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LAGOS (AFP) - Opposition to the introduction of the strict Islamic law, the Sharia, in northern Nigeria is "God's war" which "He will win some day," a Christian leader claimed, reports said. Christians in Nigeria have expressed strong criticism of the introduction of Islamic law in eight northern Nigerian states. "The opposition to the Sharia is God's war. He will win this war some day. There is nothing prayer and fasting cannot achieve. Our people must wage this war on their knees," the head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Methodist Reverend Sunday Mbang told a Christian gathering last week. "The Christian community and Nigerians at large are looking to you [Christians] to help rescue this country from dying and disintegration," he said in the speech reported Wednesday in the newspaper Vanguard. Nigeria's 120 million people are split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims and Christians are fiercely opposed to the introduction of the Sharia in the north. In February of this year, more than 1,000 people died in Christian-Muslim riots in the northern city of Kaduna and more than 300 people died in more riots in the city in May. More than 450 people died in a massacre of Muslims in the southern city of Aba in March. Catholic leaders were meeting this week in Kaduna and were set to debate the Sharia among other issues. In a related development, hundreds of armed police descended Wednesday on a northern Nigeria university campus where clashes between Christian and Muslim students left at least 25 people injured. Authorities asked students to vacate the campus until further notice to avoid escalation of the crisis. Violence erupted between Muslim and Christian students at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi, near Kano, over a student union election. "You need to see how much destruction has been perpetrated by the students. Apart from students who sustained injuries, which I believe are close to 30, vehicles belonging to the university were vandalized," one witness said. Some 15 vehicles were reported vandalized. The rapid police deployment prevented students from burning the office of the university's vice chancellor, the witness said. But the office of his secretary was torched, according to witnesses. The deputy vice chancellor in charge of administration, Garba Babaji, confirmed the incident on a radio program but downplayed its religious dimension. He also confirmed the university's indefinite closure. |
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