More Death Over Cartoons

The NY Times has reported on widespread violence this weekend supposedly over the cartoons. I say supposedly because it is clear that this is no longer about the cartoons. The cartoons are but a scapegoat for various parties, Muslim and non-Muslim to work people up and advance their own agendas. it is sadly unfortunate that a great many Muslims, the world over, ignorant of the origins of their own religion and overcome with ideas on religious imperialism, are falling square into the hands of these individuals.

In Nigeria:

[In Nigeria, Muslims protesting the cartoons attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings, The Associated Press reported.]...

[Mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, with machetes, sticks and iron rods, The A.P. said. One group threw a tire around a man, poured gas on him and set him ablaze.

[Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order, said a Nigerian police spokesman, Haz Iwendi. Security forces arrested dozens of people, he said.

[Chima Ezeoke, a Christian Maiduguri resident, said protesters attacked and looted shops owned by minority Christians, most of them with origins in the country's south. Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.

[Nigeria, with a population of more than 130 million, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.

[Thousands of people have died in that West African country since 2000 in religious violence fueled by the adoption of the strict Islamic legal code by a dozen states in the north, seen by most Christians as a move to impose religious hegemony on non-Muslims.]

The situation in Nigeria highlights an endemic problem with Islam in so called Black Africa: The unwillingness to live under the same rules as the "non-believer." I wrote before that it was a huge mistake for the Federal Government to allow a parallel judicial system be set up in Nigeria. Such a situation will only cause Nigeria to fall into another Biafran war.

In India we find:

In India, a politician in the nation's largest state has offered an $11 million reward for the killing of any of the Danish cartoonists "who dared to make the caricature of the Prophet," according to Indian news media reports published Saturday. The state government official, Haji Yaqoob Quereshi, made the announcement at a rally in the north Indian town of Meerut after Friday Prayer.

State officials said he would not face charges because he was articulating his personal opinion. Demonstrations have broken out during the past several days in a number of Indian cities with large Muslim populations.

Oddly this politician gets cover from a state that allows him to incite murder. Think about that.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/international/europe/19cartoon.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=0a81f3c1dca298e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage