian school, said persecution now is commonplace.
"There is persecution of converts from Islam to Christianity,
destruction of churches, discrimination against Christians and denial of
admission of Christian students in public schools, to name a few," he said.
Yar' Adua is a former chemistry teacher whose political pedigree dates
to the 1960s when his father was minister in the post-independence
administration. His late brother also was an army general under
President Olusegun Obasanjo during the 1970s.
Political analysts in Nigeria confirm that he is not known for his
tolerance of opposition, and his critics there describe him as totalitarian.
He has told reporters that the government must "earn" its "moral authority."
Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry
working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith,
and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in
Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.
It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started
smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before
Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for
his refusal to recant Christianity.
He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about
the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security
Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound
scars on his body.
The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized
in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.