Post 76--Nigerian Judge: Terrorism is not Terrorism

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25 September 2018

This "story" is about a Nigerian judge who denies that a long history of obvious terrorist attacks on Christian communities by Muslim Fulanis constitutes terrorism.  The causes behind it all are multi-....:  religious, tribal, political, nomads vs settlers. It is also a story about governmental interference in the court system. But whatever the causes and effects, it cannot be denied that we are dealing here with terrorism, pure and simple.  And, of course, this report coming out of the UK, there are the expected denials from prominent UK leaders that religion plays no part in this continued violence. I say "of course," for British authorities still cling to the outmoded theory that religions plays no role in such violence or, at best, a secondary role. That theory has gone to seed so long ago that it is pathetic that responsible leaders still play around with it. 

Anyhow, here it is, compliments from Barnabas Fund in the UK. 

"Nigerian Judge Backs Down from Declaring Fulani Attacks on Christian Communities as Terrorism."

A judge in the Abuja division of Nigeria’s Federal High Court has backed down from officially declaring Fulani attacks on Christian communities as acts of terrorism. The leadership and educated elite of the Fulani ethnic group, living in towns and cities, are Muslim, although many of the uneducated nomadic Fulani herdsmen follow traditional African religions.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba is the second judge to avoid ruling on the case, after the judge who was originally assigned the motion secured a promotion. Justice Dimgba ordered the case to be re-assigned to the Chief Judge of Nigeria’s Federal Court on 29 August.

A lawyer from Benue state, which has witnessed multiple Fulani attacks since the start of 2018, filed a motion in May for the Nigerian Federal Court to officially declare the “killings, massacre, [and] wanton destruction” carried out by Fulani herdsmen as acts of terrorism. In April, 16 people including two church pastors were killed in a Fulani attack on a church in Ayar-Mbalom, Benue, during a morning church service. The attackers went on to set alight 50 houses in the town.

A judge in the Abuja division of Nigeria’s Federal High Court has refused to rule whether Fulani attacks constitute terrorism
Image credit: High Court Of The Federal Capital Territory Abuja - Nigeria

As well as claiming 50 million Naira (around £104,000) in damages for the affected communities, the case is seeking to get Nigeria’s Attorney General to rule that President Buhari has a duty under Nigerian law to act to halt the attacks.

Church leaders in Nigeria have repeatedly called on President Buhari, who is himself a Fulani Muslim, to take decisive action against the scourge of attacks by Fulani herdsmen on Christian farming communities.

The British government continues to state there is no religious motivation behind the attacks by Fulani herdsmen on Christians. Barnabas Fund patron Baroness Cox raised the issue of Fulani attacks in the House of Lords on 17 July asking, “Given the escalation of attacks on Christian communities in which many hundreds have been killed recently and that the Nigerian House of Representatives has declared this to be genocide, does the Minister agree that while the causes of such violence are complex, there is a strong ideological dimension to the Fulani attacks?”

In her response, Baroness Goldie stated, “Our assessment is that they are not religiously motivated.” During the same debate, she also refused to explicitly affirm Conservative peer Lord Elton’s assessment that “Fulani herdsmen have destroyed 500 churches since 2001 and that in the first quarter of this year [2018] they have caused 1,061 deaths, mostly in attacks on Christians.”

Post 61--Nigerian Muslims and Christians Persecuting Each Other

This blog features quite a bit of Nigeriana, especially about Christian-Muslim relations. The reason is that my wife and I have spent 30 years in that country as missionaries and published quite a number of books about it.  You can go to the Boeriana and Islamica pages of our website 
   
                                            < www.SocialTheology.com/ >.

So, this post is no exception.  Unfortunately, those relations have mostly been negative, tense, hostile and even violent. The details of that can be found on the above Islamica page.

Today's story is a typical one. If it were exceptional, I would not pass it on, but its typical nature requires that I do.  This is an example of what has been going on for years, for decades. You would think that with all the blood shed over the past 50 years or so, someone would get tired and reason would pop up to put a stop to all this, but no, it just goes on and on and on....

While I often encourage you, readers, to enjoy the post you are reading, I cannot do so today. Rather, I can only encourage you to weep as you read and to pray for peace and tolerance.

But there is another side to it. In today's story, Christians rightly feel persecuted.  However, so do Muslims, at least the apparent majority of Nigerian Muslims who constitute nearly half of the 180 million population of the country. To them, a secular constitution is a form of persecution of Muslims, for they want sharia law, not Western secular law. Most Christians do not seem to understand that.  It is a much more complicated picture than most Christians realize. Muslims persecute Christians; semi-secular Christians persecute Muslims. Neither one recognizes its contribution to the impasse.

So far my comments. Now proceed to read the following story, but be sure to have a bundle of napkins at hand.

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Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 439 | Wed 24 Jan 2018 

For images and hyperlinks, visit https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Frlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com&data=02%7C01%7C%7C867ccf11f8ea4017244308d562e43e9a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636523654795051507&sdata=q74lEIGo8%2BlNl%2FzdjVwQ336kCEVyURyMQSCGd%2F4n%2B2I%3D&reserved=0  

NIGERIA'S CONVERSION CRISES: ECHOES OF EGYPT
        -- plus Update on Syria 

by Elizabeth Kendal

Nigerians Miss Nabila Umar Sanda (19) and Engineer Simput Eagles Dafup (33) 
met and exchanged contact details in Dubai four years ago. A few years later, 
as Nabila (a Muslim) was studying at Bingham University - a Church-owned 
university in Karu, in Nigeria's central Nasarawa State - she decided that 
she wanted to become a follower of Jesus Christ too. When Nabila learned that 
Simput Dafup was going to be in Jos, Plateau State, over Christmas (2017), 
she re-connected with him and arranged to meet him there. When Nabila told 
Simput that she wanted to convert to Christianity, he asked about her family, 
in particular her father who is a powerful Muslim elder and a traditional 
title holder in Biu, Borno State. Nabila told Simput that as she was 19, she 
was entitled to choose her own religion and would do so regardless of 
obstacles. However, Simput remained concerned, so on Monday 8 January he and 
Nabila sought advice and assistance frSanda Nabila Umar, Eagles Simput, Bimngham Uom local church leader, Pastor Jeremiah Datim. Cognisant of the delicacy of the situation, Pastor Datim decided it 
was best to follow protocol and contact the umbrella group for the Muslim 
community in Nigeria, Jama'atu Nasril lslam (JNI), to inform them of Nabila's 
decision to convert, in the hope they might smooth the way forward. When 
Nabila's parents were informed, her furious father vowed revenge and 
requested intervention by the Department of State Security Services (DSS).  

Later that day, DSS officers stormed Pastor Jeremiah Datim's home, assaulted 
his wife and children and abducted Nabila. They also violently abducted 
Simput Dafup from his home and arrested Daniel Hassan, the taxi driver who 
had driven Nabila from Abuja to Jos. At a press conference in Jos on Saturday 
13 January Pastor Jeremiah Datim clarified the constitutional issue at the 
heart of the crisis. 'I want to state,' he said, 'for the avoidance of doubt, 
that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees the right 
to anyone to propagate his faith and the right also to practise any religion 
of one's choice.' Simput Dafup's widowed mother, Lydia then appealed for 
information on her son's whereabouts. 'My son,' she said, 'a quiet gentleman 
par excellence, was on Monday, January 8, 2018, brutalised, tortured and 
whisked away from his residence in Jos by men we suspect were from the DSS 
for allegedly converting one Miss Nabila Umar Sanda from Islam to 
Christianity.'  

Though no charges had been laid and no arrest warrants issued, the DSS is 
alleging that Nabila was abducted in Abuja, held captive in Jos and forcibly 
converted to Christianity. This echoes the 'Camilia' myth promulgated by 
Islamists in Egypt [see: RLPB 082 (17 Nov 2010)]. The accusation comes as the 
Voice of Northern Christian Movement of Nigeria (VNCMN) is pressuring the 
government of President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the abduction of some 
100 Christian girls. VNCMN Executive Director, Pastor Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa, 
explains: 'Muslims have abducted 100 Christian girls under the age of 18 and 
forcefully converted them to lslam and we have reported to security agencies 
severally but no arrest was made or return of Christian girls to their 
parents ... .' Thus the whole context mirrors that of Egypt [see: RLPB 398, 
'Bring Back Our Coptic Girls' (15 March 2017)]. But Nigeria is not Egypt! 
Nigeria is a democracy with a secular Constitution where Christians comprise 
at least 51 percent. Tensions are soaring.  

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has slammed the DSS 
for 'acting as some kind of  "Islamic religious police" ... We call on the 
National Assembly to call ... the [Director-General] of DSS to desist from 
using public offices to promote and canvass the interests of a particular 
religious group which are direct affronts to the Constitution of the Federal 
Republic of Nigeria which absolutely prohibits the elevation of one religion 
as state religion'.  

----------------------

[In a separate incident, on 15 January DSS officers similarly (i.e., 
violently and without a warrant) attempted to arrest Jos preacher Isa El-Buba 
after he criticised President Buhari in a nationally broadcast sermon. Church 
members resisted, forcing the DSS to withdraw. For details on this and the 
Islamisation of Nigeria, see Religious Liberty Monitoring, 24 Jan 2018.]  

Post 60--

Nigeria is a country that suffers enormously from inter-religious strife and violence. I have seen it first hand during my 30 years in the country.  I have even written extensively about it in my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations. You can find that series at

                      <  www.SocialTheology.com/islamica.htm >--that is my website. 

I've left Nigeria over 20 years ago--can't believe that it's been that long! But through reading I have kept up with that situation. 

Recently, a Nigerian friend whom I respect highly and whom I have quoted much in the above series wrote this on Facebook:

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Danjuma Byang:

Someone said there is good in the worst of humans and there is also evil even in the best of them too! It is part of the irony of being made in d image of God but from clay! I hold n teach what u just said here but I was rebuked by a converted Sheikh from Islam who is now a pastor, that if I think a Muslim is good I have been deceived! That his being good is just a 'carrot' to make me relax my defenses. That sooner or later the cobra in him will manifest! So am a little confused. At my age I should know what is good and bad. But I can't ignore the warning from a man who rose to become a Sheikh in the system. I guess what it means is that I should be cautious with what I see when dealing with these people! I return good gestures but don't let down my guards! Nor do I make sweeping generalizations! I think u should do likewise!
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What do I say to the above?  Danjuma is right: there is something good and something bad in every person. No one is perfectly good or wholly bad, though some may come close.  But what about that question when it is applied to Muslims?

What do I say to that?  I really don't like to think that way, but what can you say about the wisdom gained from experience?  Ignore it?  Reject it?  Or should I argue that this may be the case in Nigeria but not necessarily in other countries?  

I not only read Christian books written about Muslims, but also Muslim books. Some of the latter address Christians and are meant to attract them to Islam.  But some are also written by Muslims for Muslims. That is to say, to instruct Muslims to be more faithful in their adherence to Islam.  The previous post of this blog is an example.  Should I say that such materials are written simply to hide or cover the real truth?  Are Muslims even writing to fool other Muslims and make the religion seem better than it is?  

My answer to the last few questions is negative.  But if that is the case, then what should be my response to Danjuma's challenge or, even stronger, to that converted Sheikh's challenge?  A senior and now late Nigerian friend of mine, whom I also quote frequently in my series was also a convert from Islam and he made the same claim as the above Sheikh. 

I am always in a kind of state of confusion. That's one reason you may have found that I kind of flip flop throughout this blog. I say this and then turn around to say that.  I will leave it at this.....  

Post 57--Fulani Attacks on Nigerian Christans

If you open the link below, you will find a great article about Fulani atrocities against Christians in Nigeria.  Fulanis are a nomadic tribe of Muslims who wander with their cattle through areas now settled by farming populations in Nigeria.  Of course, there has long been tension between settler and nomadic peoples in many areas in the world. Nigeria is no exception. 

However, the articles explains how it can be that the relatively uneducated and unsophisticated Fulani's attack with such modern weapons. It explains that powerful Muslims in government, army and society support the Fulani by providing them with modern weapons.  They use the Fulani to carry out their Muslim jihad in the country. That, it is said, explains why the government and army never stop these attacks. 
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This explanation is nothing new; Nigerian Christians have held it for decades, ever since the beginning of the contemporary Christian-Muslim struggle. I invite you to consult my STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS which you can access on my website

                                     < www.SocialTheology.com/Islamica.htm > .




 >

The Other Side of the Coin

Post 16—

Dr. Aliyu Tilde is formidable Nigerian Muslim journalist whose columns can be found on < www.Gamji.com >, a Nigerian news website. He is fiercely critical of corruption and oppression wherever he sees it in Nigeria, whether perpetrated by Muslims or Christians or those who merely claim such epithets for themselves. Some of my Christian friends in Nigeria dislike him, for they strongly disagree with his stance on the violence that has racked Nigeria’s Plateau State and its capital Jos, a city I have lived in for two decades. Yes, they strongly disagree with him, for you can only react strongly to his equally strongly worded columns, whether you agree or disagree. In the case of Plateau State, he is squarely on the Muslim side. Having come to know him a bit more personally through recent correspondence, I should re-read his articles on the Plateau situation. Sometimes knowing a person personally can bring a change in interpreting him.

Recently Tilde published a column under the title “Poor Northerners!(2), referring to Nigerian Northerners, mostly Muslims. He unhesitatingly admitted that “countries in the Muslim world are not democratic and they represent perhaps some of the worst living specimen of tyranny and oppression.” But then he goes on to explain how this situation arose. While most Westerners are convinced that the reasons are internal to Islam, Tilde shows the other side of the coin and locates the cause in the hypocritical and oppressive behaviour of Western nations. Listen to him:

“However, that is neither the tenet of Islam nor the choice of its Muslim citizens. It is the practice of their puppet leaders in strong collaboration with the western powers that support them with aid, intelligence, equipments of torture, guns, etc. Take Saudi Arabia for example. That kingdom is a monarchy which, in the first place, could not have come into existence without the support of the British or survived this long without deploying American might. In fact this is the root cause of the terrorism that America so much complains about these days. The same thing applies to Egypt and other tyrannical regimes in the Muslim world. Let America and the Western world support the democratization of the Muslim world by withdrawing its support for those oppressive regimes and you will see them collapse in less than five years. But the West cannot risk that because of its entrenched strategic and economic interests.”

I largely agree with Tilde that this Western behaviour is a major cause of the situation we all bemoan. A major cause; not the only one. Forty years ago I might have disagreed with him, but since then I wrote a doctoral dissertation on colonialism and was forced by the facts to recognize the nefarious and oppressive nature of Western colonialism. It was an eye opener for me. The facts that I unearthed had been carefully hidden from me by a domesticated educational process right through undergraduate university as well as post-graduate theological seminary. What I leaned was not pretty. If you turn to volumes 2, 4, 6 and 8 of my Studies in Christian Muslim Relations, you can find it all there as well. (You can access these free of charge by typing < Jan H Boer> in the opening page of < www.lulu.com >.)

Yes, the pre-Renaissance/Enlightenment internal Muslim factors play the other major part. Note that I said “Muslim” factor, not necessarily Islamic factor. They are no more the same as are “Christian” and “nominal Christian.” Both these internal and external factors need to be recognized and admitted by both sides. Writing as a Christian, we must heed the word of Jesus Christ who warned us to first take out the beam in our own eyes, before we reach for the splinter in the eye of the other.

(ForTilde’s article turn to his columns on www.Gamji.com and check Discourse 308, November 2010.)

POST 1--INTRODUCTION
For an introduction regarding my good self, please turn to the “About” page on my website www.SocialTheology. Amongst other things, you will learn there that, though I am a Caucasian, I spent 30 years in Nigeria’s Middle Belt in various capacities. You will also learn there that I hold a doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam, where I specialized in mission studies and wrote a hefty dissertation on missions and colonialism under the title Missionary Messengers Of Liberation In A Colonial Context (1979). For info about other publications of mine, please turn to two other pages on that same website: the “Boeriana” page for a more or less complete list of my publications and to the “Islamica” page for my publications on Christian-Muslim affairs. The more you peruse the various pages on that website, the more you will find out about me. That may be helpful in understanding where I come from in my posts, that is to say, my worldview.

In addition to this blog, I have also started one with the name “WorldlyChristianity.blogspot.com.” That one will further develop issues of Christian worldview, a favourite topic of many people these days. It is the same worldview that will underlie this blog. So, these two blogs will be supporting each other.

This blog will concentrate on Christian-Muslim relations and other issues related to these two religions. I do not claim final or complete expertise on that subject, but I definitely claim to know a thing or two about it. After all, 30 years of mature living in a Nigeria with a cleft population of over 60 million adherents of both religions has provided a rich mine of experiences. So have my doctoral studies equipped me with considerable qualifications. On top of all that, from the Islamic page on the website you may have learned that I have written 8 volumes on the subject of Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria. That took me about 10 years of concentrated research and writing. So, come along, read me and challenge me as we go. I love challenges, for they often sharpen our mind and improve our understanding. I especially invite my Muslim friends to join the “party.”



The entries will sometimes be slightly edited materials from my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations, a series of 8 volumes, plus the COMPANION CD that counts as Volume 9. For more information about its layout, see my website SocialTheology.com. That series is a Nigerian case study of Christian-Muslim relations—often about how not to do “it.” Nigeria is a unique case in that you find some 65 million plus Christians facing 65 million plus Muslims. There is no constellation like this anywhere else in the world. No country has two such huge and equal blocks of both religions within its borders. Another part of the dynamic is that though both are on the increase in Nigeria, Christians appear to be increasing faster and are poised to outnumber Muslims. At the moment, both insist they constitute the majority along with the rights they claim with that status. However, neither the 2007 census nor earlier ones included religious statistics, so that it is anyone’s guess as to which religion can boast the larger following. But, as always, perception and propaganda outstrip the facts in power and significance.
Though I concentrate on Nigeria, it is Nigeria as a case study with global implications from several points of view:
• What dynamics develop when you have two large blocks of these religions living together?
• What happens when you have these two aggressive missionary religions competing for a place in the sun?
• What happens when a once almost supreme Muslim community is confronted with an emerging Christian community that has woken up to a growing sense of political awareness and power?
• What happens when you have a confrontation between a Muslim community that vehemently rejects secularism in favour of sharia and a Christian community that insists on a form of secularism?
• What happens when both communities are fearful, mistrusting of and angry with each other so that they can no longer hear each other out?
The flow of events in Nigeria is a powerful example of how things are NOT to be done from either side. I expect that Nigerians who read these monographs will feel deeply ashamed of the violence they unleash on each other in the name of their respective religions.
But these studies are not written primarily to embarrass Nigerians. Their purpose is to arrive at some parameters within which we can develop more positive relations with each other, relations of respect and tolerance, that will allow both religions to flourish within the one nation.
These relations have been bedeviled by untold blood shed and destruction ever since 1980. The series describes and explains the riots themselves and the issues of confrontation. Most of the study concentrates on the opinions of Nigerian Muslims and Christians themselves by providing extensive quotations and appendices, especially from the media. Each volume deals with a separate aspect of the relationship.
These studies do away with taboos, now politely dubbed “political correctness” and as well as with religious wishful thinking. We are encouraged to get real. The fatal influence and role of secularism in these relationships in Nigeria come across very pointedly. The weak inheritance of a dualistic gospel transmitted by Christian missions also is explained and constitutes a major reason for confusion in Nigeria.