http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/06/bush.shtml I've never read anywhwere that God wanted us to hurt each other. Goes to show that religion in the wrong hands has devastating results.
Just for those who aren't aware, Nigeria has been mired in a low-pro semi-civil war along religious/ethnic lines for a while now; Nigeria is a very delicate case, and they have had mobs of Muslims attacking Christian villages and vice versa for a while now, not to mention the organized attacks against Western oil companies by militant nationalists. Nigeria hasn't been a place of stability in recent years, although things have improved slowly.
I'm sure no one was surprised the protesters took it up a notch. Their inclination is to respond with violence. The mayhem is not isloated. The excuse of a few bad apples spoiling the whole batch does not pass muster.
In the case of Nigeria, various rival ethnic groups use any excuse to attack each other, this isn't the first time this happens by any means. Google "Nigeria ethnic violence" to find some relative articles if you're interested...
Did I say it was right? The world doesn't operate on what is "right" or "wrong" according to your views, most ethnic tribes in Nigeria could care less about your definition of "right and wrong", there has to be an understanding of history and background of conflicts/events to understand what leads to an action; NOTHING happens in a vaccum. I was merely providing some context for those who're not aware of ethnic tensions and turmoil in Nigeria dating to decades before the offensive cartoons were published. At one point a few years back, there was an explosion that killed some factory workers in Nigeria, and out of nowhere ethnic riots followed resulting in nearly 100 people killed. That's been Nigeria the past decade or more, rival ethnic groups taking any presumed 'slights' or fabricated ones as an opportunity to settle the score with one another. This case fits the profile according to similar incidents taking place in the past, nothing out of the ordinary for Nigeria, it's a country torn by tribal conflict over lands, resources, race, and religion. The irony is that most of this violence has taken place following Nigeria's transition to democracy, previously the military ruled and they kept a firm grip on society; sort of similar to what's happening in Iraq now.
i am so sick and tired and disgusted by this repeated argument. give me one mainstream large organization in the country that hasn't repeatedly condemned terrorism/violence? and can one day someone define for me what a moderate muslim is.
Did Christian's draw these cartoons or is this just an excuse for Muslems to go kill some Christians?
It's an excuse for already warring parties to kill one another: Anti-Muslim riots in Nigeria http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/nigeria_sectarian_violence
1st Muslim: "Hey! This cartoon is making it look like we Muslims are all violent people!" other Muslim: "Yeah! That's terrible! Only a few of us are violent! Most of us are peaceful! It's outrageous that those cartoonists are depicting us like this!" 1st Muslim: "Yeah! Let's go burn down their building!" otehr Muslim: "Yeah!"
I don't think my apoligy matters, but let me apologize for what these people who call themselves Christians are doing. This is not what Jesus would do.
These are not "Christians". These are Igbo people taking their revenge on Muslims for their brothers being murdered in the north. Granted, the Igbos are majority Christian, but they're not doing this in the name of Christianity - it's a lot more ethnic than religious. The fellows who started this nonsense in the north are Hausas and they're almost all Muslims, so down in the South the Igbos get mad and attack the few Hausas who live there.
We can't. History tells us, if one side wins all, that one side will divide into two sides, and beat the crap out of each other again. One can live without friend, but definitely not without enemy.
Appology not accepted, what the heck are you appologizing for? Those tribes are at war with each other and have a conflict that has absolutely nothing to do with you. In their context, secterian violence is nothing new and won't stop anytime soon. I didn't ask for your apology, I am not that simple-minded as some of our resident posters are. I don't lump people together in one group to make it easier for myself to villify them, denounce them, and ultimately hate them.
No, those tribes are not at war with each other. That's a bit of a reach to make over a little reprisal violence. Some of the news you hear about sectarian violence in Nigeria is quite exaggerated - the press likes to make it look like the country is in some perpetual civil war (which is basically the same way they report about any African nation). There's no question that tensions exist and what happened isn't surprising. But no, it's not even remotely close to civil war, as the press would have you think. Much of the sectarian violence that has happened in the past couple of decades, in fact, has been between a couple of small marsh-dwelling tribes in the Niger Delta -- a situation that was magnified by the presence of oil companies in that region.
I am aware of that, and if you read my initial post I believe you will see that I said "low-pro" secterian violence. I understand it's not full-scale "hot" civil war, although I wouldn't at all dismiss that possibility sometime down the road unless ethnic relations are vastly improved. Nigeria is of vast importance to the U.S. because our leaders envisioned the Niger Delta as a key to reducing our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, not to mention that Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and and a key 'power' in western Africa.
