Nigeria: Kaduna Police Hunt for Husband Who Macheted Wife

By Juliet Oyoyo

Kaduna — Kaduna State Police Command has declared one Musa Rabiu wanted.

He was said to have inflicted severe machete cuts on his wife, Ramatu Ibrahim, over allegation of depriving him sex.

The middle-aged woman, who is still in coma, was reported to be presently receiving treatment at a private hospital on Rabah Road, Kaduna North Local Government area as a result of injuries she sustained.

According to investigations by Daily Independent, Ramatu Ibrahim's husband had called her under the pretense that he wanted to see her so they could reconcile their differences for the sake of their marriage.

He was said to have asked her to meet him at their former house located at Layin Masalachin Bugaje in Malali, where he is the gate man.

Ramatu revealed: "since I was not suspecting any foul play, I went there the next day as agreed by 10.00 a.m.

"When I got there, he started talking to me on how he intends to bring me back to the house as his wife.

"What spoiled the whole thing was that at about 12.30 p.m., after we had finished discussion and I have agreed to go back, he said we should go into the room and catch fun like husband and wife.

"I refused outrightly and told him that he has to go to my people in Mararaban Jos and intimate them on the new development before that could happen; I guess that made him angry.

"The next thing I saw, he removed his clothes, that he wanted to have his bath. But unknown to me, he went in to get a machete and before I knew what was happening, he started inflicting cuts all over my body.

"I could not do anything but to pray to Allah because He knows and sees everything.

"When he was done inflicting machete cuts me, he put his clothes on, locked me in the house and left the premises.

"It was by God's grace I managed to drag myself out of the house to the gate where I tried to call the attention of passers-by who later alerted the proper authorities and I was brought to the hospital," Ramatu said.

She said during the 10 months that their marriage lasted, "Musa had been very wicked to me".

"I never visited my relations, as anytime I asked him to go home and see my family, he refuses, even the day my junior sister came to visit us, he was very unhappy about it and he even asked me if I told her what was happening between the two of us and I said no," Ramatu narrated.

According to her, the matter was reported to the police who have launched a manhunt for the husband who is said to be at large.

Boko Haram Mass Abduction: Fears Chibok Girls Being Used as Suicide Bombers

Fears are growing that Boko Haram terror group is using the 220 girls it abducted in Chibok last April as suicide bombers.

Speculations come as two students were killed and eight were injured in a suicide bombing at a university in Kano, northwest Nigeria. Information Nigeria reported the suicide bomber was a girl.
Thirteen people were later killed as two women blew themselves up in two mosques in the town of Potiskum, Yobe State.

The same day, Nigerian authorities arrested two suspected Boko Haram members travelling with a 10-year-old girl who was carrying explosives.

According to local daily Punch, two female suicide bombers struck in different parts of Kano killing and injuring many people while Muslims had gathered together to celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan.
A woman also blew herself up at a petrol station in northern Nigeria killing three people. Another suicide bomber struck in a supermarket; nobody was killed.

A 15-year-old girl was reported to have blown herself up near a temporary university site with five police officers suffering minor injuries.

Members of the #BringBackOurGirls group, created after the Chibok girls were abducted, fear the girls are being forced by the terrorists to carry out suicide attacks.

Former education minister Oby Ezekwesili urged the Nigerian government not to "move on," as the Chibok girls may be "indoctrinated or coerced into being used as suicide bombers".

"This new trend and serial pattern of female suicide bombers surely should particularly worry us," she said.

"Female suicide bombers are again and again becoming the trend and our Chibok girls are still in the enemy's den. It worries me stiff. Are we thinking? Our Chibok girls really need to be rescued from the clutches of evil."

The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) urged the government to investigate the identity of the female suicide bombers.

"In the event that these female suicide bombers are identified to have been the same kidnapped girls, then the government should immediately deploy all resources and strategies to bring to an end, once and for all, this shameful scenario, since the military have repeatedly stated that they are aware of the whereabouts of the kidnaped Chibok girls," the organisation said.

Political blogger Japheth Omojuwa suggested that Boko Haram might be using the girls for suicide attacks, to save its members for combat.

Who are Boko Haram? 

Boko Haram – which translates from Hausa into 'Western education is forbidden' - wants to impose sharia law in Nigeria.

The militants, currently led by Abubakar Shekau, are known for targeting civilians and government members who oppose the Islamisation of the country.

The group carries out its attacks primarily in northern Nigeria, where three states – Borno, Yobe and Adamawa - have been under a state of emergency since May.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013.

France hunts for wreckage of Algeria airliner

French foreign minister says Air Algerie plane carrying 116 people had "probably crashed" after disappearing over Mali.

France has said it will do all it can to find the wreckage of a passenger jet carrying 116 people which is believed to have crashed in Mali after disappearing from radar.

The plane, designated AH5017, disappeared from radar on Thursday over northern Mali while on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algeria. It was carrying mainly French and Burkina Faso citizens.

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said the plane had "probably crashed", while the French president, Francois Hollande, said his government would use "all military means" in Mali to help in the search for the plane.

Two French fighter jets are among aircraft scouring the north of Mali for the wreckage, and France has hundred of troops stationed in Mali after defeating an al-Qaeda-linked rebellion last year.

The flight, scheduled by Air Algerie and operated by the Spanish private company Swiftair, was flying in heavy rain, according to reports.

The head of the emergency investigation into the flight said a witness saw a plane "falling" in the region of Goss in the northern part of Mali.

"A witness informed us they had seen the plane falling at 1.50am [GMT]," said Gilbert Diendiere, a general in charged of a crisis unit in Ouagadougou trying and find the jet.

Plane passed inspection

Meanwhile, a French aviation watchdog said the plane was checked "two or three days ago" and was "in good condition".

Patrick Gandil, the head of the French civil aviation authority, said the plane passed through Marseille days ago.

"We examined it and we found almost nothing, it was really in good condition," he said.

The flight path of the plane from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers was not immediately clear. Ougadougou is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali where unrest continues in the north.

Northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al-Qaeda-linked fighters following a military coup in 2012.

The French-led intervention in 2012-13 scattered the al-Qaeda groups, but the Tuaregs have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.

A senior French official said it seems unlikely that fighters in Mali had the kind of weaponry that could shoot down a plane.

Source: Agencies

90% of abducted Nigerian schoolgirls are Christians; jihadists released Muslim girls

“Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but harsh to the unbelievers” (Qur’an 48:29). The sharp dichotomy between Muslims and non-Muslims runs through all of Islamic doctrine. In Islamic law, non-Muslims are to be denied basic rights; indeed, they simply have no rights that Muslims are bound to respect.

“Chibok Affair: The Emerging And Uncomfortable Facts,” by Fani-Kayode, Vanguard, May 10, 2014 (thanks to Izuchukwu):


Now that the operational leadership and visible face of Boko Haram, in the person of the filth called Mr. Abubakar Shekau (aka Darul Tawheed), has finally admitted that they were responsible for the abduction of hundreds of our school girls and that they intend to ‘’sell them in the market like slaves’’, it is pertinent and necessary for us to consider some of the emerging, though uncomfortable, facts.

This will enable us to understand the nature of who and what we are dealing with and allow us to consider what the appropriate response ought to be if we really want to solve the problem. Permit me to share the following facts that have been brought to my attention:

1. That the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has told us that 90 per cent of the girls that were abducted from their school at Chibok were Christians.

2. That President Goodluck Jonathan himself alluded to this during his last media chat when he said that ‘’the majority’’ of girls that were abducted were Christians.

3. That the majority of the girls that either ‘’escaped’’ or were released by their abductors were Muslims.

4. That the Governor of Borno State refused to accept the counsel and abide by the directives of WAEC that the exams should not take place in Chibok due to the precarious security situation and instead he insisted that the exams should take place there and that he would guarantee the security of the children.

5. That the Christian Association of Nigeria has formally accused the Governor of Borno State of ‘’conspiracy and collusion’’ and they have urged him to tell us exactly where the girls are and what he knows about the whole incident.

6. That the girls that have been kidnapped are being raped up to 15 times a day by their captors and that those amongst them that have refused to convert to Islam are having their throats cut (read the testimony of one of the girls that ‘’escaped’’ on page 8 of the Vanguard Newspaper, 5th April, 2014).

7. That there was not a single adult in the school grounds watching over the 278 girls that entire night apart from one security man and that there was no electricity, no generator, no principal, no matron, no house master and no house mistress in the grounds with them.

8. That the children were all alone in their dormitories that night in the blistering heat and deepest darkness before the Haramites arrived to burn their school and carried them away into captivity.

9. That the soldiers that were guarding the school in Chibok were redeployed a few hours before Boko Haram launched their attack and abducted the children.

10. That up till now pictures of the abducted girls have not been produced or released by the school authorities or the state government.

11. That this was a predominantly christian School and that Chibok is a predominantly Christian community.
In my view, these facts are relevant and instructive. When one considers them, the picture of what really happened at Chibok on that tragic night, what the real intentions of the abductors and their secret sponsors were and what is really going on now is getting clearer by the day.

Ordinarily, whether the children are Christians, Muslims, pagans or atheists really should not matter because, regardless of their faith, we want them all back and we must fight for them all to be returned to their homes and loved ones.

Frightening dimension
However, the fact that 90 per cent of them are Christian adds a sinister and frightening dimension to the whole horrific episode and it is glaring evidence of the fact that Christian girls are now being targetted by the Islamists and that those girls are being ‘’sold in the market’’, being forced to convert to Islam and being turned into sex slaves.

Protest against the abduction of the Chibok female students spread to Ogun and Ondo states from Lagos and Abuja, yesterday. Above: Protesters marching to the office of the Lagos State Governor in Lagos. Below left: Protesters in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Below right: Protests in Ondo. Photos: Bunmi Azeez.

Let me put it on record that I am one of those that believe that the Federal Government has failed woefully in their primary duty to protect the Nigerian people and I have enunciated that position more than anyone else in this nation in numerous essays and contributions over the last three years. However, I honestly believe that, today, the problem has become so serious and pronounced and that the conflict has reached such a critical stage that criticising and lambasting the government alone will not help. The truth is that such an approach has, certainly, not achieved much in the last three years because nothing has changed.

I believe that it is time for us to change tactics in order to achieve better results even though we must not relent in demanding that our President and his security and intelligence agencies do their job properly and provide the necessary security for our people. We also need to understand and appreciate the fact that this matter goes way beyond politics. It goes way beyond whether you are for or against President Jonathan.

It goes way beyond whether you are in the APC, PDP, APGA, Labour or UPN. It goes way beyond whether you are a progressive or a conservative. It goes way beyond whether you are a christian or a muslim or whether you are from the north or the south.

The bitter truth is that regardless of wherever you come from, whatever your faith is and whichever side of the political divide you stand, we all have a duty to get to the bottom of this matter, join forces, close ranks, find out what is really going on and bring this nightmare to an end. We must join hands with all men and women of goodwill and, together, we must fight this insidious evil that seeks to envelop our land and overwhelm our people.

To be sure, there is only one thing worse than failing to protect your people and that is when you organise and mobilise some misguided and mentally unstable miscreants to use religion as a political tool and get them to blow up, kill, abduct, rape and maim innocent men, women and children in an attempt to destabilise the country, spark off a religious war, change the status qou, pull down the government, induce a military coup, dismember our country and cow the Nigerian people into submission.

Secret supporters
That is what those who are the secret supporters and sponsors of Boko Haram are doing and attempting to achieve. They are also interested in furthering the sinister and barbaric agenda of the Taliban, the Al Nusra Front, Al Shabab, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Al Qaeda whose wish is to destroy the secular state and to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state. They wish to establish a radical new caliphate in the west African sub-region where christianity and moderate Islam is banned, where women are treated like sub-human beings and chattel and which is governed by the strictest form of Islamic Sharia law.

To this end, it is interesting to note that the evil is spreading. A glaring testimony to that sad fact is the fact that an army barracks was attacked by Boko Haram in the Camerouns on 5th April and after killing two army officers they freed all their fellow terrorists and Islamists that had been detained there.

What is going on is dangerous, bloody, vicious, heartless, brutal, deep, dark and sinister and it is a conspiracy of monumental proportions. It is a conspiracy which we have all fallen victim to. It is a conspiracy that is fuelled by secrecy and strengthened by the reluctance of those that know better and that know the truth to speak out and expose it.

It is a conspiracy that also receives massive funding and covert support from various governments and royal families in the Middle East whose support for the salfists is well known and whose wahabbi doctrines and philosophy is exceptionally dangerous. These are the type of people that we are dealing with and these are the times that we are living in.

It is good news that the international community are set to play a greater role in this fight and that they are ready to assist us in resisting terror and waging war against what is esentially a relentless and vicious global jihad.

However this is not enough. The fight is still primarily for our President and the Nigerian people to lead.
It is left for the President and his team to rise up to the occasion, tell the Nigerian people the bitter truth about all that is going on behind the scenes, remove the kid gloves, get real and fight the Haramists and their sponsors with all that he has got.

If he refuses to do it or if he is cowered into not doing so by the moderate and dovish voices that appear to be around him, he can be rest assured that sooner than later this country will break up and he will go down in history as the last President of a united Nigeria. Worse still, if he is not careful there may well be a military coup which will not be welcome by any right-thinking person and which everyone dreads. We must assist him as best as we can to ensure that this does not happen.

I have little doubt that the President knows who those that are behind Boko Haram are: it is now time for him to exercise his full powers, expose them and deal with them in a brutal and savage manner.

It is time for him to show strength and to lead us into this war against terror boldly. It is time for him to be a Commander-in Chief that we can all be proud of. It is time for him to use his full power and to detain and interrogate all those that he suspects may be linked to the terrorists.

It is time for him to rise up to the occasion and to crush the evil and the forces of darkness that have challenged our way of life, everything that is dear to us and indeed our very existence.

It is time for him to use every method known to man to vigorously fight the insurgency, including better intelligence gathering and the usage of ‘’black ops’’, ‘’wet boys’’, covert operations and maximum co-operation with various foreign and international intelligence and security agencies.

It is time for him to ruthlessly bomb the notorious and Boko Haram-infested Sambisi forest …and burn it, together with everything and everyone that is in it, to the ground. It is time for him to exercise the right of ‘’hot pursuit’’ and to pursue the Haramites into the Camerouns, Chad, the Niger Republic or anywhere else if and when it is necessary for him to ever do so.

It is time for him to prove to the world that the Nigerian people are not insensitive cowards and that we know how to fight and to protect our own. It is time for him to rise up and to exercise the full powers and authority of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is time for him to do whatever it takes to bring our girls back home and to let us hold our heads up high once again.

*Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation.

Rescuing Nigerian girls risky, complicated

U.S. offers to help create 'coordination cell' to provide intelligence

By Faith Karimi CNN

The Boko Haram leader took credit this week for the Chibok kidnapping. "I abducted your girls," he taunted with a chilling smile. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell."

He operates in the shadows, leaving his underlings to orchestrate his repulsive mandates. And they have been busy. Days after his video surfaced, details emerged of another abduction of eight girls between ages 12 and 15 on Sunday night in the northeast. And a grisly assault on a local village left hundreds dead.

The bounty on his head may not help much

Shekau has been on the U.S. radar since he came to power five years ago. The United States offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his location. But that may not yield immediate results.

"African warlord Joseph Kony's had a bounty for years. Osama bin Laden was not given up because of the $25 million bounty. And who knows whether this will be the case," said Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent.

310 people killed in latest Boko Haram attack

Witnesses say well-coordinated attack began shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time
 

ABUJA, Nigeria (CNN) —Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, whose country's effort to subdue Boko Haram has been largely ineffective, declared in a speech Thursday that the terror group's abductions of schoolgirls would be its undoing.

"I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria," he said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Abuja.

But the task of recovering the girls appeared to grow more complicated Thursday.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the 276 girls abducted last month have been separated, according to a senior U.S. official who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The source declined to say how U.S. officials came to the conclusion.

Seven members of the U.S. military are scheduled to arrive Friday in Nigeria to join a team of advisers supporting the Nigerian efforts to rescue the girls, the official said. About 11 U.S. Africa Command advisers are already in country working with the Nigerian government, the official said.

Britain, France and China are also providing assistance.

The girls have not been seen since Boko Haram militants abducted them from a school in northern Nigeria April 14. Recently, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said he plans to sell them.

Now, the militants may be going after those trying to find the girls. On Thursday, Nigerian police said one officer was wounded in the neck during a gunfight with suspected Boko Haram militants on the road between Maiduguri and Chibok, where the schoolgirls were abducted April 14.

And on Monday, Boko Haram militants attacked Gamboru Ngala, a remote state capital near Nigeria's border with Cameroon that has been used as a staging ground for troops in the search for the girls. Some of the at least 310 victims were burned alive.

The assault fits a pattern of revenge-seeking by Boko Haram against those perceived to have provided aid to the Nigerian government.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said what's happening in Nigeria has "captured the public's attention about extremism in faraway places."

"And it has also helped to focus the world's attention on Boko Haram, a concern that we have been focused on for some period of time," he said. "Our interagency team is hitting the ground in Nigeria now and they are going to be working in concert with President Goodluck Jonathan's government to do everything that we possibly can to return these girls to their families and their communities."

The latest assault

Witnesses described the Gamboru Ngala attack as a well-coordinated onslaught that began shortly after 1:30 p.m. Monday at a busy outdoor market in the town.

Wearing military uniforms, the militants arrived with three armored personnel carriers, villagers said.

The attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great" -- and opened up on the market, firing rocket-propelled grenades into the crowd and tossing improvised explosive devices, witnesses said.

Some marketgoers tried to take shelter in shops only to be burned alive when the gunmen set fire to a number of the businesses, the witnesses said.

A few Nigerian soldiers who had been left behind at the village could not hold off the assault and were forced to flee, they said. Many sought safe haven in nearby Cameroon.

The fighters also attacked the police station during the 12-hour assault, initially facing stiff resistance. They eventually used explosives to blow the roof off the building, witnesses said. They said 14 police officers were found dead inside.

Residents who returned to the village said they found 310 bodies.

International effort

The attack came about three weeks after militants snatched the 276 girls from their beds at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.

And Sunday night, villagers in Warabe said Boko Haram militants snatched at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15.

Amid the growing international outrage, world leaders lined up to provide assistance.

The United States is sending a team of law enforcement experts and military advisers. France said Thursday that it would send a "specialized team" to help. The British government is also sending a small team, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said. Neither country said exactly what expertise their teams would bring.

British satellites and advanced tracking capabilities also will be used, and China has promised to provide any intelligence gathered by its satellite network, the Nigerian government said.

It's unlikely U.S. combat troops would be involved in operations against Boko Haram, U.S. officials told CNN Wednesday.

Nigerian police also announced a reward of about $310,000 for information leading to the girls' rescue.

'I will sell women'

The increased global response came after a chilling video described what may happen to the girls.

A man claiming to be Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, made the following claim:

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women."

Boko Haram translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The group has said it wants a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

The militants have even been known to kill Muslim clerics who dare criticize them.

The United States has branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty on Shekau. But his location is as uncertain as the whereabouts of the girls.

Nigeria: As Shekau Claims Responsibility - Two Abducted Schoolgirls Die

An intermediary of Boko Haram has claimed that two of the girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, have died from snakebite while 20 others are critically ill, The Associated Press (AP) reports.

This shocking news has come as a blow to millions of Nigerians and people from around the world who have joined the BringBackOurGirls movement, demanding the release of the schoolgirls in good condition.

In a televised media chat on Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan said that an encouraging bit of news so far was the fact that there had been no report of loss of lives.

However, the terrorist sect's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has released a new video claiming credit for the kidnap of the schoolgirls and threateninh to sell out the girls.

The Boko Haram kingpin further said that the sect was ready to negotiate ransoms for the girls. The man who claimed to be an intermediary also said that the Christians among the girls had been forced to convert to Islam.

President Jonathan had, during Sunday's "Presidential Media Chat" dismissed insinuations that the federal government was negotiating with Boko Haram to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls, adding that the government could not have been negotiating with faceless people.

I kidnapped your schoolgirls, Shekau claims in new video Shekau, in a video, claimed responsibility for the abduction of more than 200 final-year students GSS, Chibok, Borno State.

In the video, the hoodlum said,"I abducted your girls. By Allah, I will sell them in the market, and Allah has commanded me to sell them in the market."

"There is a market for selling human beings. Allah says I should sell them. He commands me to sell them. I will sell women. I will sell women," he continued in local Hausa language.

However, the BBC Hausa Service points out that the Boko Haram leader did not state the number of girls abducted, nor where they were taken or are now.

Dressed in his usual combat attire and armed with AK47 rifle, Shekau who spoke in Hausa and some Arabic said the girls would be held the way their colleagues were being kept in various detention cells of the military "without any negotiations ".

He said the girls are regarded as war booties, upon whom his group has rights over and can even "sell them in market ", if they so wish.

"We would also give their hands in marriage because they are our slaves. We would marry them out at the age of nine. We would marry them out at the age of 12," he said.

"Western education is sin, it is forbidden, women must go and marry," he said.

He said the abduction of the girls was justifiable because "it is just the same way they incarcerated our members in Nigerian prisons"

One of the parents of the abducted girls, Ms Martha Yarama Ndirpaya, in her interview with the Hausa service of the (BBC) has accused the federal government of being insensitive to the plight of the girls and its slow pace of rescuing them from the heartless abductors.

In a broadcast appearance on Sunday, Jonathan promised, "Anywhere the girls are, we will surely get them out."

The president described the girls' abduction as a trying and painful time and pleaded for the cooperation of parents, guardians and local communities in the rescue efforts.

Muslim Extremists Attack Visiting Preacher on Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island

Islamic extremists pulled down a Church of God building in Kianga, Zanzibar in April 2012. (Morning Star News)

Members of nearby mosque threaten to burn down church building.

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – More than 100 Muslim extremists on Tanzania’s
semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar stormed a church following an evening worship service on Jan. 11 and beat a visiting preacher, sources said.

The mob, including suspected members of Islamic extremist groups, meant to attack the Pentecostal Evangelism Fellowship of Africa (PEFA) congregation’s senior pastor, Bishop Daniel Kwilemba, who was not present at the church site in Kisauni village, outside Zanzibar City. Instead, they found a preacher visiting from the Tanzania mainland – William Saidi of the Free Pentecostal Church in Tanzania in Dar es Salaam, church leaders said.

“These rowdy Muslims were shouting and yelling, saying, ‘We are looking for the bishop of the church to slaughter him – we are tired of the existence of this church near our mosque and the noise they are making,’” said a church elder.

The mob fled when police arrived and rescued the pastor after he had suffered multiple contusions for which he is still taking medication, sources said. The assailants tore his shirt and suit coat.

Since the attack, the Muslim extremists have been issuing threats that the church should leave the area near Zanzibar City, capital of the semi-autonomous island in the Indian Ocean about 25 kilometers (16 miles) off the coast of Tanzania, sources said. A church member added that the congregation has been living in fear for their lives.

“At the moment we cannot worship freely because we are being threatened,” the church member said. “The Muslims are accusing us of making a lot of noise while they themselves make a lot of noise.”

Police arrested some suspects and took them to Kisauni police station, but they were later released, sources said.

During the past Christmas season the Muslim extremists threatened to burn down the building of the PEFA church, which began three years ago.

On Sept. 13, 2013, on the outskirts of Zanzibar City, suspected Muslim extremists threw acid on the Rev. Joseph Anselmo Mwangamba, a 60-year-old Catholic priest, outside an Internet café.

On Feb. 17, 2013, suspected Islamic extremists on shot and killed the Rev. Evaristus Mushi, a 56-year-old Roman Catholic priest, in the Mtoni area outside Zanzibar City (see Morning Star News, Feb. 20). The murder came nearly two months after the Christmas Day 2012 shooting of another Catholic priest, the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, that seriously injured him.

At midnight on April 20, 2013, Islamic extremists in Kianga, 16 kilometers (11 miles) from Zanzibar City, demolished most of the Church of God’s Pool of Siloam church building, a church leader said. Three suspects were arrested, only to be released after three days.

Muslim extremists had attacked the church building before, setting part of it on fire on Feb. 19, 2013 and battering it with sledge hammers in November 2011.

While Tanzania’s population is 34.2 percent Muslim and 54 percent Christian, according to Operation World, the Zanzibar archipelago is more than 97 percent Muslim.

###

© 2014 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morocco amends controversial rape marriage law

Violence against women and gender inequality are the subjects of frequent demonstrations in Rabat

The parliament of Morocco has unanimously amended an article of the penal code that allowed rapists of underage girls to avoid prosecution by marrying their victims.

The move follows intensive lobbying by activists for better protection of young rape victims. The amendment has been welcomed by rights groups.

Article 475 of the penal code generated unprecedented public criticism.

It was first proposed by Morocco's Islamist-led government a year ago.

But the issue came to public prominence in 2012 when 16-year-old Amina Filali killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist.

Parliament has voted unanimously to alter the controversial penal code article

 

She accused Moustapha Fellak, who at the time was about 25, of physical abuse after they married, which he denies. After seven months of marriage, Ms Filali swallowed rat poison.

The case shocked many people in Morocco, received extensive media coverage and sparked protests in the capital Rabat and other cities.

Article 475 provides for a prison term of one to five years for anyone who "abducts or deceives" a minor "without violence, threat or fraud, or attempts to do so".

But the second clause of the article specifies that when the victim marries the perpetrator, "he can no longer be prosecuted except by persons empowered to demand the annulment of the marriage and then only after the annulment has been proclaimed". This effectively prevents prosecutors from independently pursuing rape charges.

In conservative rural parts of Morocco, an unmarried girl or woman who has lost her virginity - even through rape - is considered to have dishonoured her family and no longer suitable for marriage. Some families believe that marrying the rapist addresses these problems.

While welcoming the move, rights groups say that much still needs to be done to promote gender equality, protect women and outlaw child marriage in the North African country.

"It's a very important step. But it's not enough," Fatima Maghnaoui, who heads a group supporting women victims of violence, told the AFP news agency.

"We are campaigning for a complete overhaul of the penal code for women."

Analysis

Nora Fakim BBC's former Morocco correspondent

Although women activists are pleased about the amendment - and it shows the Islamist-led government is slowly starting to listen to them - some say there is still much room for improvement as the law does not necessarily protect women from violence or put an emphasis on the seriousness of rape.

Rights groups say one in four women in Morocco is a victim of violence. The most vulnerable live in the countryside where only about 20% of women are literate and attitudes are more conservative. In such areas, child marriages and forced marriages after rape have been a common practice for centuries.
Women's rights groups now want new laws to reflect the spirit of the 2011 constitution. World leaders praised it, saying Morocco was a role model for democracy in the Arab world. It states that men and women should be treated equally, yet also included Article 475.

Angola ‘bans’ Islam and Mosques for ‘final end of Islamic influence’. Angola may be the ‘role model’ to Europe, America, Australia to check Muslim aggression.

Angola ‘bans’ Islam and Mosques. Becomes first country to put clear message to its Muslim Citizens to ‘end of Islamic influence’. 

25 Nov 2013:: I had to wait after hours to confirm this news as mostly unbelievable at this highest point of Jihad and Radical Islam, but really a small state of Africa named Angola banned Islam and Mosques after putting a clear message to its Muslim Citizens to ‘end of Islamic influence‘.

Now, the international media and a portion of Islamically influenced Indian counterparts have also confirmed this story that Angola emphatically did it.

Fear of radical Islam is not the preserve of Westerners. Indeed, in October, hostile actions have been conducted in several cities of Angola. Several officials have spoken on the subject. The governor of Luanda (Capital City of Angola) summarized the act stating that radical Muslims were not welcome in Angola and that the government was not ready to legalize the presence of mosques in the country.

The Minister of Culture , Rosa Cruz went in the same direction by stating that : “The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice. We must remember that the country is 95 % Christian and has a rather Christian culture.” The government has decided to destroy the long term, the country’s mosques deemed illegal, Islam is not considered as religion in its own rights in the country.

Last October, the minaret of a mainly frequented by ‘Guinean Mosque’ was dismantled . In the urban commune of Zango , the municipality has gone further by destroying the only mosque in the city. Even, no Jihadi group has been given any chance to take any revenge for that.

According to several Angolan newspapers, Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims, taking first measures by destroying mosques in the country.

“The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice,” Rosa Cruz e Silva, the Angolan Minister of Culture, was quoted by Agence Ecofin on Friday, November 22.

Silva comments were given during her visit last Tuesday to the 6th Commission of the National Assembly.

“This is the final end of Islamic influence in our country,” Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos was quoted by Osun Defender newspaper on Sunday, November 24.

The Governor of Luanda, Bento Bento, has said that “radical” Muslims are not welcome in the country and that the Angolan government will not be legalizing mosques or other places of worship for Muslims.

As a matter of fact Angola’s citizens primarily are showing their inclinations to their early indigenous beliefs. Recent surveys show that 47 percent adhere to traditional indigenous beliefs while another 38 percent of the population practice Roman Catholicism and 15 percent practice Protestantism.

Now, the ’banned religion of Islam’ in Angola is practiced by a very small percentage of the 18.5 million inhabitants of the Country. Only about 80,000-90,000 Angolans practice Islam. These Muslims are primary migrants from West Africa and Lebanon.

Angola has successfully given a global message how to restrict Radical Islam in the face of growing Jihad and Islamophobia.

Angola has started the ‘Era of Banning Islam’ in modern times. Now this starting of ’ban on Islam by the non-Muslim states’ may be defined in a way that the Final ‘War between Cross and Crescent‘ will be most evident in America, Europe, Australia and even in China though it has been initiated by African Angola.

There is no injustice to it. All the Muslim Countries do not allow the practice of Non-Muslim Religions. So, each and every Non-Muslims states have to right to ban the practice of Islam in those Non Muslim lands accordingly.

And this the time to put all nails to the Coffin of Islam. It is easy now as depicted by the Great Sign of Islam, ’786′. Do you know the meaning of Islam? Know it now.

Muslim clerics teach the mystery of ’786′ very confidentially. 786=? 7th Century: Birth. 7+8=15th Century: Peak. 7+8+6=21st Century: Fall. 786 depicts the birth, rise and fall of Islam in this encapsulated chronicle of bloodiest phases of human history.

The final fall of Islam has been started from Angola. World has to follow Angola. Hindu Existence Forum appreciates this action of Angola.

Kenyan warplanes bomb Islamist camp in Somalia, military says

(CNN) -- Kenyan warplanes targeted an Al-Shabaab training camp today inside Somalia, according to military officials. The al Qaeda-linked Islamist group has been connected to the attack in a Nairobi mall last month where 67 people where killed.

Col. Cyrus Oguna, spokesman for the Kenyan Defense Force, told CNN that the training camp had about 300 recruits, but he doesn't know yet how many people were killed in this attack. He said that information would be available Friday.

"This military operation is not an isolated one, but we will continue targeting Al-Shabaab camps in the near future" Cyrus Oguna said.

The attack was in Diinsoor, Southwestern Somalia.

The airstrike completely destroyed an Al-Shabaab training camp at Hurguun, according to the military.

Kenyan officials said the terror group has used the training camp to train operatives, including attackers who targeted Nairobi's Westgate mall in September.

This offensive comes on the heels of the Jillib attack, which left two Al-Shabaab commanders dead, the Kenyan military said.

Gunmen kill six at Nigerian Christmas service

Gunmen attacked a church in northern Nigeria during a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, killing six people including the pastor, before setting the building ablaze, residents and police said Tuesday.

By FRANCE 24

© AFP file photo from Christmas 2011

Gunmen killed six people attending midnight mass at a church in northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, police and residents confirmed on Tuesday.

“A group of gunmen came into the village at midnight and went straight to the church... they opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshippers. They then set fire to the church," said Usman Mansir, resident of Peri village, near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe state.

Mansir specified that a branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) was the congregation that was targeted.

A senior police official in Yobe confirmed the details to AFP, but declined to be named.

Boko Haram Islamists have carried out several attacks in Yobe, which borders the state of Maiduguri, where the insurgent group is based.

The Islamists are blamed for killing hundreds of people in northern Nigeria since 2009. It was not clear who was behind the latest violence.

While Yobe's population is overwhelmingly Muslim, the commercial hub of Potiskum has a significant Christian minority. Peri is just two kilometres outside the city.

Kony 2012 charity to release new video addressing criticism of viral campaign

Glenna Gordon

Invisible Children founders pose with soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army near the Congo-Sudan border in April 2008. Jason Russell is pictured holding an automatic weapon on the far right. Bobby Bailey, left, and Laren Poole, centre, are also pictured.

The makers of Kony 2012, a staggeringly popular online video campaign about capturing Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, plan to release a new video on Monday that will respond to criticism about the film’s methods and messages.

Jason Russell’s 30-minute video, now viewed 74 million times on YouTube, highlights the atrocities perpetrated by Kony, head of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group that once terrorized northern Uganda.

AFP files

A file photo taken on November 12, 2006, shows the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, answering journalists' questions in Ri-Kwamba, southern Sudan, following a meeting with UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland.

The film, funded by the San Diego-based charity Invisible Children, tells the story of a former child soldier named Jacob and then issues a call to action to viewers to help “make Joseph Kony famous.”

Although the film has raised more than $5-million and won the backing of millions of people, including celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Rihanna, the charity behind the project has faced criticism over their message, methods and financial transparency.
During an interview on CNN on Sunday, Invisible Children said they will release a 10-minute new film on Monday to answer to those criticisms.

“There’s nothing to hide. Invisible Children has been transparent since 2004, when we started,” Ben Keesey, the group’s chief executive, said in the interview.

“That’s our intention and we want to show that this campaign is part of a model and strategy that’s comprehensive.”