Christian Communities near Town in Nigeria Disappearing

One of two church buildings destroyed in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state

In a village outside this Bauchi state town in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, what was once a Christian community has vanished.

Last March the Christian peasant farmers of Mdandi village, eight kilometers (five miles) northwest of the Government Girls Secondary School in Tafawa Balewa town, were busy harvesting crops and preparing for a new farming season. On March 27 scores of armed, hard-line Islamists – avoiding the surrounding Muslim villages – descended on Mdandi, destroyed the Christians’ homes and drove them out, former residents said.

The attack on Mdandi was preceded by an assault on Feb. 10, believed to have been the fall-out of violence rooted in Muslim and Christian youths fighting over a Muslim’s Jan. 27 burning of a Christian’s billiards table. Some Christians were injured in the Feb. 10 attack.

“On their first attack, we fought back, defending ourselves and our families,” said Luka Zafi, pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the village. “And not being able to force us out, they retreated. We had thought that we would not be attacked again. But you see, they left and returned the second time with more of them, and all armed with guns. We could not fight back since we do not have arms to fight them. We ran out of the village, and they destroyed our two church buildings and our houses.”

Pastor Zafi, whose house was gutted in the March 27 attack, said his church building along with a Roman Catholic Church building were set ablaze. Area Christians are now living as displaced persons in Tafawa Balewa town, while some of his members have moved to the suburb of Nahuta village.

Prior to the attacks, Pastor Zafi’s church had 50 members, he said; they are now scattered among various villages. A Compass visit to the village found Muslim Fulani nomads had taken it over and were using it to graze their cattle.

The marauders were believed to have been Islamists from other parts of Bauchi state collaborating with local Muslims and Fulani herdsmen. The Christians said they believe they were targeted, as the assailants bypassed surrounding Muslim communities.

Pastor Zafi lamented that three months after the attacks, the Christians have received no assistance from the state or federal governments.

“We appeal that they help resettle my people back in Mdandi village,” he said. “The government can do this by assisting the community to rebuild their destroyed churches and houses.”

One reason the government has been slow to check Islamist aggression is that neither officials nor Western news agencies question false claims that the ethnic Seyawa Christians steal the Fulani Muslim herdsmen’s cattle, the supposed reason for the Fulani attacks, according to area Christians. They said many people are not aware that some local Christian farmers also own cattle and have never stolen them from the Muslim nomads.

Because the religious crisis in neighboring Plateau state has also been portrayed as communal property squabbles, the government has limited its response and many lives of Christians have been lost because of inaction, they said.

Pastor Zafi said the need for the government to halt the attacks of the Muslim militants in northern Nigeria was more important than restoring the Christians’ property.

“Unless this is done, I am afraid, Christians in this part of the country may be on their way to extinction,” he told Compass.

Following the gutting of their church building, his congregation used the primary school in Nahuta village as their worship place, he said.

“But because we did not have houses to live in around there, we had to disperse to the various villages in search of abodes,” he said. “So the church members no longer meet to worship together.”

COCIN has reassigned Pastor Zafi to assist with another church in Nahuta village as an associate pastor.

Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is divided between Christians, who make up 51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and Muslims, who account for 45 percent of the population and live mainly in the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World.

Neighboring ViolenceMuslim extremists also attacked Gumel, another Christian village in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, in February – leaving two Christians dead, destroying three church buildings, burning more than 50 houses and displacing more than 300 residents, Christian leaders said.

Killed in the Feb. 5 attack was COCIN church elder Mallam Riga Ubandoma, they said. A 14-year-old girl, Numkwi William, died from a snake bite while fleeing from the assailants.

Residents have taken refuge in Tafawa Balewa town. Ishaya Magaji, 65, pastor of the displaced Gumel COCIN church, told Compass that the Muslim aggressors took them by surprise at 5 p.m. that day.

“They overpowered us, so we had to flee with our wives and children,” Pastor Magaji said. “They burned our houses and destroyed our properties.”

Before the attack, Magaji said, his church had about 166 members; now all of them have been displaced. Pastor Magaji and his wife, Saratu Magaji, are living with their nine children at the house of other Christians until they receive help to find a new home.

“We cannot return to the village – not only because our houses have been destroyed, but because the Muslims have taken over the village and are using the place as a grazing field for the Fulani Muslims in the area,” Magaji said.

Besides the COCIN church building, the Muslim extremists also destroyed the buildings of a Roman Catholic parish and an Evangelical Church Winning All congregation. He said most of the villagers have been displaced to other towns and villages in Tafawa Balewa, including Rafin Ganba, Bwar, Mantokshin, and Nahuta.

Bulus James, a Gumel village teacher, is among those displaced.

“I was in my house that evening when I heard gunshots all over,” James said. “I ran out of my house, only to see a large number of armed men shooting at our people, setting fire on houses and churches. I had no choice than to run into the bush, and that is how I survived the attack. Since then I have not gone to the village, because the Muslims have taken over the area.”

James, who now teaches at the COCIN Metropolitan School in Tafawa Balewa, estimated the number of raiders at about 200 and said they were carrying guns.

Magaji, saying the attack on the village was part of an extremist jihad (Islamic war) being waged against Christians in Bauchi state, said Muslims easily attacked the Christian village because it is surrounded by the Muslim villages of Yamgar, Wurogara, Shafali, and Sakom.

“We have lost all that we have and have nowhere to turn,” he said. “The government should help us by rebuilding our churches and homes so that we can all return to the village.”
Attempts by Compass to visit Gumel with Magaji were thwarted, as they were chased away by nomadic Muslim Fulani herdsmen who have taken over the village.

Police in Pakistan Torture Sister of Christian Who Eloped

Sheikhupura police this month tortured a young Christian woman into revealing the whereabouts of the legal team helping her family after an influential Muslim family kidnapped her and her sister, sources said.

Police also helped the Muslim family beat relatives of the Christian woman on court premises and attacked the offices of the organization trying to help her family, they said.

The Community Development Initiative (CDI) was providing legal assistance to the family of Sajid Ashraf Masih, whose elopement with a young woman from the Gujjar family in Sheikhupura last month led the influential Muslims to kidnap Masih’s sisters, said Asif Aqeel, executive director of CDI. Gujjar family members kidnapped Rakhel Ashraf, in her early 20s, on May 13; they released her on May 17 but forcibly took her 17-year-old sister Maryam Ashraf that day.

CDI, an affiliate of the European Centre for Law and Justice, helped the family negotiate the release of the two Christian sisters and also made efforts for the return of the runaway couple in order to avert religious conflict in Ghazi Minara village, outside Sheikhupura in Punjab Province. Aqeel and others feared inter-religious tensions would put the lives of some 70 Christian families of the area in jeopardy.

He said the Gujjars had filed a case with Sheikhupura police of abduction of their daughter, Saleha, naming Rakhel Ashraf and three others, as a pressure tactic for the recovery of Saleha. Aqeel said none of those named in the case knew the whereabouts of the couple.

“CDI does not support any Christian who elopes with a Muslim girl at the cost of communal strife, but in this case we were only representing Rakhel and her cousin Inderyas Masih, who had been falsely implicated by the Gujjars,” said Aqeel.

He said CDI managed to find the eloped couple, who had contracted a marriage by then, and convinced them to return to Lahore in order to help resolve the inter-religious tensions.

“The Gujjars are a very influential family of the area, and they had been threatening a repeat of the Gojra carnage if their girl was not returned to them,” Aqeel said. “This was a serious situation for the Christian family and the other Christians of the area.”

At least seven Christians were burned alive by Muslim mobs in Gojra after the spread of a rumor of blaspheming Islam on Aug. 1, 2009.

Aqeel added that Saleha’s written statement before a judge of the Lahore District Court was critical in the acquittal of Rakhel Ashraf and Inderyas Masih.


“It was important that she make a statement before the court that she had eloped with Rakhel’s brother Sajid and was not abducted as alleged in the Gujjars’ First Information Re-port,” he said.


ViolenceAqeel said CDI had petitioned the Sheikhupura court for temporary pre-arrest bail for Rakhel on May 24, and the court had fixed a hearing on June 1 to make it permanent.

“On the day of the hearing, the CDI staff took Rakhel to Sheikhupura, but we didn’t know that the Gujjars had planned to prevent her from appearing in the court,” he said, adding that a relative of Rakhel, William Masih, fearful of what the Gujjars would do, made several calls to CDI Field Officer Napoleon Qayyum asking him to keep her from appearing before the judge.

“We suspected that something was not right, but getting her bail confirmed was very impor-tant,” Aqeel said. “On reaching the courts, the CDI team informed William that she had reached there. The team did not know that the Gujjars were holding William’s father-in-law, Hadayat Masih, who is Rakhel’s maternal uncle, hostage on the court premises.”

The Gujjars had told William Masih they would release Hadayat Masih only if he handed over Rakhel to them, Aqeel said. After receiving word from the CDI team, William Masih told the Gujjars that Rakhel had arrived.

“Hearing this, the men started beating him, Hadayat and another Christian accompanying him,” Aqeel said. “They were helped by local lawyers and police personnel, and the CDI team narrowly escaped the attack.”

Although Rakhel Ashraf had obtained temporary pre-arrest bail – the judge was on leave that day, June 1, when it was to be made permanent – police then took her into custody and tor-tured her into revealing the location of the CDI office in Lahore, about 70 kilometers from Sheikhupura, he said.

Aqeel said that the same evening, sources informed CDI officials that the Gujjars were com-ing to Lahore to attack their office.

“As soon as we got the information, we vacated the building to avoid any harm to our staff,” he said. “However, we didn’t know that a heavy police contingent was also accompanying them. I rushed home, fearing that the Gujjars might want to harm my family, and quickly took them to my in-laws’ house.”

The raiding party caused some damage to the office, he said.

Aqeel said that after finding no one there, the police raided the house of CDI’s Qayyum in Youhanabad.

“We were already anticipating this move and had moved Qayyum’s family to a safer place before the raid,” he said, adding that neighbors told them later that the police had scaled the walls of the house and broken two doors in the process.

Qayyum told Compass that police raided his house again the next day (June 2).

“They forced my brother, Naveed Alam, to come outside and started humiliating him in an effort to trace my whereabouts,” Qayyum said. “But this incident has not put fear in my heart, and I will continue to serve my community in all ways possible.”

Aqeel said that he told his staff members not to go to the office for several days.

“I feared that if any one of us was captured by the Gujjars, they would torture us into reveal-ing the whereabouts of the couple, and this might put their lives in extreme danger,” he said.

On June 3, Aqeel said, CDI lawyers managed to negotiate the safe return of Saleha to her family on the condition that they would stop harassing the Christians and also withdraw all cases registered against them.

“Rakhel’s family says they are not being threatened now,” Aqeel said. “No legal development has taken place, and the situation seems to have settled down by the grace of God.”

Rakhel’s brother, Abid Masih, confirmed that the family’s ordeal seemed to have ended, as Saleha had been returned to her family – though her husband is still in hiding, and a divorce process is underway.

“The Gujjars have promised to withdraw all cases against us and also assured that they won’t harm any of our family members,” Abid Masih said.

A local clergyman identified only as Father Emanuel heaved a sigh of relief.

“All glory be to God, as a major situation has been averted,” he said. “I was fearing much violence, because such issues are a matter of honor for the Muslims, and in this case the boy happened to be a Christian.”

Pope celebrates feast of Holy Spirit

Pope Benedict XVI marked the solemn feast of Pentecost on Sunday affirming that the Church has been catholic from the first moment of its existence. Speaking during his homily at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope said that the Holy Spirit created the people of God as the "Church of all peoples." Pentecost, that celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary and the Apostles as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, marks the birth of the Church. Pope Benedict said the Church "embraces the whole world, she transcends all frontiers of race, class, nation; she razes all the bastions and unites men in the profession of the one and triune God . From the very beginning the Church is one, catholic and apostolic: This is her true nature and as such she must be recognized," the Pope asserted. The Church’s holiness is "not due to the capacity of her members, but because God himself, with his Spirit, always creates her, purifies her and sanctifies her," the Pope added.
Later, speaking before reciting the weekly midday ‘Regina Coeli’ prayer in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict said the Holy Spirit fills the universe and prepares unity among nations. Speaking about the action of the Holy Spirit the Pope said, "God's voice divinized the human language of the Apostles, who were enabled to proclaim the one divine Word polyphonically." "The breath of the Holy Spirit,” he said, “fills the universe, generates faith, brings truth, preparing unity among the nations." The Holy Spirit sanctifies, abolishes divisions, resolves the confusion wrought by sin. He helps men to act in conformity with the good, gives meaning to prayer, strengthens the evangelizing mission, makes the hearts of those who hear the good news burn, and inspires Christian art and liturgical melody. It is the Holy Spirit, the Pope said who "creates faith in us in the moment of our baptism," and "allows us to live as children of God.”
After praying the ‘Regina Coeli’, Pope Benedict reminded all of Monday’s beatification of a young martyr of the concentration camps in his native Germany, entrusting to such ‘heroic witnesses of the faith" the cause of world peace. Alois Andritzki a 28-year old priest and martyr, who was killed by a lethal injection by the Nazis in Dachau, was to be declared Blessed on June 13 in Dresden. "Let us praise the Lord for this heroic witness of the faith, who joins the ranks of those who gave their lives in the name of Christ in the concentration camps,” the Pope said, adding, "this day of Pentecost I would like to entrust to their intercession the cause of peace in the world." The Pontiff asked that the Holy Spirit would "inspire courageous proposals for peace and support the effort to advance it, that dialogue might prevail over arms and respect for man's dignity overcome party interests."
The Holy Father also reminded the faithful of World Blood Donor Day on Tuesday, June 14, and encouraged young people to follow the example of those who donate blood. He commended blood donors "who in a silent way contribute to help brothers in difficulties." The theme of this year’s World Blood Donor Day is "More blood. More life."

Nepali Christians conclude month-long prayer campaign for nation

Hundreds of Christians in Nepal ended an annual 40-day prayer campaign on Saturday for a better and brighter future for the country. Closing ceremonies took place at the Jesuit run St. Xavier’s School in Kathmandu. Amidst lively songs and biblical exhortations, youths and clergy highlighted some of the specific things they had prayed for including women’s rights and an end to drug abuse and child labour, as well as protection for Christians. Chief coordinator Pastor Bhab Ghale said the event had been a success and that all funds raised through the course of the event came from local donations from participants in a motorbike rally, a river rafting prayer event and mountain top prayer vigils. Pastor Bishnu Khanal, who led a 10-day motorcycle rally involving dozens of bikes (May 15-24), said they covered 37 towns in 28 of Nepal’s 75 districts. The prayer campaign which began on May 4 came as Nepal is struggling to write a new constitution. During the campaign a deal was struck to extend parliament’s term for another three months to try and end the deadlock. Khanal urged people to pray against efforts by various groups trying to introduce laws such as banning conversions from one religion to another.