Islamist Threat With Qaeda Link Grows in Nigeria

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Nov 19, 2010
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Islamist Threat With Qaeda Link Grows in Nigeria

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A shadowy Islamist insurgency that has haunted northern Nigeria — surviving repeated, bloody efforts to eliminate it — appears to be branching out and collaborating with Al Qaeda’s affiliates, alarming Western officials and analysts who had previously viewed the militants here as a largely isolated, if deadly, menace.

Just two years ago, the Islamist group stalking police officers in this bustling city seemed on the verge of extinction. In a heavy-handed assault, Nigerian soldiers shelled its headquarters and killed its leader, leaving a grisly tableau of charred ruins, hundreds dead and outmatched members of the group, known as Boko Haram, struggling to fight back, sometimes with little more than bows and arrows.

Now, insurgents strike at the Nigerian military, the police and opponents of Islamic law in near-daily assaults and bombings, using improvised explosive devices that can be detonated remotely and bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Western officials and analysts say. Beyond the immediate devastation, the fear is that extremists bent on jihad are spreading their reach across the continent and planting roots in a major, Western-allied state that had not been seen as a hotbed of global terrorism.

In the past two years, Boko Haram has met and trained with Qaeda affiliates outside the country, American and Nigerian officials and analysts say, and the group has begun waging a propaganda campaign that includes conference calls with reporters — another sign of its growing sophistication.

“Where are they getting this knowledge of I.E.D.’s?” said Kashim Shettima, the new governor here. “Some of them went as far as Sudan. Why? I believe they are making efforts to reach out to the global terrorism network.”

The Nigerian government appears to have only a shaky grasp of how to confront the threat, responding with such a broad, harsh crackdown that many residents see the military as more of a danger than Boko Haram. Shops are shuttered, vans laden with refugees can be seeing heading out of town and the normally wide, traffic-choked streets lined with neem trees are unexpectedly clear.

About 140 people have died in the violence since January, according to Amnesty International, including dozens of civilians killed by the military. Most of Boko Haram’s attacks have occurred here in this city at the edge of the Sahara, but there have also been blasts farther south in Kaduna and outside the national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

Several dozen civilians were killed in June when bombs were hurled into the rudimentary outdoor beer parlors that exist furtively on the Christian-minority fringes here. Shariah law exists in this overwhelmingly Muslim region, but in a relatively loose form. Not all women are veiled, and beer and wine can be obtained — apparently an affront, the authorities here say, to the group’s goal of imposing strict Islamic law in this country’s restive and impoverished north.

Boko Haram’s militants fade into the warrens of sandy alleys, protected, officials say, by supporters in the population and even in the security services. The brutal Nigerian military tactics — shoot first, ask questions later — are creating more sympathizers on the ground, analysts and residents here suggest.

“You are Boko Haram!” said Saude Maman, recounting how soldiers yelled at her husband on July 9 after a patrol vehicle was bombed and the military cordoned off Kaleri, a district of low cement houses and courtyards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/world/africa/18nigeria.html?_r=3&pagewanted=2&hp&pagewanted=all
 
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Sounds like the folks the US has been training, just like the US trained Al Qaeda years ago. These US-trained elements often become tools to be used to instigate violence and thus justify US "intervention" in nations with resources that the US covets.
 
Sounds like the folks the US has been training, just like the US trained Al Qaeda years ago. These US-trained elements often become tools to be used to instigate violence and thus justify US "intervention" in nations with resources that the US covets.

This is total bullshit you posted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Eat a neg for lying.
 
Rebels attack UN building in Nigeria...
:eek:
Blast hits U.N. building in Nigeria's capital
26 Aug.`11 – A large explosion struck the United Nations' main office in Nigeria's capital Friday, flattening one wing of the building and killing several people. A U.N. official in Geneva called it a bomb attack.
"I saw scattered bodies," said Michael Ofilaje, a UNICEF worker at the building. "Many people are dead." He said it felt like "the blast came from the basement and shook the building." The building houses about 400 employees of the U.N. in Nigeria, including the majority of its offices. A local U.N. spokesman declined to comment. Alessandra Vellucci, a spokeswoman for the U.N. office in Geneva, said the global body's offices in Abuja had been bombed. She told The Associated Press that there was no word yet on casualties.

The building, located in the same neighborhood as the U.S. embassy and other diplomatic posts in Abuja, had a huge hole punched in it. Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood confirmed the blast, but said police were still investigating the cause. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but oil-rich Nigeria faces terrorism threats on multiple fronts. Last year, a militant group from the country's crude-producing Niger Delta blew up car bombs in the capital during Nigeria's 50th independence anniversary ceremony, killing at least 12.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian south and Muslim north. In recent months, the country has faced an increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation. The sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June car bombing of the national headquarters of Nigeria's federal police that killed at least two people.

Earlier this month, the commander for U.S. military operations in Africa said Boko Haram may be trying to link with two al-Qaida-linked groups in other African countries to mount joint attacks in Nigeria. Gen. Carter Ham told AP on Aug. 17 during a visit to Nigeria that "multiple sources" indicate Boko Haram made contacts with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in northwest Africa, and with al-Shabab in Somalia. "I think it would be the most dangerous thing to happen not only to the Africans, but to us as well," Carter said.

Source
 
Sounds like the folks the US has been training, just like the US trained Al Qaeda years ago. These US-trained elements often become tools to be used to instigate violence and thus justify US "intervention" in nations with resources that the US covets.

This is total bullshit you posted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Eat a neg for lying.


L'Afrique only speaks the truth. Research findings will show you that like Al-Qaeda, the US and its Western allies often recruit the impoverished in developing nations, trained them as assassins and then use them to destabilize nations, thus giving them bogus reason to continue their "fight against 'terrorism'."
 
Sounds like the folks the US has been training, just like the US trained Al Qaeda years ago. These US-trained elements often become tools to be used to instigate violence and thus justify US "intervention" in nations with resources that the US covets.

This is total bullshit you posted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Eat a neg for lying.


L'Afrique only speaks the truth. Research findings will show you that like Al-Qaeda, the US and its Western allies often recruit the impoverished in developing nations, trained them as assassins and then use them to destabilize nations, thus giving them bogus reason to continue their "fight against 'terrorism'."

:bsflag:
 
Fighting between Boko Haram Islamists and Nigerian security rages on

Violence continues to rage across the northern half of Nigeria today, leaving scores dead as members of the Islamic sect Boko Haram clash with the Nigerian military.

Boko Haram – whose name translates to “western education is a sin” – has become increasingly brazen in its attacks against Nigerian security forces since the group bombed a UN building in Abuja in late August, claiming 23 lives. In response, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sent the Nigerian Army and Air Force to the country’s north, where they have been clashing with Boko Haram following a failed cease-fire.

Over the past week, Boko Haram has stepped up its campaign against the government as well as the people, threatening to send areas of northern Nigeria into a state of war.

On Monday, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the assassination of Modu Bintube, a member of parliament from Borno state, where much of the fighting has occurred. Mr. Bintube was killed in his home in the state capital city Maiduguri.

On Sunday, the Islamic group detonated bombs at a police station in Gombe, a state in Nigeria’s northeast. According to wire reports, police officers and members of the militant group were killed in an ensuing firefight. Both incidents are the latest in a string of violent events staged by Boko Haram after the success of its UN attack.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian military is claiming that the security situation in the north is under control. Speaking in Lagos yesterday, Lt. Gen. Onyeabor Ihejirika, chief of staff of the Nigerian embassy, said that President Jonathan’s military operation had eroded popular support for Boko Haram, while capturing of many of the group’s leaders.

Ihejirika's claims are almost impossible to verify. Because of the deteriorating security situation, few media outlets are operating in northern Nigeria. Reports that have emerged are fragmented and often based on eyewitness accounts and other circumstantial evidence. The Nigerian public meets government accounts of successful operations against Boko Haram with skepticism.

This skepticism is indicative of a pervasive sentiment among members of the Nigerian media and the country’s activist community: Jonathan in grossly incapable of dealing with Boko Haram. His actions have been second-guessed on editorial pages throughout the country, which has led to public pessimism about his handling of the militant group.

“The truth of the matter is that the president had two options,” says Shehu Sani, a human right activist here who helped facilitate early dialogue between Jonathan and Boko Haram. “One was to pursue the path of dialogue. The second was to pursue the use of force. It is very clear that people who are advising him to use force are having their way.”

Mr. Sani warns that the failure of Nigerian troops to gain control of Boko Haram strongholds in Borno and Gombe could lead to a wide conflict across the north.

Fighting between Boko Haram Islamists and Nigerian security rages on - CSMonitor.com
 
Is Nigeria's Boko Haram group really tied to Al Qaeda?

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Earlier this week, lawmakers, aides, and journalists in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja rushed into the streets after word spread that a bomb was planted in the National Assembly. Frantic calls to loved ones with reassurances of safety could be heard while police scrambled to find the explosive.

It turned out to be a false alarm. But Tuesday’s panic was indicative of the fear that has gripped Abuja since Aug. 26. On that day, Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group based in Nigeria’s north, detonated a bomb at the fortified United Nations headquarters, killing 23 people and injuring 76. The bomb, which gutted the entire first floor of the building, was carried in an SUV driven by a suicide bomber and member of the terrorist group. It was one of the worst attacks ever on a UN installation.

The bombing represents a dramatic escalation in violence by Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates to “western education is a sin.” Previously, the group targeted more vulnerable objectives in Nigeria’s north and the country’s Middle Belt, the area separating the Christian south from the Muslim north. Since the UN bombing, the group has expanded its scope, threatening to bomb Nigerian universities and international targets, as well as issuing threats to politicians and journalists.


“There is going to be a continued campaign of violence and terrorism,” says Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria. “I expect more violence very soon.”

A violent history in Nigeria

Boko Haram was formed in 2002 when a radical preacher named Mohammed Yusuf began teaching unemployed and disaffected youth in the northeast state of Borno, one of the poorest regions of the country. Mr. Yusuf formed a fundamentalist school there, which attracted Muslim children from across northern Nigeria.

The group was known for its strict adherence to Islamic law, as well as the violence its members waged against those who opposed it. Boko Haram operated freely, committing violent acts across then north until Nigerian national security forces began to investigate them in 2009. In the course of the investigation, Yusuf was arrested. He died mysteriously while in police custody. His death led to clashes between police and the terrorist group that resulted in the deaths of some 700 Boko Haram members.

After Yusuf’s death, the group broadened its mission to impose Islamic law not just in the north but also throughout Nigeria. It began a campaign of strategic violence, including political assassinations, attacks on police and federal security installations, and a series of bombings.

In the past year, the city of Jos in Plateau State, east of Abuja, has emerged as the frontline of the battle between the Boko Haram and Christian militants. Firefights occur daily. According to unofficial reports, hundreds of people have died there in the past year.

After the UN bombing, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the Nigerian Air Force and Army into Jos. Casualties are expected to increase with the arrival of the military.

Is Nigeria's Boko Haram group really tied to Al Qaeda? - CSMonitor.com
 
If they are, then they will begin to use al Qaeda tactics and we will know. That's how we knew the MB was in Chechnya.

The method of tactical response change and suicide attacks on children began ...
 
If they are, then they will begin to use al Qaeda tactics and we will know. That's how we knew the MB was in Chechnya.

The method of tactical response change and suicide attacks on children began ...

I think its pretty obvious at this point, these Boko Haram clowns have already started using roadside bombs similar to the ones found in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus they want to cover their women in burkas which until recently is not a part of Nigerian culture, Islamic Militants have come to Nigeria and brainwashed these idiots to following their message, same as in Somalia, Somalia now has women in burkas and suicide bombers and Somalia has never had these things before in their history. Boko Haram wants Sharia law for all of Nigeria.
 
If they are, then they will begin to use al Qaeda tactics and we will know. That's how we knew the MB was in Chechnya.

The method of tactical response changed and suicide attacks on children began ...

I think its pretty obvious at this point, these Boko Haram clowns have already started using roadside bombs similar to the ones found in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus they want to cover their women in burkas which until recently is not a part of Nigerian culture, Islamic Militants have come to Nigeria and brainwashed these idiots to following their message, same as in Somalia, Somalia now has women in burkas and suicide bombers and Somalia has never had these things before in their history. Boko Haram wants Sharia law for all of Nigeria.


Yes, I've just researched deeper. You're correct.

Boko Haram Kills Lawmaker In Maiduguri

A member of the Borno state house of assembly representing Konduga local government area, Hon. Modu Bintube, has been killed by suspected Islamists in Maiduguri on Sunday.

Alhaji Bintube,50, was reportedly shot in the head at his residence early evening on Sunday.

Radical militant group, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the killing.

There's a lot of response here HG.

We in the north and particularly muslim welcome the idea of splitting with an open hand becouse we are endowed with the blessings of being autonomous and we can manage the challege appropriatly believe me we can be better up! when splitted only wish a peaceful break up becouse we are tired of this oil money lets take our distinct fate and only then we would be able to determine who produce what! and who gets what.watch out.

I AM SORRY IF THIS OFFEND THE OTHER'NATIONALITIES' AND 'RELIGIONS' OF OUR AMALMAGATION,CALLED NIGERIA,ACCEPT MY APOLOGY AS WE GO ALONG.
FOR EASE OF BEING SIMPLISTIC, WE HAVE THREE MAJOR TRIBES AND TWO MAJOR RELIGIONS ( CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS).
THE COUNTRY IS DIVIVED ROUGHLY ALONG THE LINE OF THE NORTH BEING PREDOMINATLY MOSLEMS WHILE THE CHRISTIANS ARE IN THE MAJORITY IN THE SOUTH(IN THE SOUTH CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS LEAVE TOGETHER PEACEFULLY.
THE TRUTH IS THAT IN THE PAST ONE TRIBE RIGHTFULLY WANTED TO LEAVE THE AMALMAGATION BUT WAS STOPPED. NOW WE KNOW THE HAUSA'S ARE USING RELIGION AS A MEANS OF CONTROLLING OR COHERSING US. IF THE HAUSA'S WANT TO BE RULED UNDER SHARIA LAW, SO BE IT, THE IGBO'S SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ACHIEVE THEIR DREAM AND THE YORUBA'S SHOULD ALSO GO.
LET US ALL ACCEPT THAT THIS EXPERIMENT IS NOT WORKING AND THE COUNTRY SHOULD BREAK PEACEFULLY RATHER THAN ALONG THE FORCED PATH OF DESTRUCTION WE ARE NOW TREADING.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/boko-haram-kills-lawmaker-maiduguri
 
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If they are, then they will begin to use al Qaeda tactics and we will know. That's how we knew the MB was in Chechnya.

The method of tactical response changed and suicide attacks on children began ...

I think its pretty obvious at this point, these Boko Haram clowns have already started using roadside bombs similar to the ones found in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus they want to cover their women in burkas which until recently is not a part of Nigerian culture, Islamic Militants have come to Nigeria and brainwashed these idiots to following their message, same as in Somalia, Somalia now has women in burkas and suicide bombers and Somalia has never had these things before in their history. Boko Haram wants Sharia law for all of Nigeria.


Yes, I've just researched deeper. You're correct.





There's a lot of response here HG.

We in the north and particularly muslim welcome the idea of splitting with an open hand becouse we are endowed with the blessings of being autonomous and we can manage the challege appropriatly believe me we can be better up! when splitted only wish a peaceful break up becouse we are tired of this oil money lets take our distinct fate and only then we would be able to determine who produce what! and who gets what.watch out.

I AM SORRY IF THIS OFFEND THE OTHER'NATIONALITIES' AND 'RELIGIONS' OF OUR AMALMAGATION,CALLED NIGERIA,ACCEPT MY APOLOGY AS WE GO ALONG.
FOR EASE OF BEING SIMPLISTIC, WE HAVE THREE MAJOR TRIBES AND TWO MAJOR RELIGIONS ( CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS).
THE COUNTRY IS DIVIVED ROUGHLY ALONG THE LINE OF THE NORTH BEING PREDOMINATLY MOSLEMS WHILE THE CHRISTIANS ARE IN THE MAJORITY IN THE SOUTH(IN THE SOUTH CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS LEAVE TOGETHER PEACEFULLY.
THE TRUTH IS THAT IN THE PAST ONE TRIBE RIGHTFULLY WANTED TO LEAVE THE AMALMAGATION BUT WAS STOPPED. NOW WE KNOW THE HAUSA'S ARE USING RELIGION AS A MEANS OF CONTROLLING OR COHERSING US. IF THE HAUSA'S WANT TO BE RULED UNDER SHARIA LAW, SO BE IT, THE IGBO'S SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ACHIEVE THEIR DREAM AND THE YORUBA'S SHOULD ALSO GO.
LET US ALL ACCEPT THAT THIS EXPERIMENT IS NOT WORKING AND THE COUNTRY SHOULD BREAK PEACEFULLY RATHER THAN ALONG THE FORCED PATH OF DESTRUCTION WE ARE NOW TREADING.

Boko Haram Kills Lawmaker In Maiduguri | Sahara Reporters

The situation in Nigeria has been boiling for a while, I remember a while back Osama Bin Laden said that Nigeria was ripe for an Islamic revolution. Islamists from the ME have been going to African and influencing the African Muslims there for years now, you can tell when their social habits start changing, things like suicide bombing, beheading people on video, covering the women in burkas etc are not things we see in sub saharan Africa, you see these things in Somalia and Nigeria now because the Islamists from the ME are going there and training and indoctrinating the African Muslims to follow their beliefs, and to also use them to do their dirty work in the region.
 
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Nigeria: Boko Haram Sect Attacks Military Base

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Suicide bombers attacked a military base and explosions went off Friday around a northeastern Nigerian city that is under siege from a radical Muslim sect, officials said. One blast went off outside a school where parents had arrived to pick up students.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but blame immediately fell to the sect known as Boko Haram, which has staged targeted assassinations and bombings around Maiduguri, killing more than 240 people this year alone across Nigeria's Muslim north, according to a count by The Associated Press.

The attacks appear to be the most bold and coordinated ever carried out by Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege."

In August, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital, which killed 24 people and left another 116 wounded. Friday's attacks involved four separate assaults, including one on a high-profile military installation.

Borno state police commissioner Simeon Midenda said one blast detonated around noon outside the El-Kanemi Theological College where parents had gathered. Midenda said others had entered the college grounds to attend Friday prayers at a mosque located on its campus.

Witnesses who spoke to an AP journalist said they saw ambulances carry away at least six wounded people from the site.

A short time later, suicide bombers driving a black SUV attempted to enter a base for the military unit charged with protecting the city from Boko Haram fighters, military spokesman Lt. Col. Hassan Ifijeh Mohammed said.

The SUV couldn't enter the gate and the explosives were detonated outside of the base, which damaged several buildings in the military's compound, Mohammed said. The lieutenant colonel said only a few soldiers suffered "minor injuries" from the attack.

Mohammed said blasts occurred at three other places in Maiduguri besides the base, with no one being killed. However, government officials routinely downplay such attacks in Nigeria over political considerations. Mohammed's claims could not be immediately verified by the AP and the police commissioner declined to say how many people had been wounded.

Immediately after the attack, an AP journalist saw soldiers cordon off one neighborhood and begin an aggressive search. Earlier this week, the military conducted house-to-house searches of some neighborhoods to collect weapons and round up suspected members of the sect.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Sect Attacks Military Base
 
U.S. Warns of Attack by Muslim Sect in Nigeria’s Capital

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The death toll from attacks by a radical Muslim sect in northeastern Nigeria rose to more than 100 on Sunday, and the United States Embassy warned that the sect might be preparing to bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Abuja, the capital.

The unusually specific warning from American diplomats identified the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels, whose guests include diplomats, politicians and Nigeria’s business elite, as possible targets of the sect, known as Boko Haram.

The embassy said its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid the three hotels, but an embassy spokeswoman, Deb MacLean, would not provide any details about the threat or its source.

A Nigerian Red Cross official, Ibrahim Bulama, said he expected the number of dead in northeastern Nigeria to rise as clinics and hospitals counted the casualties from the attacks on Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe State. Damaturu remained calm on Sunday as Muslim residents celebrated Id al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, when Muslims slaughter sheep and cattle in remembrance of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son. Army and police units were on duty at roadblocks leading into the city, Mr. Bulama said.

Boko Haram gunmen killed a police inspector on Sunday in the sect’s spiritual home, Maiduguri, about 80 miles east of Damaturu, according to the local police commissioner, Simeon Midenda. The attackers stopped the inspector’s car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, ordered his relatives away, then shot the inspector to death, Mr. Midenda said. The sect later allowed the inspector’s family to drive the car away, he said.

“Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe,” Mr. Midenda said.

Boko Haram wants to put strict Shariah law in place across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million people that has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north. The sect’s name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, and it rejects Nigeria’s democratic process, which is similar to that in the United States. Boko Haram says democracy has created corrupt leaders who have destroyed the country.

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement late Saturday calling the bombings and shootings in Damaturu and Maiduguri “criminal and unjustifiable” and asked its member nations to help the Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the violence.

A statement on behalf of the United Nations’ secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called for “an end to all violence in the area,” and he offered sympathy for the victims.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/w...ack-by-muslim-sect-in-nigeria.html?ref=africa
 
Christmas mass in Nigeria rocked by terrorist bombing

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REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG— A bomb blast during Christmas mass left 35 people dead and dozens wounded at a Nigerian church near the nation's capital of Abuja.

The radical Muslim sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for both the Abuja-area explosion, which left bodies on rooftops and in nearby gutters, as well as a bombing near a church in Jos, in which one police officer was killed. In all, at least 39 people were killed Sunday during ongoing sectarian violence in Nigeria, which also included at least three explosions in Yobe, an agricultural state in the country's northeast that has often been at the heart of fighting between security forces and Boko Haram.

The Islamist group routinely attacks police and security forces as well as civilians in Africa's most populous country. A faction of the group, whose name roughly means "Western education is forbidden," has used increasingly violent means to advance its call for a strict interpretation of Islamic law in Nigeria. Fifty percent of the population of the oil-rich nation of 155 million is Muslim and 40% is Christian.

Diplomats and global security analysts say the sect, which has members in Cameroon, Niger and Chad, maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia.

Last year, explosions in Jos on Christmas Eve killed 32 people and left 74 wounded. In August, an attack on UN headquarters in Abuja killed 20 people. In recent days, ongoing clashes with paramilitary forces in the north of the country had left 61 people dead. On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Abuja issued a warning for Americans to be "particularly vigilant" around churches and public crowds.

With Sunday's bombings, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for at least 504 deaths in Nigeria this year alone, according to a count by the Associated Press.

According to local newspapers, the Abuja blast ripped through St. Theresa's Church in the town of Madalla at the end of the 6 a.m. Mass of Nativity. The parish priest of St. Theresa's, Rev. Fr. Isaac Achi, told Nigerian newspaper This Day that more than a dozen cars leaving the church were destroyed, packed with bodies inside that were burned beyond recognition.

"Nigeria must intensify its efforts in the area of security and guarantee freedom of movement and worship," the newspaper reported Achi as saying.

The second attack occurred shortly after in the central city of Jos, near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church. Government officials said one police officer was killed when gunfire broke out among those outside the church, according to the Associated Press. Two undetonated explosive devices were also reportedly discovered in nearby buildings.

Jon Gambrell, chief Nigeria correspondent for Associated Press, said via Twitter that Nigeria's secret police, the State Security Service, claimed three people died in suicide attacks on its headquarters in the town of Damaturu, in Yobe state.

Christmas mass in Nigeria rocked by terrorist bombing - latimes.com
 
After Nigeria's Church Bombings: The Advent of Christian-Muslim Conflict?

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On the blood-splattered front walls of the blasted church, using wood burned into charcoal from the flames of the explosion, somebody scrawled two messages: "Revolution now" and "No more peace in the country." In the aftermath of the attack by Islamist militants against a Christian sanctuary in Abuja and four other churches in Nigeria, those are the symptoms of a sectarian backlash that Nigerian authorities are most alarmed about.

At least 32 people were killed as they poured out of the packed Christmas-morning Mass in St. Theresa Catholic Church near Abuja, the capital, Interior Minister Abba Moro told TIME. Four other bombs elsewhere in the country took at least three lives. Boko Haram, a group whose aim is to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic Shari'a on Africa's most populous country, took credit for the attacks. One-third of Nigerian states already live under Shari'a.

Authorities are now battling to keep a lid on the bubbling threat of a sectarian civil conflict that would pitch one half of Nigeria's population of 155 million against the other. "The fact that Christian facilities were bombed was intended primarily to provoke Christians into attacking Muslims," Moro told TIME. "We have appealed to our Christian brothers for them not to do so." But two days after the bombing, the area around St. Theresa remained tense as angry young men loitered just beyond military cars patrolling the area. "If the government cannot protect us, we will take revenge by ourselves," said Josiah Agbo, 18, whose mother was killed in the blast. He left only after a priest from St. Theresa took to the streets urging Christians not to attack Muslims. In a country where religious leaders wield enormous power, Muslim counterparts in the powerful Sokoto and Kano caliphates — the country's historic Islamic communities — denounced the bombings.

"The people lying in hospitals after the Christmas bombs were ... Muslim and Christian," Moro said. "Boko Haram aren't aliens from another planet. People know who they are. We want to draw members of the public into sharing that information to prevent future attacks." He said two arrests in connection with the Christmas bombings were made because of just such collaboration.

But there have been almost 500 deaths in near daily bomb blasts and shoot-outs in the predominantly Muslim northeast in 2011 alone. And Boko Haram (a name that means "non-Islamic education is sacrilege" in the northern Hausa language) at times seems perilously close to plunging the country into chaos. "The Islamic militants want Nigeria to be an Islamic republic like Iran, but we may end up becoming a Sudan or Somalia if the violence continues at this pace and scale," says activist Shehu Sani, who heads the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria and led attempts to mediate a cease-fire with the group. "It all depends on the ability of the leadership to handle the crisis."

A diplomat who requested anonymity told TIME that Boko Haram has splintered into different factions that are prepared to use varying degrees of force. A December report by the U.S. Congress said Boko Haram has morphed from homegrown criminals into worldly terrorists with the capability of forging international links. Boko Haram spokespeople have claimed that its members have traveled as far east as Somalia, where al-Shabab militants have shared financing and techniques. In December, a serving Senator from Boko Haram's home of Borno State was charged with financing the organization. He denied the charges and has been released on bail.

Countries such as the U.S., France and the U.K. are stepping up assistance to Nigeria in areas like explosives forensics and intelligence gathering, a Nigerian military spokesperson says. "How does one keep one step ahead of not just one but all these groups? That is what we in Nigeria, just like in developed nations, need to work out," the spokesperson adds.

Read more: Christmas Church Attacks by Islam's Boko Haram in Nigeria - TIME
 
Sectarian strife roils Nigeria amid strike

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Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, and— Unrest continued to spread across Nigeria on Tuesday amid new sectarian violence and a nationwide strike over fuel prices and government corruption in the oil-rich country.

Police said one person was killed when a mosque and Islamic school were attacked in Benin City, in the south of the country. Ten people were reportedly arrested in the attack, the latest religion-fueled violence in a country divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.

In recent weeks, the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram, which seeks the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law, has attacked churches and other civilian outposts. The group was responsible for 510 deaths in Nigeria last year, according to a count maintained by the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the general strike entered its second day Tuesday, with pedestrians milling about the empty streets of Nigeria's cities, some setting up bonfires and roadblocks at intersections. The strike appeared to be paralyzing Nigeria's economy, closing most markets, schools, offices and gas stations, though some informal traders catered to those in the streets.

With public transportation at a standstill, most people chose to stay home, monitoring news coverage on television and radio. But a coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and students gathered for a second day of largely peaceful public protests. On Monday, police in Lagos and Kano opened fire on strikers, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, according to police officials.

The strike is in large part a reaction to a unilateral New Year's Day move by President Goodluck Jonathan to end fuel subsidies that had kept gasoline prices artificially low in Africa's most populous nation. Overnight, the price of gas more than doubled to at least $3.50 a gallon, from about $1.55 a gallon.

"For the past 50 years, this country has not been known for its profits, but for corruption," said Yinka Odumakin, a spokesman for Save Nigeria Group, a civil society organization that includes leaders of opposition parties. "We are responding to long-standing economic injustice, and this move to increase the fuel price means that ordinary people cannot afford to live."

Many Western economists have lambasted the subsidy program as fiscally unsustainable and rife with corruption. But its sudden end galvanized consumers around the country, who regarded it as one of the few benefits they received from their government.

Nigeria exports more than 2.1 million barrels of crude oil a day and is one of the leading suppliers of crude to the United States. For decades, government officials have allegedly embezzled billions of dollars in public funds, leaving many Nigerians impoverished despite the country's oil wealth.

Steps toward greater transparency and democracy have been halting. Today, most of the country's 160 million people still live on less than $2 a day.

Nigeria roiled by sectarian violence amid strike - latimes.com
 
Sorry to say but most of us ( Muslims ) put blame on the USA and Israel for everything. I doubt many of us don't know the meaning of Islam but we know we have to dislike/hate USA and Israel. Islamist clerics who spread the hate for the western countries/people, shit on them ! Peace can't be restored as long as those kind of clerics exist, and we are really lost. We really don't understand the peace but we like violence and killing ..
 

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