Emmanuel Thomas
Abuja, July 13, 2016 – The Christian Elders Forum has called on Muslim leaders in Nigeria to lead the fight against Islamist extremism.
The group, which made the call, following report of the gruesome murder of a 42 year old Christian woman, Mrs. Eunice Olawale Elisha by Islamic assailants, attributed the relentless attacks on Christians in Nigeria to conflict of ideology, which it described as democracy versus Sharia.
Elisha was murdered on Saturday, 9th July, 2016, while on Christian Evangelism. Her neck was slashed and was also stabbed in the stomach at Kubwa area of Abuja, FCT. In the statement signed by Solomon Asemota, the group said the majority of Muslims must lead the fight against the Jihadists since they are few.
It alleged that doctrine of hatred that was used to indoctrinate Almajiris in the various Islamic Madrassas in the North where Muslims were deliberately taught to hate Christians and people of other faiths, and that the concept of “sacred space” in which Islamists believe, for example, that the road leading to their mosque belongs exclusively to them has been applied to every area in which Islamism has traversed.
“The belief is that all land on earth has been given by Allah to Muslims and it is theirs by right, to stage a Jihad to retake them”, the Christian Elders alleged and that the result is a nation operating two political systems of Democracy and Sharia.
The group explained that Nigeria was established by its founding fathers, British and Nigerians, as a democratic country to accommodate all the divergent groups within the nation, adding that those whose aim is to turn the Nation into a Sharia state are the architects of the present distress.It called on all Christian leaders to meet urgently and appraise the situation in the Nation with the Vice President, Pastor Yemi Osibanjo SAN as Chairman.
“There is the need for a holistic response to the relentless attacks by Islamists on Christians and Christian communities. Thereafter, there should be a meeting with Muslim leaders. This is the only way out of this agony, because while the Islamist Jihadists are few, the majority of Muslims must lead in the fight against Islamist extremism”, the elders said.
It noted that just before the murder of Mrs. Elisha, on 30th June, 2016, Pastor Joseph Zakariya Kura of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) was murdered while in his farm by Fulani herdsmen in Obi LGA of Nasarawa State.
Until his death, Pastor Kura was the Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Obi LGA. On Friday 3rd June, 2016, Mrs. Bridget Agbaheme, a 74 year old Christian was murdered at Wambai market in Kano.
”According to reports, the woman objected to a Muslim man doing ablution in front of her shop. For daring to object to the Muslim washing rite in front of her shop, the Christian woman was murdered, in broad daylight.
“Vanguard report of July 12, 2016 published that 11 persons have been confirmed dead following a violent clash between suspected Fulani Herdsmen and Gbagyi communities in Niger State.
“ All over the nation, religious extremists, under various identities, have been engaged in serial murder of Nigerians of other faiths. Today, the worst terrorist organization in the world, Boko Haram, and the fourth most terrible terrorist organization globally, the Fulani herdsmen, are operating in Nigeria. These are separate from the attacks by security forces against the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) in the South East and the conflict in the Niger Delta between security forces and militants”, it added.
