Muslims in Kwara state, Nigeria, have been attacking Christians since last May when the leader of an Islamist group died of injuries suffered in a car accident in 2006.

At least three Christians have died and several others have been injured in attacks with machetes and other weapons since June, clergymen said. They said the attacks began after the death in May of Dr. Ali Olukade, head of a local group of Islamists called Tibliq, possibly patterned after the worldwide Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.

The followers of Dr Olukade blame his accident on prayers of Christians upset after Muslim protests disrupted a 2004 evangelistic campaign.

When the local Tibliq leader was injured in the car crash in 2006, Rev. [Cornelius] Fawenu [secretary of the Kwara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria] said, “The members of his Muslim sect went on rampage, demonstrating against America and the state of Israel, over claims that it was the prayers of Christians over the aborting of the gospel event of 2004 that caused their leader to be involved in an auto crash. Dr. Olukade, the Muslim sect’s leader, died in May 2008, and since then Muslim fanatics have embarked in serial killings and attacks on Christians in the city.”

The dead Christians were attacked as they went to or returned from evening worship services.

Ironically, the Kwara State Government website carries the slogan “The Place of Harmony”.  They need to do more work on that, apparently.

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