THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN TERRORISM IN AFRICA: MOSLEMS TAKE REFUGE IN MOSQUE AFTER ATTACK

                                         Christian soldiers with crosses on their necks
The rise of Islamic terrorism has provoked a cycle of backlash from the Christian community world wide. Christians have been at the receiving end of terrorist activities since the turn of this century. From the burning of churches , to decapitation, from mass execution to the ripping off of babies from pregnant Christian women, and also to imposition of unreasonable levies on Christians not willing to convert to Islamism in territories overrun by Islamist. This trend has assumed a more frightening dimension to the point of religious cleansing taking place in most part of the Middle East and Africa.
Most Christians who feel that the absence of self defence mechanism  is a major reason for this collateral casualty among Christian, mooted the idea of a self defence army. Gradually, self defence among Christians is mutating to an aggressive army who are now poised to returning terrorism to the originators.
From Lebanon, to Syria,Iraq, to Africa the trend has continued unabated.

A number of Christian militias have formed in Syria since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The militias are composed largely of fighters from the various Syriac, Assyrian, Arab and ArmenianChristian communities in Syria, and are also found amongst Assyrian communities in neighbouring northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, All Christian militias have come together to fight as one force in an effort to recapture their historical homeland in northern Iraq from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), Breitbart News has learned.
The Nineveh Plains, a region in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province outside Mosul, is the historical homeland of the region’s Christian community, which is one of the oldest in the world.

An Iraqi Christian militia leader threatened on Monday to ethnically cleanse Sunni Arab tribes from a district near the contested city of Mosul in Iraq’s northern Ninawa province in a video that has been widely reported by the Arab media.
alman Esso Habba, who is the head of the so-called “Christian Mobilisation” militia, part of the Shia-dominated Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) paramilitary organisation, said that he would “dispose of” the Sunni Arab tribes living in the Tel Kayf area if they did not leave by this Friday.

A group of Christians in Iraq have formed their own militia to protect people from the so-called Islamic State group. The leader of the Babylon Brigade says they were left with no choice but to take up arms when IS fighters targeted Christians.
In Africa, according to Reuters,
Hundreds of civilians are seeking refuge inside a mosque in the Central African Republic's border town of Bangassou amid ongoing attacks by Christian militias that have killed up to 30 civilians, Unite Nations officials and aid workers said on Sunday.

The attacks throughout the weekend on the town of Bangassou on the Congolese border have involved hundreds of fighters with heavy weaponry and appeared to be aimed at Muslims, they said, in the latest sign that the multi-year conflict is worsening.
The UN base there has also been targeted, prompting the deployment of extra troops to the remote town on Sunday in anticipation of further attacks. They had succeeded in partly securing the town by dusk, said Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the UN mission (MINUSCA).

WHY MOSLEMS ARE AHEAD OF CHRISTIANS IN THE POWER GAME IN NIGERIA

Since my relocation to Abuja, I have realized certain realities by my interaction with an average Northern Moslem. These are facts that I never appreciated before now. Sometimes, it is difficult to make a sweeping statement on what you know a little about or have not experienced adequately. Empirical realities far outweigh theoretical postulations. Therefore, please permit me to make the following observations about the Moslem and the Christians in Nigeria.

1. COMMITMENT TO VISION
The commitment of the average Moslem to Allah is far higher and and more passionate than the commitment of most Bishops not to mention the average Christian to God through Jesus Christ . The Moslem practices the Law of Islamism while the Christians practice grace. Yet the breaking of the Moslem ordinance is as dreadful as death itself. While the Christian under the dispensation of grace is recklessly lawless. Now, don't get me wrong , this comparisons are by no means a wholesale generalization. I am just using the average Christian as a case study .
2. LEADERSHIP CONSCIOUSNESS
The Moslem believes in Hierarchical leadership. A word from the Sultan of Sokoto who is at the top of the Islamic leadership in Nigeria is law. But the Christians, Inspite of CAN, PFN, BCN, and other bodies, they have this unabashed attitudinal disregard to proper leadership. For example,
In the last general election in Nigeria, the entire Moslem community was convinced and directed to work against the so called "infidel" in Aso Villa. It was so compelling that even the party faithfuls of the erstwhile president worked at odds with him as against the practice of loyalty to party affiliations .
How ever, the Christians on the other hand,had no leadership. No one to speak for the generality of the Christians in Nigeria. For example, Some of the Big names in our Christian faith were too selfish to consider supporting a Christian against a moslem in the last general election. One of the big general overseers was "nicodemus"in his support for the then Ruling President who was a Christian like him. He was a friend in the day while covertly supporting the moslem candidate in the night. What an abomination.
Christianity in Nigeria is as fragmented as the diversity and heterogeneity in denominations accross the land. In the present Nigeria, the Christian has no voice. Now tell me, whose voice can command the respect of all Christians? Not sure there is one. The CAN president cannot issue a declaration and be obeyed by all Christians neither can any general overseer, Cardinal, Arch Bishop, or Primate make a pronouncement and all Christians will obey. So who will Christians obey? Isreali prime minister? Or Donald Trump? May be God coming down from above.
It is a tragedy to our evangelistic agenda that we cannot speak as one. If Christ or the Kingdom of God is at the center of our pursuit, there is no way the body of christ can be this fragmented. The time to forge a united front is now. That seems an uphill task at the moment?
3.CAPACITY TO DIE FOR THE FAITH
Very many Moslems are ready to die for their God, but you can't say that of Christians confidently. We boast that we have a living God, we condemned them for serving a dead God, but when it comes to sticking out our heads for our belief, we crawl back in diffidence. It is a shame. Imagine the scenario where Christians where slaughtered by Moslems recently and the pastors of these Martyrs could not bat an eyelid. There was no explanation to this graveyard silence than the fact that they couldn't stick out their necks. Christianity is being strategically eroded in the country and no one is speaking. In the absence of any authoritative voice, forces of lesser influence will be speaking as the voice of the church .
4. POLITICAL AWARENESS
A moslem man seeks political office predominantly to promote his religion. Political Power to a moslem is a means to fulfill Islamic mandate When a moslem man becomes a president,Governor, minister or a Commisioner etc, his primary objective is normally to use the office to advance the cause of Islam. But when a Christian man mounts any position of political significance, he fights to maintain the principles of secularism of the nigerian state . He even fights the church where he belongs to. Now check this out.
The multi billion dollar Abuja Central Mosque was built solely with Nigerian Money by a dictator who understands the significance of his position to Islamic agenda. No fund raising, no funds drive, no APEALS in that direction. Every moslem was committed to it and its execution was seamless.
Thank God former president Olusegun Obasanjo also made some efforts to give us a befitting ecumenical center, Sincerely, I Truly appreciate him for this exceptional feat. But this was after much fund raising and other strategic launching event before the committee headed by Chief Rochas Okorocha could attempt what we now celebrate as a national church.
We had a Christian president for six years in this country whose most trusted confidants were Moslems. Strategic positions of national significance were occupied by moslems. There was this case in point that really devastated me. Among the most qualified officer to be appointed the inspector General of police during the 2014 change of guards was a Holy Ghost filled tongue talking DIG by name Zuokumor Micheal. We pitched our tent waiting for the announcement of his name, but lo and behold, it was not to be. A Muslim, Suleiman Abba was appointed as Inspector general of Police on the 14th of April 2014. Guess what, can you fathom the explanation? It was that a Christian was already the Chief of army Staff and we couldn't dominate the armed forces with Christians. But take a look at the system as it exist today, for the first time, all the service chiefs in Nigeria at the moment are moslems this is actually a rarity. Not even during the military era was this acceptable. Now when security matters are discussed, there is no one to represent the body of christ and everything seems normal to a lot of people.
And talking about the IG appointed he became one of the men who perfected the conspiratorial alliance to oust the same president who appointed him similar to the antics of the electoral umpire. Now this is not just an isolated case. It is the same scenario all over. when Christians are in position of power, they don't protect their faith, neither do they give a damn where they come from.
The 1989 Abuja declaration, an agenda for the Islamization of the Nigeria state was supervised by a sitting Moslem President.

Islamic Cleric Urges FIFA To Ban Christian Players From Making Sign Of The Cross

From all indications, it has become clearer by the day, that the Islamic world is bent on extirpating every trace of Christianity in the world. This aggression which became more ferocious by the turn of this century has assumed even a more coordinated dimension.
FIFA has been urged to ban Christian players from making the sign of the cross after scoring a goal. A Muslim cleric from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Al-arifi called on football’s governing body to write it into the game’s laws that players be prohibited from tapping their stomach, chest, left shoulder then right shoulder to make a cross.
Alarefe, who is professor of religion at King Saud University in Riyadh, posted the controversial call on Twitter to his 17.4million followers, but he was quickly flooded with messages disagreeing with him. A number of people pointed out to the Muslim scholar that a huge amount of players kneel on the ground and kiss the floor in celebration of a goal, mimicking the Islamic prayer.

THE ANATHEMA OF REFERRING TO THE VICE PRESIDENT AS A COORDINATOR- ASU EKIYE

When our president, Muhammed Buhari was to vacate his sit for a sick leave earlier this year, the letter transmitted to the National Assembly fully complied with the provisions of the constitution both in action and in wording. However, when same president was to leave for same purpose this time around, the wordings of the letter were deliberately and maliciously adjusted to placate the whims of certain malevolent Hawks who are basically bent at truncating this fragile democracy of our country.
It was clear that those behind the wordings of this recent letter were bent at achieving certain subterranean purposes and these are my thoughts.
1. By changing the words "Acting President" to "coordinator of Government activities," The authors who are the shadowy figures running the affairs of government on behalf of the President wanted to continue to hold sway unconstitutionally from the back door.
2. By smuggling those alien words into that letter, the President and his collaborators have indicated that they have no iota of confidence on the person of the Vice President .
3. When a man performs well in a job, he qualifies for promotion rather than demotion. By this diabolical coinage, the president has defied the laws of performance and degraded an effective deputy who performed so excellently previously, and this intention was to pulverize him to a point of insignificance and irrelevance.
4. In the absence of the president, this letter has defied and undermined the position of the Vice President there by creating a yawning vacuum  in the Hierarchy, making room for his kitchen cabinet to run the country contrary to the constitution.
5. This letter has exposed the insincerity of this government. It takes dishonesty and abject lack of conscience to cunningly and conspiratorially dodge a very obvious prescription of the constitution and yet pretend to be democrats
6. The implication of this action connotes that every major action of government emanating from this president should be viewed with utmost suspicion
7. Any action that breaches the constitution especially when it is  taken deliberately is an impeachable action.
8. The senate remains the most authoritative harbinger of democracy as it stands now. And I must commend them of helping to sustain our democratic practice .
9. But the last has not been heard of this drama yet. The Hawks are still lurking around to torpedo the Vice President from performing his constitutional role. All Nigerians should be vigilant.
10. Based on the above, I hereby submit that those at the Helm of Nigeria has no business leading us.
ASU EKIYE