Magic Statistics

Riots in three northern Nigerian cities in the past three days have left at least 38 dead in total.

A curfew has been imposed in Bauchi in northern Nigerian after at least 13 people were killed in a sectarian riot. It began as an argument between a teacher and a pupil over the confiscation of a Koran in school. But rumours swept the city that the book had been desecrated and that was the cue for youths, some armed with machetes, to rampage in the streets. The violence comes just two days after protests against Danish cartoons in two northern cities left at least 25 dead. Reports say two churches were burnt in Bauchi before police fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse the crowd. . . . The Red Cross say they have recovered 13 bodies but this may rise as they hope to recover more bodies.

The Most Rev Peter Akinola, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, says Christians have tried appeasement in the face of Muslim demands, but that has obviously failed to ensure peace.

From all indications, it is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has been sadly misunderstood to be weakness. We have for a long time now watched helplessly the killing, maiming and destruction of Christians and their property by Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists at the slightest or no provocation at all. We are not unaware of the fact that these religious extremists have the full backup and support of some influential Muslims who are yet to appreciate the value of peaceful co-existence. That an incident in far away Denmark which does not claim to be representing Christianity could elicit such an unfortunate reaction here in Nigeria, leading to the destruction of Christian Churches, is not only embarrassing, but also disturbing and unfortunate. It is no longer a hidden fact that a long standing agenda to make this Nigeria an Islamic nation is being surreptitiously pursued. The willingness of Muslim Youth to descend with violence on the innocent Christians from time to time is from all intents and purposes a design to actualize their dream.

Michelle Malkin has compiled a lengthy list of Muslim attacks on Christians in Nigeria, and that only covers 1999 to the present. Islamic jihad has been underway in Nigeria much longer than that.

BBC story via Gateway Pundit.
Rev Akinola's statement via American Anglican Council BlogSite.

The subtitle for this post could be One person with gumption and common sense can make a difference. Laurie, aka sqrrl101, a 16-year-old student, was so outraged by the tactics of animal rights extremists in Oxford that he decided to fight back. At the end of January, when he encountered a group of placard-carrying demonstrators opposed to construction of Oxford's proposed new Primate Laboratory, he began chanting Build the Oxford animal lab!

When the demonstrators reponded with abuse and profanity, he and a small group of bodyguards friends wrote a make-shift placard saying "Support progress – Build the Oxford Lab! " After enduring more abusive denunciations, he went home and wrote up the day's events on his blog. To his surprise and satisfaction, supportive comments began flooding in within minutes. 

A few days later, Laurie launched the website of  Pro-Test.org.uk, a UK based group with the aim of promoting and supporting scientific research and debate including animal based research. Since then, he has been the subject of news stories in several major British newspapers and interviewed on British TV, and Pro-Test has gained a substantial following among students at Oxford.

He has written up his own story at The Social Affairs Unit Weblog. (For the record, Laurie is not a student at Oxford.)

Pro-Test has organised its first march in support of completing the laboratory, to be held in Oxford this Saturday, 25 February. It is expected that over a thousand supporters will attend. They will be addressed by a local MP and several Oxford scientists. Animal rights activists have said they view the march as a provocation. Local police are aware of the situation.

The actions of some of those opposing the Oxford Primate Laboratory have exhibited a lack of common decency that borders on depraved. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) has made death threats against those working on the site. Companies contracted to help build the laboratory were intimidated into backing out of their commitments. Last summer, ALF claimed responsibility for firebombing a college boathouse. When the university persisted in its plans, ALF published a blanket warning against all students, staff, and anyone else who supports or does work for the university in any way. The London Telegraph calls ALF "the most active terrorist organisation in Britain". It's hard to disagree.

This photo was taken at an anti-cartoon demonstration in Hong Kong last Saturday, 18 February. The sign on the left says, "George Bush is big terrorist and puppet of Jews!" while the one on the right says, "Don't abuse the freedom of speech".

via Western Resistance.

Developers planning to build the first international five-star ski resort in the Himalayan Mountains have been sent back to the drawing board. A deal had been signed with the government of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, and environmental assessments undertaken. Now, however, they have been told that the resort as currently proposed has been nixed by a council of 175 Hindu gods. The deities are said to have voted nine to one against the project.

News of the divine intervention emerged after a day-long conclave of the gods in the old mountain hippie resort of Minali, the proposed site of the £185 million, five-star resort.
. . .
The Himalayan Ski Village, a luxury resort with a cable-car reaching up to 14,000ft, was billed as a ski destination to rival Europe and America. However, the project encountered opposition from local interest groups who claimed it would destroy a pristine environment, pollute water courses and trample over sacred mountains.

A formal Jagati Puch (grand convention) of 175 local deities was called to decide whether the project was in the interests of local people. The conclave is made up of 175 oracles, or gurs – local elders and villagers, who represent the deities that rule the valley according to traditional belief.

The possibility remains that the gods–or their local agents–can be persuaded to change their minds if the developers make appropriate sacrifices or other offerings.

Renowned civil libertarian Nat Hentoff reports on the events leading to the Cartoon Jihad, pointing out that the refusal of most American newspapers to re-print the cartoon is not a First Amendment issue because the US government was not involved.

There is no state action when the editor of any newspaper decides whether or not to publish anything.
. . .
[A]s The New Yorker 's press critic A.J. Liebling famously explained, the only persons who can exercise absolute freedom of the press are "those who own one".

When it comes to the intimidation and riots overseas, however, it's a whole 'nother story. The Danish imams who took the cartoons to the Middle East inflamed the situation by circulating fabricated cartoons and gained the support of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in their fraud.

Mr Hentoff also reports that John Eibner, director of the Zurich-based Christian Solidarity International, sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in early February warning him about the OIC's intentions. This letter also said that the OIC decision was part of a pre-meditated scheme by OIC to criminalise insults of Islam and Mohammed, which scheme had been hatched last December. Here is the portion of Mr Eibner's letter quoted in Hentoff's column:

"The role of the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), representing 57 Muslim states, in creating a climate for violent confrontation over the cartoons [was shown when] the OIC set the stage for anti–free speech demonstrations at its extraordinary summit in Mecca in December 2005. The Muslim states resolved, through these many demonstrations, to pressure through a program of joint Islamic action, international institutions, including the U.N., to criminalize insults of Islam and its prophet." [Emphasis added by Mr Hentoff.]

"In its final resolution, in Mecca, the OIC focused on the satirical caricatures of Muhammad (published in Denmark in September), which are now being used as a pretext for acts of violence."

"On the 4th of February—?the day the mob violence commenced—the Organization of Islamic Conference described publication of the caricatures as acts of ‘blasphemy.' Blasphemy is punishable by death, according to Shariah law."

(The "?" is in the original text. The 4th of February was indeed the day that embassies were first attacked by mobs in Damascus.) If this letter is accurate, the riots that began on 4 February were part of a pre-planned conspiracy to intimidate western governments into regulating freedom of speech and freedom of the press. One might even conjecture that the cartoons were merely a pretext for what OIC members had planned to do all along. The letter has not been previously reported in the media, as far as I know. Mr Annan just kept it under his hat while agreeing with the OIC that the UN should take up the cause of policing alleged religious intolerance. He apparently cares more for mollifying violent extremists than for protecting liberal freedoms.