Christians accuse Nigerian state of complicity in murders

From Religious Intelligence:

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused the government of Northern Nigeria’s Borno State of complicity in the murders of 12 Christians by members of the ‘Nigerian Taliban’ the Boko Haram last week. Twenty churches, including Immanuel Anglican Church, Gamboru-Ngala in the Diocese of Maiduguri were destroyed in the uprising by members of the militant Muslim sect.

The security services put down the uprising after five days of fighting on Aug 6 after the sect’s leader Ustaz Muhammed Yusuf was killed while attempting to escape from the police. Approximately 700 people died in the clash.

However, the state and federal government was warned on July 21 by CAN that Boko Haram would be staging a coup, with the aim of establishing a strict Islamist state. The regional secretary of CAN Elder Saidu Dogo told a press conference on Aug 7 in Kaduna CAN leaders “alerted the appropriate security agencies, expressing their fears about the activities of the Islamic sect, but they were assured that the Christian community was not the target of the blood thirsty hoodlums.”

Fr Heladuwa John William, the Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri reported that fears of violence were sparked by a Boko Haram rally on July 19 at the Maiduguri railway station.

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin,” was founded in 2002 by Yusuf, and seeks to impose its strict interpretation of Sharia law across Nigeria. In a July 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf stated he opposed modern science and education as being antithetical to Islam.

The Daily Trust newspaper quoted him as saying he and his followers were ready to die in the quest for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. “Democracy and [the] current system of education must be changed, otherwise this war that is yet to start would continue for long," he said.

In response to the concerns of local Christians, the governor of Borno, Modu Sheriff on July 25 promised CAN leaders their security would be guaranteed and urged citizens “to go about their normal duties.” The next day “at about 11 pm, Christians and their churches were attacked by the Islamic fundamentalists as they set our churches and vehicles ablaze,” Dogo said.

Boko Haram also attacked police stations and government offices, seeking to ignite a jihad against the government. In the violence that ensued which quickly spread across four northeastern Nigerian states, 12 Christians were seized by Boko Haram and commanded to renounce their faith and convert to Islam. When they refused, nine laymen and three Evangelical ministers: Pastor Sabo Yakubu, the Rev Sylvester Akpan and the Rev George Orji, were beheaded.

At the Kaduna press conference, Dogo urged the government to reject Muslim demands for Sharia law. Where Sharia law had already been implemented the “fundamental rights of Christians were being violated by the Sharia enforcement committees,” the Hisba, he said.

The Hisba had been given free reign by some state governments to persecute the Christian minority, Dogo said, called upon the country’s “National Assembly to act fast on this issue of Sharia before other fundamentalists plunge Nigeria into more serious trouble.”

Dogo appealed “to all Christians to be their brothers’ keepers, by assisting all those innocent people who have been displaced in Maiduguri with relief materials and food items” and asked for prayers for “peace and stability in Nigeria”.