• Young Muslims burned 10 Nigerian churches on September 20. Rioting began in the northern city of Dutse after rumors spread that a Christian woman had blasphemed Muhammad. Crowds gathered at the local emir’s home and Dutse’s central mosque, demanding her stoning. The emir and the state governor attempted to calm the crowd, but when police fired tear gas, the protesters became a mob. On September 22, during Friday prayers, the federal government sent in tanks, soldiers, and anti-riot police to control the situation, according to Compass Direct. Police have detained the woman, whom Muslims allege blasphemed Muhammad during an argument over Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial September speech.
• William Crotts, former president of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, was sentenced September 29 to concurrent seven- and eight-year prison sentences on fraud and racketeering charges related to the foundation’s collapse. Former legal counsel Thomas Grabinski received five- and six-year concurrent sentences. Both men, who were each ordered to pay $159 million in restitution, will appeal their July guilty verdicts. Lawrence Hoover, the final board member implicated in the fraud, pled guilty on September 4 and will be sentenced in late November. The foundation, created in 1948, began using shell companies in the 1980s to cover financial failure and repay old investors with new investors’ money. The foundation’s collapse in 1999 cost investors, mostly elderly members of the Southern Baptist Convention, more than $550 million.
• Muslims in Aceh, Indonesia, burned a church after a renewal service on September 1. Indonesia Evangelical Mission Church had invited Christians from surrounding villages. But to provoke conflict, a local Muslim edited the invitation to include Muslims and sent it to thousands, according to Compass Direct. A crowd of Muslims and police arrived at the service where 500 Christians gathered. Police reprimanded the church’s pastor, Luther Saragih, and ordered the Christians to leave. Three hours later, more than 100 men burned the church. The pastor and his wife hid in the jungle and found refuge in a Christian home nearby.
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Related Elsewhere:
More coverage of the Dutse riots is available from Compass Direct, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, This Day (follow-up 1, follow-up 2), Vanguard, and IRIN.
The Arizona Republic has more information on the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, which has also received coverage in Christianity Today. Phoenix New Times first raised questions about the foundation in 1998.
Compass Direct has more on the burning of Indonesia Evangelical Mission Church.
