Nigeria clamps curfew on town after 11 churches burnt
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Nigeria clamps curfew on town after 11 churches burnt*
21 Sep 2006 17:26:04 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Tume Ahemba
LAGOS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities have imposed a night
curfew on the northern town of Dutse after Muslim mobs burned 11
churches over what they said was blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad
by a Christian woman, police said on Thursday.
Scores of houses and shops owned by Christians were also torched in the
capital of remote Jigawa state during a riot on Wednesday sparked by a
disagreement between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, police
spokesman Haz Iwendi said.
No one was killed in the riot but up to seven people were injured,
Iwendi said.
"Eleven churches and so many houses and shops were burned. The house of
the Anglican bishop was also ransacked," he said, adding that hundreds
of Christians fled their homes to military and police barracks fearing
further attacks.
"There is now a night curfew in the town and police units from
(neighbouring) Kano and Katsina states have been sent there to beef up
security," Iwendi said.
Religious violence has plagued Nigeria, whose 140 million people are
thought to be evenly split between Muslims in the north and Christians
in the south, for many years. There are sizeable religious minorities in
all areas of the country.
DISPUTES ESCALATE QUICKLY
There is often more to the violence, however, than religious
differences. Sometimes politicians instigate it for their own ends, and
in some cases a small dispute quickly escalates as thugs seize the
opportunity to go on a looting spree.
Any deaths in religious fighting usually spark tit-for-tat killings in
different parts of the country.
Nigerians are due to elect their president, state governors and
lawmakers in landmark polls next April and many fear an increase in
religious fighting as tensions rise before the elections.
Joseph Hayab, secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
for the northwest, said an argument over Jesus and the Prophet Mohammad
sparked the Dutse riot.
"Her comment was in retaliation to uncomplimentary remarks made by her
colleague about Jesus," Hayab told Reuters.
He said the rioters were angry about the release of the woman, who was
briefly detained by police.
Thousands of people have died in religious violence since the
restoration of democracy in the world's eighth largest oil exporter in 1999.
At least 50 Christians were killed in the northwestern town of Maiduguri
in February, according to CAN. News of the killings sparked reprisals in
the southeastern market city of Onitsha, where Christian mobs killed
about 100 Muslims.