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More than 500 killed as Nigeria again erupts in religious fighting
America isn't the only place this week where people who've handed themselves over to evil claimed the lives of countless others. Violence between Christians and Muslims around Jos, Nigeria, erupted again late this week—reportedly in response to the terrorist attacks in the U.S. Fighting originally broke out last Friday when false reports circulated that Muslims had burned down a local church. The military was able to restore some semblance of order by Monday, but wasn't able to maintain the peace. Reuters quotes one resident saying, "Some (Muslim) people have been jubilating because of what happened in the U.S., and I believe that must have encouraged them." Tens of thousands of residents reportedly fled the area for their lives.

Tensions between Christians and Muslims have of course been high in Nigeria ever since states began implementing Islamic Shari'ah law. This week, an Islamic court handed down the country's first death sentence under the law. A 35-year-old man from the northwest state of Kebbi will be stoned for sodomizing a 7-year-old boy.

RU-486 may have killed Canadian woman
An unidentified Canadian woman died of septic shock resulting from a clostridium infection while testing abortion pill mifepristone, also known as RU-486. That's about all the news we have so far—it certainly isn't getting very much media attention—but we'll keep you posted as we find out more.

Moscow court orders Salvation Army closed
In the latest efforts by Moscow to shut down the Salvation Army, Judge Svetlana Grigoryeva of the Tagansky Region People's Court has ordered the church to shut down its operations. The Moscow government has been trying to force the church out for years. Since 1998, the government has made the ridiculous accusation that it is a paramilitary organization bent on taking over the country. This year, the government argued that the church missed its registration deadline, which only happened because its registration was rejected. "This will teach them a good lesson that in Russia everybody is equal before the law, regardless of whether you represent the Salvation Army or not," Vladimir Zhbankov, deputy head of the Justice Ministry's Moscow directorate, told the Los Angeles Times. "There are some notorious organizations I would so eagerly liquidate, but I can't because they comply with the law. But the Salvation Army chose not to. Well, now they will have to sustain serious material losses, as they will have to hand in all their property and money to the state and start again from scratch: write a new charter, fill in all the forms and hand in the registration papers on time." Col. Kenneth Baillie, commanding officer of the Salvation Army in Russia, says the church will appeal the ruling and will continue working until the police remove them by force. Russia Religion News, a site by Stetson University's Paul D. Steeves, is still updating his site with translated news articles from Russia and elsewhere.

Republicans say they're trying to reverse IRS ban on churches' politicking
The Washington Times reports that Republicans in Congress are trying to reverse a ban on churches' involvement in "any political campaign on behalf of any candidate." The ban has been in place since 1954. "Our tax code inappropriately suppresses religious commentary on political issues," House majority whip Tom Delay (R-Tex.) tells The Washington Times. The article appeared in Wednesday's paper, but the reporting apparently took place before the terrorist attacks. Weblog assumes this legislation is on indefinite hold, but if it progresses it will be a huge change in church-state law. Apparently it's currently in the House Ways and Means Committee.

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45