Russia: Another ‘Religion Of Peace’ Cleric Violently Killed By Pious ‘Religion Of Peace’ Followers For Preaching Peace

Reuters – “Gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric in the internal Russian republic of North Ossetia, investigators said on Thursday, an attack that suggests militant Islamist violence in Russia’s southern Muslim provinces is spreading to nearby regions.

Shootings and bomb attacks on police and officials are a near daily occurrence across much of Russia’s restive North Caucasus, but violence in North Ossetia – a mainly Christian region – is unusual.

Gunmen shot dead 34-year-old Ibragim Dudarov, North Ossetia’s deputy mufti, many times in the head at point blank range as he was driving late on Wednesday near the provincial capital of Vladikavkaz, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The killing – at least the sixth this year of a Muslim religious leader – is likely to inflame tensions between moderate and more radical Muslims.

Moscow is struggling to extinguish an insurgency that stems from its two devastating wars against separatists in Chechnya, just east of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and has been fuelled by chronic unemployment, police brutality and poverty.” Read more.

• Flashback: Pious ‘Religion Of Peace’ Followers Unite Together To Kill Muslim Cleric Preaching Sermons Of Peace And Unity
• Flashback: Devout ‘Religion Of Peace’ Followers Kill Muslim Cleric For Advocating Peace
• Flashback: Russia: ‘Religion Of Peace’ Fighters Kill Imam For Preferring Peace
• Flashback: Dagestan: Imam Standing Up For Peace Is Violently Gunned Down
• Flashback: Prominent Imam Speaking Out Against Violence is Sprayed With Bullets

Indonesia: Hundreds Of Muslims Attack Christians Gathering Near Site Of Future Church

For peaceful purposes …

Jakarta Globe – “More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church, police and a witness said.

Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold a mass near empty land where they hope to build a church, about 30-kilometers east of the capital, in a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property.

On Tuesday, however, local community members blocked the road near the land, Andri Ananta, a local police chief on Jakarta’s outskirts, told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals — men and women wearing Muslim headscarf, with small children in tow — physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.

Ananta said police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home.

‘We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave,’ he said, adding 380 police and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area.

Church leader Reverend Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack on Monday evening when ‘intolerant people’ threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them.

‘Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us,’ he told AFP.” Read more.

Nigeria: At Least 12 Christians Murdered By Islamists During Christmas Celebrations

By Dan Wooding, ANS – “JOS, NIGERIA (ANS) — Christmas Eve attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Nigeria’s Borno state – already reeling from the slaughter of at least 10 Christians earlier this month – took the lives of six people at a Baptist church, as gunmen killed six others in Yobe state the same night.

According to Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org) in Borno state, where Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is based, six Christians were slain at First Baptist Church in Maiduguri on Christmas Eve.

About 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in Kupwal village in Chibok Local Government Area, suspected jihadists shouting ‘Allahu Akbar [God is greater]’ on Dec. 1 slit the throats of at least 10 people in carefully selected Christian homes, according to reports from survivors.

The story went on to say that in Yobe state on Christmas Eve, gunmen believed to be members of Boko Haram reportedly entered the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Peri, near Potiskum, and killed six Christians including a pastor before setting the church building ablaze. Several others were reported seriously wounded.

‘No group has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve attacks, but Boko Haram mounted Christmas assaults on Christians last year and in 2010,’ said the Morning Star News Nigeria correspondent. ‘Boko Haram, which reportedly has ties to Al Qaeda, has vowed to eradicate Christianity from Nigeria and seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on the entire country. Boko Haram has targeted churches, state offices, law enforcement sites and some moderate mosques in its effort to destabilize the government.

‘Before the attack in Peri, Boko Haram had reportedly battled Nigerian security forces in Potiskum, bombing a local police station and attacking a bank. Potiskum has reportedly become a hotbed for Islamic militants of Boko Haram. Attacks on Christians in Yobe state have forced thousands of Christians to flee to others parts of Nigeria, while others have become refugees in Cameroon.

‘Attacks on churches in northern Nigeria have intensified since a 2011 Christmas Day attack at the town of Madallah near Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.’

Morning Star News added that in Jaji, in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, 11 Christians were killed in a suicide attack on a church on Nov. 25.” Read more.