Islamists Bomb Three Churches in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Blasts in two churches in Zaria, one in Kaduna city kill dozens of Christians.

By Abdias Pasoville

 

 The bombed Shalom Church in Kaduna city.
(Photo Courtesy: Compass Direct News)

JOS, Nigeria, June 17 (Compass Direct News) – Suspected Islamic extremists bombed three churches in Kaduna state this morning, the third consecutive Sunday that worship services in Nigeria have ended in lethal bloodshed.

 

In a predominantly Christian area of Zaria known as Wusasa, a suspected Islamic extremist crashed a car into a barricade at an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) church at around 9 a.m., setting off explosives that killed at least 24 people and wounded 125, according to one unconfirmed report citing an anonymous state official. A few minutes later, suspected Islamic extremists set off explosives at Christ the King Catholic Church in the Sabon Gari area of Zaria.

 

An eyewitness told Compass that at least 10 corpses were removed from the cathedral, with dozens of people injured, many critically. At press time the Nigerian Red Cross Society reported the death toll from the blast at the Catholic church had reached 16.

 

A short while later, a Pentecostal congregation called Shalom Church in the Trikania area of Kaduna city was bombed, killing at least 10, according to the Red Cross. Retaliatory attacks reportedly killed several others.

 

The attacks were believed to have been carried out by the Boko Haram Islamic sect, which took responsibility for similar attacks in Plateau and Borno states on June 10 and in Bauchi state on June 3.

 

Andrew Gani-Ikilami, executive director of the Wusasa Business School in Zaria, said many victims were arriving at the area hospital.

 

“One of the churches is an ECWA church located here in Wusasa where we are, and many children are affected,” he said.

 

Dr. Taylor Adeyemi, medical director at St. Luke’s (Anglican) Hospital Wusasa in Zaria, confirmed that many of the victims were children.

 

“40 injured Christians have been brought to the hospital, and the majority of them are children,” Adeyemi said. “Three have died, and others are still being treated.”

 

John Shiklam, a journalist in Kaduna city, said a 24-hour-curfiew made it difficult to obtain more information on the blast there.

 

“All I can say is that it is true there were attacks on three churches in the state, and as a result, a fight broke out between Muslims and Christians,” Shiklam told Compass by phone.

 

Besides the bombing of a church in Jos, Plateau state last Sunday, gunmen also attacked  a church in the town of Biu in Borno state, killing two Christians (see www.compassdirect.org, “Suicide Bombing Hits Another Church in Jos, Nigeria,” June 10).

 

On June 3 in Bauchi state, a Muslim suicide bomber from the Boko Haram sect attacked the Living Faith church in Yelwa, a Christian settlement on the outskirts of the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi, killing 13, with allegations following that authorities killed eight others who were protesting the lack of security. The blast also collapsed a wall of the nearby Harvest Field Church of Christ, leaving three people in critical condition (see www.compassdirect.org, “Blast Wreaks Bloodshed on Two Churches in Bauchi, Nigeria,” June 3). 

 

Boko Haram has killed at least 560 people this year alone, according to a county by The Associated Press. Literally meaning “Forbidden Book” and translated as “Western education is forbidden,” the Islamist sect has targeted churches, state offices, law enforcement sites and some moderate mosques in its effort to destabilize the government and impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on all of Nigeria.

 

Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is divided between Christians, who make up 51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and Muslims, who account for 45 percent and live mainly in the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

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Copyright 2012 Compass Direct News

Seven Christians Killed in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Many injured, church building destroyed.

BAUCHI CITY, Nigeria, January 24 (CDN) — Early morning attacks in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state on Sunday (Jan. 22) left at least seven Christians dead and a church building destroyed.

The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed.

Yunnana Yusufu, a pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Tafawa Balewa, told Compass that the assailants arrived in the early morning hours and began shooting at Christians in the town, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Bauchi City.

“I saw seven dead bodies of some of the Christians killed,” Yusufu told Compass by phone. “The situation is terrible, and I am about to go out to other parts of the town, to see the extent of the damage caused by the attackers.”

Yusufu said that many other Christians were injured.

“Some of them have been taken to the General Hospital here, while others are being treated at home by medical personnel who are Christians,” he said.

All churches have cancelled services.

“The situation we are in calls for attention to the injured and taking appropriate steps to calm frayed nerves over the attack,” he said.

Bauchi Police Commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba reportedly confirmed the attack on Tafawa Balewa, saying two soldiers and a policeman, as well as eight civilians were later killed in a gunfight. He added that six suspects had been arrested.

Police also reported that bombs were thrown at a Catholic church building and an evangelical church building in Bauchi City, causing little damage and no deaths or injuries.

Bukata Zhadi, secretary of the Christian Elders Council in Tafawa Balewa, said attacks on Christian communities in the area have been incessant, with Sunday’s attack bringing to 10 the number of Christians killed in the past two weeks in Tafawa Balewa.

A fortnight ago, gunmen believed to be Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked three Christian farmers on their farms in Pyakman village, near Tafawa Balewa, killing the three of them. Corpses recovered from the farms had bullet wounds and machete cuts, Zhadi said.

Boko Haram, the name given to the Islamic extremist group officially called Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad – “The People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad” – seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria. The name Boko Haram translates loosely as “Western education is forbidden.”

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Muslim Extremists Strike at Christians on East African Isles

In Zanzibar, two church buildings razed; in Comoros, a Christian suffers disease, shunning.

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 13 (CDN) — Far from the world media’s gaze in remote islands off the eastern coast of Africa, church buildings are razed and Christians are ostracized and imprisoned for their faith – leaving one with a skin disease.

On Tanzania’s island of Zanzibar, in one week-long stretch last month Muslim extremists destroyed two church buildings, Christian leaders said. The extremists torched the building of the Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa in Mtufani Mwera, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Zanzibar town, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, said Pastor Julius Makoho. Damages were estimated at 1.5 million Tanzania shillings (US$9,350).

“When I arrived at the scene of incident Sunday morning, I found that the church had been reduced to ashes, with bottles seen close by that could be petrol or paraffin that could have been used for the burning of the church building,” Pastor Makoho said.

As the assailants fled, said one church member who requested anonymity, “I heard them shouting, ‘We do not want a church in this area!’”

To date no arrests have been made.


Daniel Kwilembe, bishop of the 80-member church, said authorities on the predominantly Muslim archipelago tend to take no action in crimes against Christians. Bishop Fabian Obedi of the Pentecostal Evangelical Church of Zanzibar concurred.

“The Muslims are burning our church buildings quite frequently here in Zanzibar, but the government is not speaking against this kind of destruction of our church premises,” Bishop Obedi said.

The previous week in Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, a throng of Islamic extremists demolished Siloam Church’s building. Pastor Boniface Kaliabukama said that more than 100 Muslim extremists arrived at the church compound on Nov. 26 chanting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater].”

“The security guard got scared of the mob and fled for his life,” Pastor Kaliabukama said.

The assailants entered the church building with clubs, hammers, torches and swords, tearing it down in about three hours, the pastor said. The arrival of police did not stop them; they kept slamming the structure even as police tried to frighten them off by firing into the air, he said. Officers did manage to arrest group leader Mbarak Hamadi, 60.

“When the church assembly arrived at the church for church service, there was no shelter for them to worship in,” said Pastor Kaliabukama. Siloam Church has a congregation of about 200 members.

Bishop Obedi confirmed the attack, saying that a neighbor called him the night of the incident to tell him that he had heard a Muslim saying, “We are not comfortable with the existence of the Siloam Church – this church is growing very fast, and it is taking some of our Muslim brethren.”

Damages to the brick structure with its sheet-iron roof, completed in August 2011, were estimated at 25 million Tanzanian shillings (US$15,570).

“The government had permitted us to put up the church structure,” Pastor Kaliabukama said. “But these Muslims have no regard to the law. What will be the fate of my church members?”


Zanzibar Island’s population is estimated at 700,000. There are only 60 Christian congregations on the archipelago, according to Operation World. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

On July 30, Muslim extremists burned down a church building in Fuoni, on the south coast of Zanzibar island, that belonged to the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania. In Kianga, another church building was burned down on July 27, and on neighboring Pemba Island, suspected Muslims extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building.

Skin Disease
Further south, in Comoros – three tiny islands between Mozambique and Madagascar that declared independence from France in 1975 – a convert from Islam is suffering from a skin disease contracted in prison after his family threw him out.

The ordeal of Musta Kim began in March 2010 when, returning from an overnight prayer meeting, he found someone had broken into his house in Mdjwayezi village. What he thought would be a simple matter of reporting a burglary turned him into an outcast.

While looking for evidence in his home, police stumbled onto Christian materials – a Bible and film – which changed the course of inquiry from pursuing thieves to asking why Kim was practicing a forbidden faith.

The Muslim youth who broke into his home was suspicious that Kim had left Islam, Kim said. Police investigations following the March 4 ransacking lasted three months, and among the Christian materials officers found was the “Jesus Film,” a translation of the Gospel of Luke in the local Ngazidja language and a French Bible.

With the help of Kim’s family, police arrested him and severely beat him during interrogation, injuring his right eye, before throwing him into a jail cell, he said. He slept on a moist thin mattress in the filthy jail cell, leaving him with a skin disease that has affected his whole body. He also developed a serious infection on his navel, with secretion of pus, which required urgent attention.

Kim was rushed to the Roman Catholic Hospital in Mboeni, but his condition worsened, with his skin ailment resembling scabies. He began scratching himself continuously, leading to serious bleeding, and went sleepless nights in intense pain throughout his body, he said.

His health deteriorating, he made an appeal in the high court regarding his eight months of incarceration without trial, and he was released on Feb. 29, 2011.

His family, however, rejected him, and Kim did not know who to turn to for shelter, medicine and food, he said.

“I cannot sleep at night – the whole body is itching and hurting,” he said. “I need medical assistance – my family has deserted me.”

Hailing from Mdjwayezi village 20 kilometers from Moroni town, Kim is an active member of the underground church.

The Comorian constitution provides for freedom of religion, though it is routinely violated. Islam is the legal religion, and anyone found practicing another faith faces opposition. Evangelism is forbidden, and converts to Christianity can expect severe reprisals, according to Operation World, which states that the country is 98.84 percent Muslim and 0.93 percent Christian.

END

International campaign in support of arrested children of AOG church of Ahwaz

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

AHWAZ, IRAN (ANS) -- The brutal attack on the Assemblies of God (AOG) church of Ahwaz on December 23, 2011, seems to have psychologically affected the children who were arrested in a harsh manner by security authorities. In this connection, Iranian and non-Iranian Christians and churches are invited to reassure these children by sending cards of encouragement.

Illustration by Mohabat News

According to the Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News (http://mohabatnews.com), following the attack by security authorities on the AOG church of Ahwaz at Christmas, the Hamgam Council of Iranian Churches is inviting all Iranian and foreign churches to send cards of encouragement to the children who were mentally affected during the raid.

“Based on earlier reports received, the security authorities had their faces covered and treated the Sunday school children of the church badly as they arrested them. This frightening ordeal deeply affected these children's minds,” said a spokesperson for Mohabat News.

According to Article 14 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning freedom of thought and religion, “Governments should honor the freedom of thought and religion of children and the right of the parents to provide direction to their own child.”

The news agency told the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) that "The Islamic Republic of Iran adopted the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and is obliged to apply its provisions in Iran. Seventeen years have passed since acceptance of this convention and the Iranian regime should explain why they treat children, who were present with their parents at a religious place, like criminals and take them to security centers and jails that were intended for criminals?!

“The Hamgam Council of Iranian Churches is inviting all Iranian and foreign churches to send cards of encouragement to the children who were mentally affected during the raid.”

It added, “The children in the Sunday schools of other churches are also called to take part in this campaign and demonstrate their solidarity with the children who were prevented from celebrating our Savior’s birth.”

The cards of encouragement can be sent to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) at the address below where the cards will be forwarded to the affected children.

“Let's hope these cards will help wipe this bitter experience from the minds of the children of the AOG church of Ahwaz,” concluded the news agency.

Address to send the cards:

Christian Solidarity Worldwide
P.O. Box 99,
New Malden,
Surrey KT3 3YF
UK

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Dan Wooding, 71, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries and also provides a regular commentary for Worship Life Radio on KWVE. You can follow Dan Wooding on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books, one of which is his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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El Paso Mayor Attacks Churches, Blocks Recall Election

12:13PM EST 11/29/2011 CHARISMA NEWS STAFF

Downtown El Paso (City of El Paso)

In the wake of a controversial battle against Christian ministries in the Texas state, El Paso Mayor John Cook has failed to stop a recall election against him and two city council members.

Cook sued Tom Brown Ministries, Word of Life Church of El Paso, El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values and other local citizens to silence them from speaking out against the mayor’s policies that impact El Paso families.

On Monday a state judge officially denied Cook’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the recall election. The case is ongoing with a trial set for June.

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys, who represent the parties being attacked by Cook, filed a counterclaim against him that is still pending before the court.

“Churches and ministries shouldn’t live in fear of being punished by the government for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech,” said ADF Senior legal Counsel Joel Oster, who argued before the court on behalf of the parties sued by Cook.

“The mayor is seeking to silence those who oppose his policies because he doesn’t like their views, but that’s neither legal nor constitutional. The recall petitions were circulated and submitted in full accordance with the law, and he cannot stop the election just because he doesn’t like the fact that some groups participated in a legitimate effort that he doesn’t favor.”

In one instance, the mayor told a woman who spoke on the issue at a city council meeting, “You can take your freedom of speech outside.”

In November 2010, El Paso voters, by popular petition, placed on the ballot and passed an ordinance prohibiting unmarried domestic partner benefits. Despite this, certain members of the city council voted to rescind the ordinance passed by the voters, and the mayor approved.

In response to the council’s defiance of the people’s expressed will, a grass-roots recall campaign sought to remove the mayor and council members who ignored the vote of the people. The mayor then filed suit alleging that the church violated Texas election law by circulating a petition. ADF attorneys have filed a federal suit against the law to have it declared unconstitutional.