Posted on 04/21/2011 10:54:34 AM PDT by AfricanChristian
Nigeria successfully concluded a presidential election that was widely seen as being much freer and fairer than previous elections. The sticking point is that is was won by a Christian and the largely Muslim far north is up in flames because their man did not win.
The map below shows how Nigerians voted. The area in green shows the states that voted for the incumbent, a Christian. Whilst the area in blue shows the states that voted for his challenger, a Muslim. The 12 states in blue are also the only states that adopted Sharia law.
The map begs some questions: 1. Should Nigeria remain as one nation or should it split across the lines shown in the map? 2. Does Nigeria now have a Christian majority?
I call on all freepers to pray for Nigeria and please no email scam jokes!!
Can you provide some links? Where is the map?
The Muslims want to see a rerun of what happened in the Ivory Coast.
Nigeria should be divided on religious lines.
Heheh, thanks.
My church supports a Christian missionary in Nigeria.
He was shot by kidnappers in 2009. He and his family survived. And are still in the country today.
May God bring peace to this troubled country.
They tried that in the late 60s-early 70s, didn't turn out too well.
Nigeria is nothing but a scam itself.
Islam is like a cancer, I say it is better to cut it out of the body, before it spreads and kills the entire body.
The south has the oil, so it would be best to divide the north before they gain more of a foothold in southern politics.
If the northern states are ruled by sharia then in what sense is the country really unified?
I guess you’re talking about the Nigerian Civil War. The Civil War was not a religious war, it was an ethnic war against the Igbo ethnic group.
Well you'll have to thank the British for that, I will explain why.
Let me start by saying that you Americans were never really into the colonial business, so you don't really understand what the British and the French were really up to when they ran their African empires.
The British had a cosy relationship with the local feudal Islamic rulers because they came into the colonial business seriously understaffed and it was simply more convenient for them to rule through the local feudal power structure. Unfortunately, that meant:
1. That the British encouraged Sharia law.
2. That communities that had spent several years withstanding Usman Danfodio's Islamic Jihad were suddenly brought under the control of Usman Danfodio's successors.
3. The British went out of their way to DISCOURAGE the activities of Christian missionaries in Northern Nigeria.
The end result was that after the colonial era, the local Islamic rulers felt even more empowered to spread Islam, because they rightly concluded that the British were on their side.
(Before you get too cocky and wonder why the Brits were so daft, that is EXACTLY what you are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan)
So your good friends the British wrote Sharia into the legal code of Nigeria, that is the foundation of the problem. Then local politicians with the support of Saudi Arabia (Nigeria is mainly Sunni) decided to take it a notch further and implement the Saudi Arabian version of those wretched laws. This understandably, created problems for non-Muslim minorities and has led to never ending orgy of violence.
Should Nigeria be split? For all the best efforts of the mad mullahs of Sokoto and Kano, Christianity is still growing rapidly. A study by the Pew Forum illustrates the impact these two religions have on women - The number of Muslim women of child bearing age who cannot read or write is 71.9% as compared to 23.9% for non-Muslim women. Thus Christianity is growing even in the heavily Muslim areas due to its observable impact on attitudes to work, maternal mortality and education. If the nation splits, a significant Christian population will be left to live in Somalia-like conditions in the World's newest Islamic State.
As a Christian, I doubt the wisdom of a split. I really care about my Christian brethren.
P.S: Let me add that the British are at it again, they have introduced Sharia to Britain (and so have the Canadians). As usual, the Brits learn the wrong lessons from their colonial mistakes.
Well you'll have to thank the British for that, I will explain why.
Let me start by saying that you Americans were never really into the colonial business, so you don't really understand what the British and the French were really up to when they ran their African empires.
The British had a cosy relationship with the local feudal Islamic rulers because they came into the colonial business seriously understaffed and it was simply more convenient for them to rule through the local feudal power structure. Unfortunately, that meant:
1. That the British encouraged Sharia law.
2. That communities that had spent several years withstanding Usman Danfodio's Islamic Jihad were suddenly brought under the control of Usman Danfodio's successors.
3. The British went out of their way to DISCOURAGE the activities of Christian missionaries in Northern Nigeria.
The end result was that after the colonial era, the local Islamic rulers felt even more empowered to spread Islam, because they rightly concluded that the British were on their side.
(Before you get too cocky and wonder why the Brits were so daft, that is EXACTLY what you are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan)
So your good friends the British wrote Sharia into the legal code of Nigeria, that is the foundation of the problem. Then local politicians with the support of Saudi Arabia (Nigeria is mainly Sunni) decided to take it a notch further and implement the Saudi Arabian version of those wretched laws. This understandably, created problems for non-Muslim minorities and has led to never ending orgy of violence.
Should Nigeria be split? For all the best efforts of the mad mullahs of Sokoto and Kano, Christianity is still growing rapidly. A study by the Pew Forum illustrates the impact these two religions have on women - The number of Muslim women of child bearing age who cannot read or write is 71.9% as compared to 23.9% for non-Muslim women. Thus Christianity is growing even in the heavily Muslim areas due to its observable impact on attitudes to work, maternal mortality and education. If the nation splits, a significant Christian population will be left to live in Somalia-like conditions in the World's newest Islamic State.
As a Christian, I doubt the wisdom of a split. I really care about my Christian brethren.
P.S: Let me add that the British are at it again, they have introduced Sharia to Britain (and so have the Canadians). As usual, the Brits learn the wrong lessons from their colonial mistakes.
The CIA Factbook has the following religious breakout for Nigeria - 50% Muslim, 40% Christian, 10% animist. Here’s a question - assuming a significant amount of sectarian voting and a clean election, how did a Christian candidate win against a Muslim candidate?
From your posts I gather that you are from Nigeria. What part of Nigeria are you from? Seven years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week in Abia State as part of a medical mission group. While there we met the very corrupt governor, Orji Uzor Kalu. From my limited experiences I can say that Nigeria has its share of problems that will only get worse if a northern Muslim gets control of the presidency.
So Iraq hasn’t taught you that the CIA can be very wrong in it’s estimates? The Pew forum puts the percentages at 50% each, the election results show that the Pew forum figures are more accurate than the CIA figures.
The British rigged census results in the 1950’s to favour the far North (Muslims) because the Brits had an excellent working relationship with Muslim Emirs and Sultans (just like they do with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain). The rigged census results are still used today as the basis for determining the religious composition of Nigeria.
The last census was held in 2006 and the far North fought tooth and nail to prevent putting questions on religious affiliation on census forms. If the Muslim far North was so confident about their numerical superiority, why did they object to counting the number of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria?
Secondly, Muslims in Southern Nigeria (a minority) are much less likely to be as fundamentalist as Muslim in the Sharia states of the far North. In Southern Nigeria, it is common to see families in which one parent is Muslim and another Christian and in which the children decide which religion to follow. On the balance, the more educated and progressive the offspring, the more likely they are to adopt Christianity.
The real revelation of the election results is that Nigeria has a Christian majority. Neither the British nor the American governments will openly admit that for obvious reasons.
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