2 of 4

But the spread of Christianity and the freedom of middle states from Hausa political control threatened some northern politicians, who exploited Islam's jihad tradition (and many unemployed Muslim youths) to seek to reclaim the region. Islamic extremists killed Christians in supposedly spontaneous riots in various northern cities in the 1980s and 1990s, despite the objections of moderate Muslims.

Initially Christians "turned the other cheek," but finally a minority began arming themselves and determined to strike back, trying to kill as many Muslims as Muslims killed Christians. When a Christian (Olusegun Obasanjo) became the nation's first democratically elected president in years in 1999, many northern states even with sizeable Christian minorities responded by adopting Shari'ah, Islamic law.

In the past half century, many Muslims also brought their own faith to Plateau's capital, Jos, using prayer calls and blocking off streets for Friday prayers. Muslims and Christians interacted peacefully. But Plateau state has not known peace now for several years.

Starting in 2002, as the Anglican bishop of Jos noted, "jihadists" began slaughtering or driving out the Christians from Yelwa-Shandam in southern Plateau state. Since then, tens of thousands of people—some have claimed as many as 500,000—have been driven from centuries-old farmlands, with few perpetrators brought to justice.

On February 24 of this year, for example, Christians in an early morning prayer meeting were surrounded and massacred. Local Muslims allegedly declared Yelwa part of a Shari'ah state.

Finally, in May 2004, some local Tarok tribesmen, now armed with automatic weapons, retaliated and slaughtered Muslims in Yelwa. Suddenly the international media, which had mostly ignored Christians' plight, reported that Christians had slaughtered Muslims in (according to one report) "the Muslim town of Yelwa." Horrified Muslims were widely quoted.

I do not justify the slaughter of the Muslims in Yelwa. Most Nigerian Christians I know repudiated the violence. But I am utterly astonished at the biased coverage, much of which offered no hint of the injustices that led to these actions. In June 2000, I taught 60 pastors in a church district headquarters in Yelwa. If Yelwa was now a "Muslim" town rather than a mixed one, it is only because Christians had been slaughtered and driven out.

The immediate consequence of the irresponsibly biased report that "Christians" had attacked "Muslims" was more violence. Against the advice of Muslim moderates, the governor of Kano encouraged Muslim youth to protest the murder of Muslims in Plateau state. Carnage ensued. One eyewitness who escaped reported a baby burned alive, and the mother's screaming protests leading to her own death.

Contacts in Kano estimated 3,000 Christians dead. While I seriously doubt that anyone was counting, the discrepancy with "official" figures is striking. The government reported fewer than 50 casualties (their faith unspecified), a report that international media largely followed. While such deflated figures help prevent a cycle of further violence, they also further marginalize Kano's Christians. Reportedly, the morgues and refrigeration units were full. One friend who grew up in Kano demanded to know which corpses the government really considered dead.

Another friend reports that every Christian he knew in Kano had lost a relative. Radical Muslims in Kano have long oppressed Christians, rezoning and bulldozing many churches built by impoverished Christians, who have also been targeted in riots there.

next page... |  2 of 4

share this page

November 2004, Vol. 48, No. 11