| Submit your comments on this article |
| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Islam's Bloody Border: 100 killed in Miss World rioting... |
| 2002-11-22 |
| Rioting between Muslims and Christians in the northern city of Kaduna has killed as many as 100 people and seriously injured 500 others, Red Cross officials said Friday as thousands of residents sought refuge in army bases and police stations. Gangs of Christian youths retaliated against Muslims on Friday in the third day of riots triggered by a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet would have approved of the Miss World beauty pageant. Just love those religions of peace... George Bennet, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Nigeria, told The Associated Press that Nigerian Red Cross officials gathering the dead and helping the wounded had reported a "ballpark figure" of 100 killed by Friday morning. Other Red Cross officials said more than 500 people had been wounded in the mayhem. "Being Muslims, we have no control over our own actions. Any time anybody makes a frivolous remark about the Prophet, we're obliged to go crazy and kill people. It's right there in the Koran someplace. You could look it up..." Sporadic gunshots and shouting could be heard Friday morning by residents who still cowered inside their homes. Angry mobs have stabbed, bludgeoned or burned bystanders to death, torched churches and cars, and rampaged through streets in recent days. "Shucks, Abdul! This is more fun than stoning adultresses!" On Friday morning, plumes of black smoke rose above the city from makeshift barricades lit by rioters. Authorities extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew to 24 hours a day, although large numbers of people were ignoring the order. "Yar! Let's go out and burn our city down! Somebody'll build us a new one later..." In Ungwa-Rome and Larayi - neighborhoods dominated by the city's Christian minority - witnesses said youths smashed windows and set fires in mosques. Rioting was also reported in Kabala Costain, one of the predominantly Muslim neighborhoods of Kaduna, a cosmopolitan city of several million people. Fearful residents of all faiths were rushing into police stations and military facilities for protection. "The soldiers have been very helpful, giving us bandages and first aid," Habiba Ibrahim, a local official, said in a telephone interview. She spent the night at the city's defense academy, near the government clinic where she works. "Everyone is here - Muslims, Christians and pagans. We are all afraid of going home. Only God knows when this will end." It'll end when the holy men decide it should end. They're showing their power... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Send the coppers out and shoot a few rioters. That'll cool the bastards down some. If that doesn't work, shoot a few clerics. |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-11-22 15:48:43 |