500 Christians murdered by Muslim Extremists in Nigeria http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-nigeria-violence9-2010mar09,0,1624783.story Nigerian massacre victims buried in mass grave Survivors say Christian villagers were trapped in nets and hacked to death by Muslim herdsman in attacks with ethnic and religious overtones. Death estimates vary wildly, from 200 to 500. By Robyn Dixon and Aminu Abubakar March 8, 2010 | 6:34 p.m. Reporting from Ratsat, Dogo Nahawa, Nigeria, and Lagos, Nigeria -- The victims of Sunday's sectarian massacres were buried in mass graves in central Nigeria on Monday as survivors told horrific stories of Christian villagers being trapped in nets and hacked to death by Muslim herdsmen. Reports on the death toll differed wildly, with some placing it at about 200 and others reporting 528 killed and thousands injured. Casualty figures in the recurrent Muslim-Christian violence in Nigeria's volatile Plateau state are often difficult to ascertain, as each side inflates its losses. However, attacks in January and on Sunday have left at least 500 dead, making it the worst violence here for some years. Hundreds of nomadic Fulani herdsmen launched coordinated attacks on three Christian villages -- Dogo Nahawa, Ratsat and Zot, just south of Jos -- about 3 a.m. Sunday. The killers planted nets and animal traps outside the huts of the villagers, mainly peasant farmers, fired weapons in the air, then attacked with machetes, according to human rights lawyer Shehu Sani of the nongovernment Civil Rights Congress, who visited the villages and interviewed dozens of survivors. "People came out of their houses and started falling into the animal traps and mosquito nets and then they were hacked down," he said. "They were the kind of traps used for wild animals." Plateau state, which lies on the divide between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south, has seen thousands killed in the last decade. Fulani herdsmen have accused a group of indigenous Christians, the Berom, of attacking their camp last month, killing four people and stealing about 200 cattle. Violence in the region, which appears unrelated to ongoing national sectarian political tensions, has ethnic as well as religious overtones. Many clashes have involved rampaging mobs of the indigenous Christians and of Muslim settlers, the Hausa, who started moving into the area early last century. The Muslim Fulani herdsmen, who move through the area with their cattle, are less often involved. This year's attacks have had a more sinister pattern: They are carefully planned and brutal, with hundreds of villagers killed -- including babies, the elderly and anyone else unable to flee. "Even the kind of violence is unusual, because it was not physical confrontations between Muslims and Christians. It was an ambush," said Sani, the rights lawyer. "The attackers killed whoever they caught. It was mostly women who stayed behind to defend their children that became most of the victims." One survivor, Sylvanis Mathias, said the attack was well planned. "They fired in the air, scared people out of their houses and then attacked them with machetes as they tried to escape, and then burned their bodies. They set the houses ablaze. More than half of the houses have been burned." The villages of Ratsat and Dogo Nahawa were eerily silent Monday. Houses lay in ashes and the streets were deserted. Survivors loaded bodies on trucks for the mass burial in Dogo Nahawa. During the burial, many survivors wept and some pounced on a local Muslim journalist, Murtala Sani Hashim, witnesses said. Police fired shots to disperse the crowds and rescued Hashim, who, according to witnesses, was punched, kicked and nearly pushed into the mass grave. Police said that dozens of suspects had been arrested in connection with the massacre, but Sani cast doubt on whether the right people were apprehended. "Arrests were made, but these were not even at the scene of the crime. They were just people arrested by police to save face and say they were doing their job," he said. Suspects arrested after such violence have rarely been convicted, with lack of adequate evidence often cited.
but AroundTheWorld's bigotry against muslims prevents him from seeing this. So he pulls a basso and posts a ridiculously-titled input-less article about how muslims are awful. hey ATW, here's an article I found by the associated press: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iNCU46VYMVf0VzhqkKJUus45PrDAD9EB0AVO0 why didn't you post that under the title "300 muslims murdered by christians in Nigeria"?
Why so defensive, PointForward? Struck a nerve, huh? In conflicts like this, it's usually not one side only that is at fault. But how does whatever you posted change the fact that Muslims murdered about 500 Christians now?
But you are using a technique with your title to miscue the reader's initial thought. Using the title to make it seem that this event is solely the attacks by Muslims without any predecessor event. The truth that first commentator stated is that isn't not uncommon. There has been more clashes recently and is a disgusting problem that has lead to deaths in members of both religious factions. The title shows no implication that there is anybody else at fault except Muslims. And it doesn't change the fact that this incident was a planned strategic attack by Muslim extremists but the story is deeper. Disgusting human behavior should be the title.
yay purposely incendiary topics! I say we start an Iraqi War thread and ethnicize/politicize all those deaths. "Iraq War: 100,000 Muslims murdered because of blundering Christian nation!"
Why - the attack was carried out by Muslim extremists. Simply stating facts here. I can see how some Muslims would like to try and prevent people from telling the truth about this: 500 Christians were killed by Muslims. There is nobody else at fault than the people who carried this out. I don't care what had been brewing before. There is no justification for a massacre like this.
Apparently whether one should be allowed to state the fact that these attacks were committed by Muslims.
I'll use your own words There is no justification for this incident, but not to look at the bigger picture of this event is ignorant. Both religions have suffered not just one.
Muslim extremists do terrible things. Christian extremists do terrible things. Buddhist extremists do terrible things. So, in summary of your vague lead-in to a discussion about Islamic ideology... I think it's best that we all become atheist.
I am reporting an incident of previously unknown proportion in that area, if I am not mistaken. 500 people were slaughtered. The perpetrators: Muslims. The victims: Christians. These are the facts, whether you like to hear them or not. I am tired of the excuses some Muslims try to come up with. I have seen the exact same behavior many many times after terrorist attacks of Palestinians against innocent Israelis. "Yes but you have also done wrong in the past" - as if that excuses ANYTHING.
That is something that seems to have come secondarily from the actual OP. And is a pretty crappy D&D topic itself.
Again, the same reflex by apologists of atrocities committed in the name of Islam: "But [insert name of other religion] have done terrible things, too". Feel free to post those terrible things. I can't remember the last time in recent past that Christians would have brutally slaughtered 500 Muslims. But I might be wrong.
If 300 people, mostly Muslims, were just killed there in January and estimates for this incident range from 200-500, then this is hardly "of previously unknown proportion." It sounds like its just the latest in a string of events.
Are basically stating that Christians do not have any track record? Because if you are then I really feel sad for you.
I just read up a little on it and yes, it seems that you are right. To be honest, I had not heard about the previous killings. Still doesn't change anything about the fact that this time, the killings were apparently committed by Muslims.
ahaha Well, I will refrain from looking from anything earlier then the 20th century because that will be way too easy and because slavery, the Crusades and all that are DEAD HORSES. But... just a starter. if you want, I can look into more. The traces of sins left behind by ALL religious ideologies are glaringly easy to spot if one were motivated to do so.
Fixed. I think it's sad when people use such a broad platform to make it seem that all said group is responsible.
