-Caveat Lector-
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20021127_1794.html
Nigerian Christians Urged to Fight Back
Nigeria Archbishop Urges Christians to Defend Themselves Against
Attacks by Muslims
The Associated Press
ABUJA, Nigeria Nov. 27
— A Catholic archbishop said Wednesday
that Christians were "tired of turning the other cheek" to Muslim
attacks and blamed the government for deadly sectarian riots after a
newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant.
"No group of people should be allowed to invade the city of Abuja
and molest law-abiding citizens," said the Rev. John Olorunfemi
Onaiyekan, Archbishop in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
Onaiyekan spoke at a news conference called by the Council of
Nigerian Churches and accused President Olusegun Obasanjo's
government of failing to protect Christians during the riots.
"We blame the government because we rely on the government to
protect us," he said.
The archbishop said Christians shouldn't hesitate to defend
themselves from further attacks.
"It is a Christian duty to protect yourselves," he said.
Senior clergy from the Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran and other
churches also criticized the government, arguing that Christians had
taken the brunt of the violence.
More than 200 people were killed last week by Muslims and
Christians in the northern city of Kaduna. The rioting was triggered
by a newspaper article in the Nigerian newspaper ThisDay that
suggested the Muslim prophet Muhammad would have approved of
the Miss World pageant and might have wanted to marry a
contestant if given the opportunity.
The Miss World pageant pulled its contestants out of Nigeria on
Sunday, rescheduling the contest finale to London on Dec. 7.
The pageant's president, Julia Morley, said the organization plans to
send the winner of the Miss World contest back to Nigeria for a
show of ethnic African fashions. The date hasn't been set.
"The Miss World contest is not being organized by Christians, so
why should Christians suffer? Before we knew it, churches were
being burned down and Christians were being slaughtered. And
nobody has apologized to Christians. We are disturbed," said Zakka
Bonnet, leader of the Solid Foundation, a Nigerian evangelical
denomination.
Mahamoud Shinkafi, the deputy governor of the predominantly
Muslim state of Zamfara in northern Nigeria on Monday called on
Muslims to kill Isioma Daniel, the woman who wrote the newspaper
article.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday expressed extreme
concern about the call. "Any sort of advocating of an extrajudicial
killing in the name of religion is an absolutely irresponsible position
for an elected official to take," State Department spokesman Philip
Reeker said.
Nigerian Information Minister Jerry Gana told journalists Wednesday
that the federal government would overrule the death order, which
he called "unconstitutional."
"Zamfara state is just a state in Nigeria and they cannot make laws
binding on Nigerians. They cannot make laws binding on the federal
government. The federal governments rejects the declaration in its
entirety," Gana said.
He did not say, however, whether the government would offer
protection to the newspaper reporter. She has reportedly gone into
hiding after being interrogated by police last week
Onaiyekan, the Catholic archbishop, called on the government to
arrest and punish all those who called for the death order if Daniel is
killed.
"That is a criminal act," he said. "When somebody has sentenced a
fellow Nigerian to be killed by any other Muslim anywhere in the
world ... that person should be held responsible," he said.
photo credit and caption:
Workers gather at the printing press of This Day newspaper in
Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday Nov. 27, 2002. The deputy governor of
a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria has called on Muslims to
kill Isioma Daniel, the correspondent of This Day who wrote a
newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant that
triggered deadly religious riots. Daniel has resigned from the paper
after the controversy over her article. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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But there has always been a weird overlap between some
puritanical,anti-capitalist feminists and radical
Muslims. They both hate free societies in which women
can choose how they want to present themselves. Jill
Nelson summed up this bizarre moral equivalence on
MSNBC: "As far as I'm concerned it's equally
disrespectful and abusive to have women prancing around
a stage in bathing suits for cash or walking the
streets shrouded in burkas in order to survive." I
can't think of a more fatuous statement after a
bloodbath, orchestrated by fanatics who won't allow
women the slightest autonomy in their lives.
~~Andrew Sullivan
http://www.salon.com/news/col/sullivan/2002/11/27/niger
ia/index.html?x
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