Muslims in the town of Yana, Bauchi state, Nigeria, went on a rampage earlier this month, as I blogged here, after a woman was accused of blasphemy. One person was killed, seven hospitalised, and five churches destroyed in the violence.  Also, 1000 people were displaced from their homes.

It has now emerged that the riot was instigated after a Christian woman refused a Muslim man’s offer of marriage.

The Rev. Garba Gaius, pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) congregation to which the young woman belongs, told Compass that Paitence Yusuf was at home the night of February 1 when she learned that a young man was asking her to meet him outside.

She went out to meet with him, and he told her he wanted to befriend and marry her. Surprised at what she was hearing, Rev. Gaius said, Yusuf sharply declined his offer.

As she walked back into her house, the man, whose identity has not be disclosed, told her, “I beg you in the name of God and his apostle, Muhammad, to please accept me as your boyfriend,” Rev. Gaius said. He said Yusuf looked the man in the face and replied, “You are pleading in the name of a person I do not know. Jesus I know, but Muhammad I do not know.”

The next day, the man, who was not named, brought several Muslims to Yusuf’s home and accused her of blasphemy.  Believing she was in danger, she took refuge in a local police station.

“The band of Muslims went after Yusuf to the police station and demanded that she be released to them to be killed in accordance with sharia [Islamic law] for blasphemy,” Rev. Gaius said. “The police declined to release her, and there and then they attacked the police men on duty and burnt down the police station.”

One man was killed when police fired on the crowd in self-defence.  That prompted an armed mob of hundreds of Muslims to run amock through the town.

Yusuf, an orphan who was living with foster parents, remains in protective custody.

The news report from Compass Direct quotes a local Muslim man who is critical of attacks on Christians by his co-religionists.  He attributes the rising number of such incidents to several factors: “undisciplined Muslim youths, politicizing of religion and drunkenness and drug abuse by many Muslims”.  He also mentions lack of godly parental supervision and discipline.

Compass Direct also reports today that a Muslim rampage in Sumaila, Kano state, Nigeria, has left one policeman dead and two Christian teenagers injured after one of the teenagers was alleged to have written a “blasphemous” article about Mohammed.  It has been established that the teenager in question could not have written the article.  A local pastor has determined that the article was in fact written by Muslims.

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