Nigeria: Islamist radicals attack Christians
Sep 02 2008
Postings >> Nigeria

Islamist radicals in Kwara state have launched several attacks on Christians, accusing them of praying for the death of one of their spiritual leaders.

At least three Christians have died and several others have been injured in vicious attacks in Ilorin city since June, church leaders told Compass Direct.

The trigger seems to have been the death in May of Dr Ali Olukade, head of a local group of Islamists called Tibliq. He was critically wounded in a car crash in 2006 and died of his injuries this spring. Dr Olukade's followers believed Christians had been praying for him to die - in revenge for Muslim protests which cut short a Reinhard Bonnke rally in 2004.

Violent protests by Dr Olukade's sympathisers followed his accident in 2006: his recent death seems to have sparked a fresh wave of anti-Christian violence.

Rev Cornelius Fawenu, secretary of the Kwara chapter of CAN (the Christian Association of Nigeria) told Compass that the dead included a church pastor and a young Christian girl. Many attacks go unreported, he said.

Rev Fawenu said the Tibliq led Muslim opposition to Bonnke's rally in 2004, which was first relocated from Ilorin to a village several miles away and then cancelled part-way through.

(Sources: Compass Direct)

Pray for the restoration of peace and order in Ilorin city.
 
Pray against the climate of confusion and intolerance which allows false rumours about Christian prayer to provoke such violence.