Christian-Muslim violence avoided in Nigeria - Page 1

Christian - Muslim violence avoided in Nigeria instead of insecurity, misinformation and religious deaths.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/05/29/315274856/with-swift-quiet-moves-nigerian-group-limits-religious-violence?ft=1&f=1001

 

The city of Jos sits on an invisible fault line between Nigeria's mostly Christian south and its largely Muslim north. Its population is almost 50-50 Muslim-Christian.

So it's not surprising that twin car bombs in a crowded downtown vegetable market on May 20 killed both Christians and Muslims. Most of the 133 victims were women, and 25 were children.

But that could have been only the beginning of the killing, as was the case in the past.

"The choice of Jos, to make this very huge bomb, was deliberate," says Ezekiel Gomos, head of the Jos Business School. "They anticipated that Muslims and Christians would start fighting. That was the intention."

For more than a decade this has been the unavoidable pattern in Jos. Acts of terror have sparked religious riots that have killed thousands.

"When the Muslims see, 'Oh, there are many Muslims killed,' they go after the Christians," Gomos says. "When the Christians see many Christians are killed, they go after the Muslims.

 

 

But last week, in the days after the biggest blast Jos had ever seen, that axiom did not hold.

 

 

The fragile peace was due in large part to a 37-year-old peace worker named Sadiq Musahong. He is head of the Conflict Management and Mitigation Regional Council, a group run by a Nigerian NGO and funded by American taxpayers through . He describes the council as a covert "information network" that attempts to stop sectarian conflict before it spreads.

 

 

Last week, the council got a major test.

Within hours of the marketplace explosions on May 20, Christian youth gangs blocked one of the main roads, where they then ambushed and lynched two Muslim men passing by. The men's bodies, dismembered with machetes, were left under a bridge.

The cycle of revenge killings in Jos had begun again and had the potential to escalate rapidly.

Musahong knew that as soon as Muslim gangs learned of the killings, they would go on their own rampage.

"The moment that you allow the town to know that two people were attacked because they belong to [a certain] religion, the whole town will go in flames again," he said.

Keeping The Killings Quiet

But the council responded swiftly and in an unorthodox way. Sadiq Musahong got local police to remove the bodies — not to the hospital, or a mosque, or anywhere public — but to the basement of a remote police outpost.

An imam from a local mosque was brought in covertly to perform the traditional burial rites. The deaths were kept out of the newspapers. That first night, even the wives and children of the murdered men were not told, for fear they'd spread the news.

Musahong uses a term of war to describe the two lynched men: they were "collateral damage," he says, in the religious conflict he was trying to stop from spreading.

To do that, Mushong says, he had to keep the deaths as secret as possible in the first 24 hours after the bombing, when emotions ran highest and the potential for violence was at its peak.

In spite of his precautions, he could not entirely stop the news from getting out.

That night, the council learned through one of their network of youth informers that two Muslim youth gangs were mobilizing. They planned to set up a roadblock to kill Christians in revenge for the two Muslims killed that afternoon.

"Fortunately," Musahong says, "we got the information an hour and a half before the boys moved in." He and the council immediately communicated this to commanders at the Nigerian police.

Gangs Are Turned Back

By the time the mob arrived, he says, "they met well over 50 or 60 well-armed soldiers there. In the next one, two hours, they had no option to go back to their homes and sleep."

By Wednesday afternoon, the critical 24-hour window had passed. Musahong could confidently report to authorities in Jos that the city was safe.

Safe that is, until the cycle repeated itself.

On Saturday, a car bomb exploded in Jos near an open-air TV viewing of the Champions League soccer final, killing three Muslims, including the bomber, the .

Hours later Muslim youth gangs marched out to kill Christians in revenge. Just as on Tuesday, the Council's network of youth informers came through. Musahong got advance warning about the roadblock and communicated that to the Nigerian authorities. Police showed up and stopped the young men. After another sleepless night – the cycle of violence was averted.

But Musahong admits that Nigeria will never be truly safe from sectarian violence until it addresses a problem that peace workers can't solve.

"The level of unemployment is so high, that the youths are there, in their thousands and their millions and nothing to do," Musahong says. "They're always ready to embark on such very nasty acts."

Only last week, they didn't have the chance.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/28/Iran-Ayatollah-Pledges-To-Destroy-America-Through-Battle-And-Jihad

 

  John

Gouda, the first thing we must consider in this thread if we discuss this topic is that it is only because Christianity is true that we have a source for absolute morality by which we can condemn the actions of people who start unjust wars, and take innocent lives. Without absolute laws of morality, and a God who makes them possible, what one 'bag of matter' does to another 'bag of matter' is totally irrelevant? Gouda keep in mind and we both would agree to consider is that anyone who engages in an unjust war in Jesus name would be doing so contrary to the teachings of the one they claimed to be fighting for. Jesus taught us to 'love our enemies, and to 'love our neighbors as ourselves,' so condemning Christianity because of those who go against Christ's teachings would not make sense. Christians and so-called Christians have done some terrible things and as GSD_Admin trying to illustrate his point, now get back to my message this should not bear on the belief that they are living contrary to. Imagine for instance that you discovered that the person who taught you algebra turned out to be a child molester - would that make the algebra you learned any less true?

Let me give you an example if I have a friend who is not a Christian and happens to be a vegetarian told me that he could not become a Christian because of all the terrible things so-called Christians have done. I would ask him if he went to a convention for vegetarians, and saw each and every one of them sneak some meat to eat, would he stop being a vegetarian? Of course he would say that he would not give up being a vegetarian as his vegetarianism had nothing to do with how other people behaved. It is illogical to give up a philosophy because of it’s' abuse. Gouda, while truth in itself is not arrogant, those who claim to know it can certainly come off as arrogant. Truth by its very nature is exclusive. If something is true, then all other contrary claims must be false. There may even be people who claim that truth is not exclusive, but as you have read my conversation or in other words I gave replies to VK4, such a claim is also an exclusive truth claim. If truth was arrogant, shouldn't people who make the claim "Absolute truth does not exist" or, "Christianity is false," also be considered arrogant? Nearly all major religions claim at least some degree of exclusivity, even those religions that say that all religions are true would have to exclude the exclusivist religions that say they are wrong. If another religion did not claim to be true, why should anyone believe it?

Exclusive truth does not seem to bother people when they are dealing with their bank tellers, but often those same people are loathe hearing the truth that they are sinners and will suffer the wrath of God unless they repent. Dispensing truth in an unloving way is a sin and contrary to Christ's teachings. Dispensing the truth that we are sinners and that Christ is the only way to God, should be done in a manner that glorifies the very source of love. God Bless you Gouda, your brother in Christ, Shtal.

You have such a way with words....LOL

Shtal, as much as you try, your deceit comes through, you are a farce.  You think that you play the Sye games with words and as long as you can twist them into at least 8 knots, you can confuse people so much, they actually believe what you say.  To your credit, you're not the one lacking here, but that's another subject.

Anyway, you toy with words like they can mean what you want them to mean, instead of what they actually say.  Communication is what propelled us forward in the evolutionary chain, that and cooperation.  You act like because we came from something much less evolved, that we can never be more, unless blessed by some eternal "being".  Your writing shows that you have no grasp of the concepts you put forward, no real hunger for wanting to really know, no curiosity, no "child inside".  Once you lose the child inside, you lose your grasp on what matters, what's really important in life, what makes you tick.  Though you seem to have a child-like quality, it's not the same, because it can not only decieve, but can be decieved.  Your child is only listening to authority, never taking a step into the world, to explore on your own, find what you can, experience what you can, while not offending others.  It's really pretty simple, without the need to twist anyting.  You have no confidence in yourself and that explains why you would think anyone who doesn't believe in a god, would have no reason to live, no reason to care, no reason to love.  You're wrong on so many levels it's impossible to count. 

You are a fraud and the saddest part is, you're your own victim.  That makes me sad for you.

Could you explain what you consider to be arrogant, self-important, untruthful and egotistical about what I said? Or did you just say that because you had no real counter-arguments to what I said? I’m just telling the truth. I know it's a bit harsh, but that's the way reality is sometimes. Atheist people fear hell so much that they don't even dare to question it, so that they might see the truth.

LOL  

Same as it ever was.

 godless dam shtal inserted his ridiculous theory here as well, so funny. 

Beetree, long time ago I asked Carlin how long is this going to continue? Vk4 continues making lame threads/remarks about Christianity and also to get my attention; I said to Carlin I will try my best to resist replying to Vk4. But Carlin gave me advice he told me that I should try not to take him so seriously. He told me its nothing wrong with replying which is why I continue engaging vk4 lol. Carlin also told me thou to try not to say or do anything with the wrong motive, or something I might regret. So far so good Beetree!

But I think I'm done; taking a break.....lol

Lets play puppet!!!

I point out something good happening in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians. One person trying to make a difference to show gouda not all happening in Nigeria is the murder of innocent Christians as the Christians are as much to blame as the Muslims. It isn't one sided and somehow you Shtal have twisted this into Shtal against the atheists, it isn't always about you Shtal. You are weak man very weak.