'Ethnic violence' In Nigeria??

[djfearross]

Nigerian leaders urge calm after ethnic violence flares

By Caroline Duffield

BBC News, Lagos

Violence between the two communities flared up in March this year Community leaders in Nigeria's Plateau State are appealing for calm in villages outside the city of Jos.

At least six people - women and children - were killed, cattle slaughtered and homes burned in one village this week.

In January and March this year, similar attacks prompted a spiral of rioting and killing in the region that left hundreds of people dead.

Leaders in Ranwianku are urging residents not to think of revenge.

Of those killed, one was an elderly woman unable to flee the armed gang, one was a young mother and four were small children.

Photographs of a mass grave show tiny bodies wrapped and lying side by side.

Ranwianku is a predominantly Christian settlement - eyewitnesses in the village say those that attacked spoke the Fulani language.

In Jos and surrounding areas, the two communities - Berom Christians and Hausa Fulani - continue to live uneasily together after the mass bloodshed of earlier this year.

Out in the remote villages, the tensions are not about religion or politics but about grazing rights and land ownership.

Berom Christian farmers say they regularly experience low-level harassment and killings from Fulani herdsman, who graze cattle on the land.

The Fulani community often complain of the theft or slaughter of cattle.

Damage caused to property by cattle - or disputes over the loss of cattle - is often at the root of violence between the two ethnic groups.
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New low for the BBC. No prizes for guessing what religion the Hausa Fulani are. Well covered up by the BBC!

It's not all bad for the Christians there, at least they only experience low-level killings... regulary!

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It is clear this Caroline Duffield is a complete joke, constantly unwilling to accept that maybe some Muslims do actually kill in the name of Islam. See this article from earlier this year;
Nigeria ethnic violence 'leaves hundreds dead'

And look her analysis of the 100's that were murdered in the name of Islam;

ANALYSIS

Caroline Duffield, BBC News, Lagos
Already this is being described as retaliation for the outburst of killing in January in which hundreds more people were killed.

Back then the largest losses were suffered by the Hausa Fulani community. In the village of Kuru Karama more than 100 people were killed and their bodies thrown into wells and sewers. Grave accusations were made that the local government had stoked the violence. This time it is clear that the targets were Berom Christians.

For weeks there have been rumours of retaliation in these villages and people have been living in a state of anxiety. Many families left. These killings are often painted by local politicians as a religious or sectarian conflict. In fact it is a struggle between ethnic groups for fertile land and resources in the region known as Nigeria's Middle Belt.

Yes, Caroline dear, you at the BBC must obviously know more of what is going on their than local people. Must be another case of them just being Islamaphobic.

[Teddy Bear]

Well spotted dj.
In January and March this year, similar attacks prompted a spiral of rioting and killing in the region that left hundreds of people dead.
And the world community is not in uproar about it being some sort of 'holocaust' - strange that

Like yourself, I wonder how many will have to die before it's considered 'high-level'. Or perhaps, if it's just Christians being murdered it's low level.

[djfearross]

Have a look a this link, it's quite interesting. An update to the page reveals that references to the word 'religion' were later removed and replaced with the word 'ethinic'. Similarly to words like 'Christian' and 'Muslim'.

www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/316997/diff/11/12

[Teddy Bear]

Absolutely Brilliant DJ - I didn't know this site existed but I've certainly bookmarked it now, and will include it in the list of useful links.

The article shown, referring to the violence earlier this year when hundreds of Christians were slaughtered by Muslims, shows clearly how the BBC have so revised the original version to neutralise this reality.

Well done mate

[djfearross]

well, they know this website exists;
www.newssniffer.co.uk/blog/2006/10/22/news-sniffer-bias/

[Teddy Bear]

Here's yesterday's story from the BBC about fresh violence in Nigeria. I defy you to read the story and then tell me who did what to whom - and that's just the way the BBC want it.

Nigeria: Deadly attack on northern village
7 May 2011 Last updated at 14:46

At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on a predominantly Christian village in northern Nigeria.

Police said late on Friday that unidentified assailants had also burnt a number of houses in the village in Bauchi state, near Tafawa Balewa.

Bauchi is in Nigeria's middle belt, where the predominantly Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south.

There are long-standing tensions in the area rooted in power struggles and land disputes, correspondents say.

This has caused violence in the past between indigenous Christian or animist groups, and Muslim settlers from the North.

Hundreds have died in clashes in Nigeria following national elections last month in which Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, won the presidential poll against a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari.

The worst of the violence was in Bauchi and Kaduna states.

Here's how the BBC would run the headline if they really wanted you to understand what had happened.

Nigeria: Muslims kill 17 Christians, including wife and three children of a pastor

Jihad Watch cover the story:

Nigeria: Muslims kill 17 Christians, including wife and three children of a pastor

That detail is left out of the BBC report below, as it is standard for the mainstream media to make every effort to downplay "sectarian" violence as the product of mutual "tensions," preferring to implicate organized religion, tribalism, or "extremism" in general rather than the stated intentions of one group and its scriptures (the Qur'an, that is) against another. This report shows the targeted nature of the rampage. "Muslim Attackers Kill Fifteen Christians in Nigeria," from International Christian Concern, May 7:

Washington -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that today Muslim attackers killed 17 Christians, including the wife and three children of a pastor, and burned down several Christian homes in the village of Kurum, Bauchi State, Nigeria.

"It is not right for anyone to kill another person. Life is precious and a gift from God. Since 1999 in Bauchi state, several Christians have been killed but no one has been brought before justice. The government has to intervene. The government has to be fair to all its citizens," said Reverend Turbe Ngodem in an interview with ICC. Reverend Ngodem is the General Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria in Bauchi State.

Since the introduction of Sharia law in northern Nigeria in 1999, thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslim radicals in an unrelenting series of regular attacks. The local Muslim government officials have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Jonathan Racho, ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, said, "We are extremely concerned with this latest killing of Christians by Muslim attackers. We once again urge Nigerian officials to prevent the bloodshed of innocent Christians in northern Nigeria. Nigeria must end impunity for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes."

And from the BBC, "Nigeria: Deadly attack on northern village," May 7:

At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on a predominantly Christian village in northern Nigeria.

Police said late on Friday that unidentified assailants had also burnt a number of houses in the village in Bauchi state, near Tafawa Balewa.

Bauchi is in Nigeria's middle belt, where the predominantly Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south.

Presenting the symptoms as the underlying cause:

There are long-standing tensions in the area rooted in power struggles and land disputes, correspondents say.

This has caused violence in the past between indigenous Christian or animist groups, and Muslim settlers from the North.

Hundreds have died in clashes in Nigeria following national elections last month in which Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, won the presidential poll against a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari.

The worst of the violence was in Bauchi and Kaduna states.

You will have noticed a similar pattern of BBC coverage where Muslims have attacked Christians, whether in Ethiopia, Iraq, Nigeria, another recent one in Egypt, and elsewhere under whatever pretext the Muslims claim.

[djfearross]

Typical. They might as well just copy/paste, cause according to the BBC, its always the same reasons when Muslims kills Christians in Nigeria.

I noticed with the recent attacks in Eygpt as well, Muslims burning churches and killing Christians, they made appear to be a clash between Muslims and Christians, i.e a 50/50 thing.
The BBC, as always with violence in Egypt now, is more interested in reporting on Muslims actually protecting Christians there!

The BBC is secularist extremist, but only when Christianity is concerned, like in Lebanon;
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13271857

Out of all the 1000's of Muslims being killed in sectarian violence by other Muslims, you'd think that would be a more pressing issue.

[djfearross]

What with all the Islamist violence in Nigeria, you'd think the BBC would have alot to report on there... Of course, that would portray Islam negatively so better to look for another story.

Here is a typical example, there are slightly more Muslims in Nigeria than Christians and after 2009 some states even adopted Sharia, then of course the number of Islamist attacks also increased. www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics#Nigeria_2
Southern Nigeria has a Christian majority and Northern is mainly Muslim with 12 states run by strict Sharia Law.

But the BBC seems intent to not focus on Islam, just pan over it and go straight for the Christians. Cowards. And of course, the North is perfect because us Westerners haven't interfered there.

Africa viewpoint: Nigerian weddings, money and babies
29 June 2011 Last updated at 16:40 GMT

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Nigerian writer Sola Odunfa argues that many men see marriage as a financial burden.

Reports from various parts of southern Nigeria suggest that marriage is losing its lustre among young men.

The men are staying single for much longer than their fathers did, while young spinsters are growing anxious as their golden age seems to fly past.

The picture is not much rosier among young married couples.

They break up the traditional home with such nonchalance that one wonders whether the institution of marriage meant anything to them when they were wining and dining their wedding guests.

The situation in the north is different - the Islamic influence and the very conservative outlook above the River Niger dictate that the institution of marriage is protected from Western permissiveness.

Here in the south, there are three types of wedding - Islamic, Christian and traditional.

Beyond the glittering ceremonies, marriages dovetail into one life shaped by economic and social influences.

It is the life after the wedding reception that is scaring many men away from nuptial commitment.

A man from the south-east in his 20s dare not think of marriage during his first 10 years of employment, even if he boasts a university degree, unless he has rich parents to foot the bill.

His headache is compounded if his fiancee is also a university graduate - the more educated a woman is, the higher the price placed on her by her family.

'Husbands murdered'

However, if the university graduate gets a job in an oil or telecoms company then, after a decade of working, he may have enough money to afford the luxury of a wife and, of course, what many men see as total authority and control over her for life.

Many Christians no longer see marriage as sacred

In the south-west, the situation is different.
The bride price is not the cause of headaches, but values and morality are.

To the young man here, his parents' stories of wives being totally loyal and respectful are from a different planet.

He will find that his wife is imbibed with the Western values of equality in the home and the freedom to choose her way of life.

He may fret and grumble as much as he chooses - if he is really serious about ending his marriage, the divorce court is next door.

Considering the huge economic implications, wise men ignore their wives' pranks and cast out their own nets.

It is generally acknowledged that those women who seek freedom via divorce courts are the God-fearing ones.

Others consult spiritualists and have their husbands done in the traditional way - through murder.

Thereafter, they stage elaborate funerals and when the mourning period is over, they live on happily in wealth.

Many young men still walk down the aisle, even if their numbers are dwindling.

'Ungodly and unAnglican'

And in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, churches are abandoning traditions to allow men to marry their pregnant lovers.
This is in recognition of the fact that many families demand that their son's girlfriend be pregnant before marriage.

These days, churches generally do not cast out such couples. Instead, they ask the bride not to wear a white dress and veil.

Churches which remain dogmatic tell the couple to wed at the registry and come back for blessing. Children are a gift of God, they say.

The Anglican Bishop of Amichi in the south-eastern state of Anambra, Reverend Ephraim Ikeakor, would not stomach such permissiveness.
He told the Synod of his diocese last week that conducting the marriage of pregnant brides was "unChristian and ungodly and unAnglican" and, therefore, banned in his diocese.

Far be it from me to question the bishop's charge but I am happy Reverend Ikeakor is not the primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

[Teddy Bear]

I notice in another of the viewpoints expressed by this journalist - Sola Odunfa (we're done for), writing about
Africa viewpoint: Nigerians at war with each other, she doesn't mention any detail as to which 'ethnic' group is mostly responsible, although much of it occurs in the North.

I know which one I'd put my money on

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa laments the blood-letting in Nigeria.

The statistics of fatalities are grim enough but few Nigerians are conscious of the reality that their nation is in the throes of a fierce war which is neither officially acknowledged nor likely to end soon.

The blood-letting is so common that it no longer commands front-page presentation in national newspapers, except when politicians or the Central Bank governor take a rest.

Last Wednesday, the police gave, for the first time, official casualty figures for the violence that hit northern Nigeria after the presidential election in April. The figures were for only two of the five states affected by the conflict.

The police said that 520 people, including six policemen, were killed in Kaduna and Niger, 81 others were wounded and at least 22,000 were displaced from their homes or communities.

In better days in this country, that information would dominate the front pages but last week one national newspaper put it on page two, another on page six and a third downgraded it to page seven.

One should not blame the editors. They have probably become weary of blood-dripping reports coming to their desks daily and now they assume the proverbial posture of the ostrich.

The presidential inauguration banquets turned sour on 29 May when bombs exploded near the nation's capital, Abuja, and in Bauchi and Zaria - both in northern Nigeria.

No fewer than 14 lives were taken away by the bombers.

Jittery police
Two days later in the south-east, police officers reportedly ambushed a convoy of vehicles taking a large number of Biafran loyalists to the city of Owerri to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the declaration of the short-lived secessionist state.

In my opinion these Biafran loyalists are on the fringes of society and entitled to have their fun as long as they do not disturb anybody else.

The secessionist war ended more than 40 years ago, so why are the police still jittery at the mere mention of the word Biafra?

They denied killing three of those Biafra loyalists but admitted arresting 300 of them.

It is instructive that the courts have released on bail more than 200 of those charged.

In Lagos state, the police are smarting from the murder of four of their officers by soldiers, pardon me, "unknown soldiers" who were avenging the killing of one of their ranks by a policeman.

In Ibadan, 120km (74 miles) away, the smoke is just settling on the latest round of deadly battles between rival groups in the transport union.

Everywhere in southern Nigeria, armed bandits continue to brazenly rob, rape and kidnap people.

In the north-central and north-eastern states, arson, malicious killings and the rain of bombs show no sign of abating.

Highways nationwide are not safe either, during the day or night, as robbers rule.

Nigerians are killing Nigerians daily but there is no-one to cry to.

In fact, we must not cry aloud for fear of scaring off potential investors. So, hush.

[djfearross]

Yea, when Muslims murder Christians (because they are Muslims and the other is Christian) there are always, underlying issues which surprising are always about everything else apart from Islam.

But if a politician says that Muslim immigration should be halted.....