Magic Statistics

Two men have been murdered in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, after an Islamic leader exhorted Muslims to engage in jihad against Christians.  Muslim militants beat Henry Emmanuel Objage, 24, to death with wooden clubs while a young man identified only as Basil was killed by a sword.

Islamic leader Sheik Gumi had urged Muslims to wage jihad against Christians during Tafsir, the reading and interpretation of the Quran, in televised broadcasts during the Islamic month-long observance of Ramadan.
. . .
[Elder Saidu] Dogo [secretary of the northern Nigeria chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria] said that Sheik Gumi justified his call for jihad by saying in the same way Muhammad captured the Arabian peninsula, and Usman dan Fodio influenced northern Nigeria. Sheik Gumi concluded that because the British took northern Nigeria from the Islamic reformer (1754-1817) by force, Muslims "should fight to take over Nigeria by going to war against Christians."

The sheik's sermon was broadcast by the Nigeria Television Authority, a government agency.

A further account today says that the government of Nigeria has promised to send more police to Kaduna to bolster crime-fighting efforts.  There is no word, however, on whether the murderers have been identified or apprehended.

Also today, Compass Direct reports on Nigerian Christians who were abruptly fired from government jobs by Muslim officials after requesting land to build a chapel.  Asabe Ladagu, who had worked for 35 years as a librarian and lecturer, was forced out over a year ago with no pension or other income.

Previous related posts:

• Muslim family may abduct Christian children: Nigerian court
• Nigeria’s political life mired in corruption and violence
• Muslims rampage against Christians in northern Nigeria

For the good of the world and all its creatures, the Wittenburg Door Magazine has signed on to the previously neglected United Nations Millennium Goals for Satire.

A little known sub-paragraph of the Millenium Development Goals—the U.N. program to fight poverty adopted in 2000– the Satire Goals are three-fold:

—Reduce by half the extreme self-righteousness of the world's religious leaders by the year 2015.

—Warn world bureaucrats against taking overly ambitious plans and agendas too seriously.

—Maximize cultural understanding through the exchange of limericks and knock-knock jokes in foreign languages and funny caricatures of sacred religious symbols.

"For the first time in history we have the technology, the resources and the knowledge to get this done," Door editor Robert Darden explained a letter to U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon. "All we have lacked until now is the will."

The trend-setting periodical has set an example to all Christians everywhere.  No doubt the Episcopal Church will want to add the Millennium Satire Goals to its earlier enthusiastic endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals (peace and blessings be upon them).

Anglican Bishop of Canberra George Browning is shocked—shocked!—at the heresy spouted by Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell.

At the national Anglican synod in Canberra yesterday, Bishop Browning attacked the cardinal for saying Jesus said nothing about climate change. "It's almost unbelievable," said Bishop Browning, who is the chairman of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network.

To the best of my recollection, Jesus mentioned weather only once, in St Matthew 16:1-3.

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.  He answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

Is it “almost unbelievable” to think that Jesus gives no hint that climate change is one of those “signs of the times”?

Bp Browning also offered this absurdity, making him the second Anglican cleric this week to be caught begging the question.

"I wrote him a letter saying Jesus had an awful lot to say about the rich taking what belonged to the poor and about the heritage of the children, and as he spoke about both of these things he spoke about climate change."

Cardinal Pell is too smart to fall for such drivel.

Cardinal Pell replied scathingly that church leaders should be allergic to nonsense. "My task as a Christian leader is to engage with reality, to contribute to debate on important issues, to open people's minds and to point out when the emperor is wearing few or no clothes," he said.

Reality . . . What a concept.

Previous related posts:

• The Goracle takes the Nobel Fear Prize
• Anthropogenic global warming bites the dust
• Aussie politician pressures Archbishop to shut up
• +KJS: Alleviate poverty through climate change policy