Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
23 February 2006
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has condemned the recent violence in Maiduguri, Borno State, by Muslim fanatics protesting the cartoon publication of the prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper.
Reports say over 70 people have been killed in the past few days in the north of the country, among them a Catholic priest, Fr Michael Gajere.
More than 200 people have been injured and several churches destroyed.
Media reports say suspected mobs of Christians armed with machetes and guns roamed the streets of the mainly Christian city of Onitsha, in the south-east, killing at least 40 people in retaliation for Muslim violence in the north.
The revenge killings came a day after the country's leading Anglican primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, warned Muslims that they did not have a "monopoly on violence." He said churches "may no longer be able to contain our restive youths should this ugly trend continue."
Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sorrow over the violent protests in a telegram to the Catholic Church in Nigeria. He called on the security forces to restore the peace.
The Catholic bishops have asked Christians to stay calm and not to retaliate.
They and other church leaders believe the violence is part of a campaign to worsen the country's tense Christian-Muslim relations.
"The way the arson that followed the protest rally was executed, as reported in the newspapers, clearly showed a premeditated grand plan by the perpetrators of the dastardly act to plunge the country into crisis under the guise of religious protest," the Catholic bishops said in a statement to CISA.
They said they were offended by the police who allowed the protests without ensuring security for non-Muslims and their property.
"From available reports, it was as if the police gave tacit support to the violent actions of these fanatics, as they were said to have "deliberately" gone into hiding when these wanton acts of ethnic and religious vandalism were been perpetrated."
They urged the Federal Government "to put in place all necessary machinery to forestall a further occurrence of this dastardly act in any other part of the country while the perpetrators of the mayhem in Maiduguri should be brought to book and all the affected Churches and families dully compensated."
"It is not true that other Nigerians hate Catholics & the present violence has little to do with religion," Archbishop Renzo Fratini papal nuncio in Nigeria told Fides. "It is more about political exploitation of divisions in Nigerian society for some personal gain."
The apostolic nuncio in Nigeria, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, told the news agency Fides that the "protest against the cartoons is only a pretext."
"We are dealing with a phenomenon that has little to do with religion; rather, there are political manipulations that are trying to take advantage of the divisions in Nigerian society to further their own objectives," he said.
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