Nigeria: Muslim pupils kill teacher over Koran

[alkanawi]

How about this for a sense of deja vu?

Quran provocation sparks Yemen riot         

Violence between local and foreign workers at a gas plant in southern Yemen has left at least four Yemenis and a French employee of an energy company injured.

Early reports said fighting began after a French employee at the natural gas liquefaction plant threw a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, onto the ground during an argument on Sunday.
As word of the incident spread, hundreds of workers rioted, damaging a gas export terminal under
construction and setting fire to vehicles, security sources said.

Calm was only restored once soldiers from the Yemeni army arrrived, backed by tanks.
   
"After a fight between a French engineer and another who is Yemeni, the Frenchman - to enrage the Yemeni - threw a Quran on the floor in an offensive way," AFP reported one official as saying.
The rioters allegedly tried to attack expatriate workers in their camp inside the plant site but were pushed back by Yemeni troops who arrived with tanks and armored vehicles to contain the violence and restore calm.
Source: Agencies
Aljazeera 25/03/2007

Do people ever learn? I strongly agree with Waziri when he said;

These kind of crises will not be addressed and solved completely, in Nigeria or world over unless with the promulgation of laws and legistlations that will define what desecration of religious symbols is and permanently prohibit it on and over every religion. Adherents of other faiths may not see it as anything to desecrate the sacred symbols of their faiths and as such they can do it to any other faith.

[NewEte]

Alkanawi, you said earlier that Nigerian Christians are provocateurs. Can you give very specific examples of some provocations you have personally witnessed?

Can you also explain the kind of provocation that justifies the killing of innocent people?

I am inclined to agree with Dave here, that there is no justification for violence. So the question is, do we really think that we can live in a World where our beliefs are never put to the test, scrutinized, and even ridiculed? If we think we can have such a society, then we live in a World of illusion. The truth is, once our beliefs, religious or otherwise enter public stage, it is fair game for all kinds of scrutiny, debates, commentaries, jokes, and flat out ridicule. Many beliefs and religions suffer this fate. In recent times, Christianity has suffered all kinds of blasphamous abuses by liberal free thinking folks that have made careers out of ridiculing the religion. African traditionists have been ridiculed as by Muslims and others as being ignorant idol worshippers, etc. They don't all go on rampage and cause destruction.

The question then is, why is it so different with those Muslims that over-react to what they deem to be provocation? As Dave pointed out, Islam is a religion of peace. What better way to show this peace other than in the face of provocation? Islam is a religion of peace, it is the fastest growing religion, the Prophet is the messenger of Allah, and Allah is most merciful. These are all Islamic virtues, and therefore, living by example is expected here.

Believe me Alkanawi, if someone threw a copy of the Koran on the ground to show disdain, I will pick it up dust it, thanks him and walk away. Better yet, I may even try explaining to him or her that he/she does not know what they are missing by not treasuring the book. I gurantee you one thing, that kind of response nullifies whatever reaction the provocateur was hoping to ignite.

The bottom line is this alkanawi, we cannot control what other people do in this World. We can only control what we do, but the choices we make can shape people's impression of us then and in future.
Religious belief is the least thing people in Nigeria should kill people for, no matter that level of provocation. If you notice, the so called provocateur does not physically assault anyone. They hardly lay a hand on anyone during their provocating scheme. Their 'weapon' is more psychological, and people need to learn to rise above this and quit being overly sensitive.

[alkanawi]

Alkanawi, you said earlier that Nigerian Christians are provocateurs. Can you give very specific examples of some provocations you have personally witnessed?

Can you also explain the kind of provocation that justifies the killing of innocent people?

Seems i've met a brick wall here.

I've gone through all the posts here over and over and yet did not see where i said "christians are provocateurs".Secondly how can i explain what i did not say namely that there are "the kind of provocation that justifies the killing of innocent people".
Let us do some corelational analysis on the cause and effect
1)FACT:riots/mob action happen because of some perceived grievance
2)FACT:muslims hold their beliefs dear and feel it should not be ridiculed
3)FACT:some non-muslims disparage and ridicule what muslims respect

so if action (3) has consistently given rise to result (1),do we
a) punish the culprits in (1) and (2)
b) punish (1) alone
c) punish (3) only

Alternatively
a) should (2) be discarded by the muslims,to wit,regard everybody and every thing as fair game,or
b) (3) should accord a modicum of respect for other peoples' belief
c) Play the blame game i.e blame (2) alone,or (3) alone or both

I can't put it in a more simple way.Wish i can speak your native language.

As for the small matter of:

Believe me Alkanawi, if someone threw a copy of the Koran on the ground to show disdain, I will pick it up dust it, thanks him and walk away.
... Their 'weapon' is more psychological, and people need to learn to rise above this and quit being overly sensitive.

"Lebanese feel very superior and often quite racist when dealing with Nigerians in Nigeria. They are so condescending towards local Nigerian and quite often have run ins with diasporan Nigerians who wouldn't for a second put up with their arrogance.
The arrogant fool began ranting and acting all dismissive. At one point, he asked me to leave his street and his community. At that point, I dealt him a slap he won't forget very soon."

Ete on "Anger management and how to deal with provocation" ;D. As posted on the thread :Lebanese eyes senatorial seat. Mahatma Ghandi would be so proud, seeing you have imbibed his culture of non violence and become a paragon of tolerance and diologue.

Now if somebody who is highly educated(i presume) can be forced to react due to the condescending,dismissive,and arrogant attitude of someone,what more do you expect of a mob largely populated by barely educated people?

[NewEte]

Alkanawi said:

"Again forumites should forgive me, but i find Nigerian christians some of the most intolerant and disrespectful people(Lionger is an exception).I was on a BBC blog and some of the most venomous,condescending,patronizing and at times downright disdainful contributions against muslims were from people bearing Nigerian names."

"Again forumites should forgive me, but i find Nigerian christians some of the most intolerant and disrespectful people(Lionger is an exception).I was on a BBC blog and some of the most venomous,condescending,patronizing and at times downright disdainful contributions against muslims were from people bearing Nigerian names.
Please let us respect each other and those criminals should be brought to book pronto"

Those are your commentaries Alkanawi, and you can actually go back and read your entire write up in case you need to refresh your memory. So again I ask or let me rephrase the question, please give specific examples of this Christian intolerance that always ignite Muslim range which always leads to massacre and property destruction. I don't want generic commentaries just very specific examples.

The other thing is that you seem to jump from issue to another and throw in other unrelated issues to this discuss. The discussion here is religious violence in Nigeria, not elsewhere and not anything else. So I think we should restrict the discussion to that premise or else we'll be off track like we are already doing.

Let me however address the unrelated issue you introduced concerning my reaction to an incident involving an altercation with a Lebanese in Nigeria. Again Alkanawi, this has nothing to do with religious tolerance. This quite frankly borders around personal disrespect and racism by a parasitic foreigner on the soil of my own native country. If are are to be honest with yourself, you will admit that other people on this site expressed similar displeasure with Lebanese nationals and faulted them for their racist treatment of local Nigerians be they Muslims or non Muslims. So this isn't about religion. It is about human dignity, and Nigerians do not go to Lebanon and look down or disrespect Lebanese on their own soil. So again, let's keep this dialogue within its boundaries. Can we do that?

[Dan-Borno]

I thought Dave has drawn the curtain.

I have to agree that I found many Christians in Nigeria very intolerant indeed- but I found many Moslems also intolerant. The problem will never be solved if people only see the faults in the other side. 

Lets face the reality, everyone should put his
house in order.

[NewEte]

Dan Borno, ok, introduce another topic

[Dan-Borno]

Didnt you see my new topic on politics?

[NewEte]

Ok, I see it now. An  interesting one too. I have responded.

[mallamt]

very intresting discussion.

Again forumites should forgive me, but i find Nigerian christians some of the most intolerant and disrespectful people(Lionger is an exception).

I believe Lionger to be one of our success stories on this site. There are ofcourse others like him you were not able to meet, perharps, due to their tight schedules now, like Mallamt, the American friend of ours, Jack Fulcher and a certain Usman11, who came to this site with every feeling and expression nagative about Muslims but later  changed. I suppose Ete too is begining to reform as is evident in his recent postings as on this thread. I pray he will continue this way that you will be able to put him on the rank of Lionger next time you draw this kind of line, that " Israel may regain her former happiness".

Hmm _Waziri_ intresting you count me as one of your (or this sites) success stories.  I really am not sure what you mean.  But back to the topic, i believe one of our major problems is that of the one not recoginising that the other is also the creation of God and we do not have any rights to take his/her life, and in so doing some have in a very subtle way assign the position of "god" to themselves therefore theyt go about taking peoples lives as if they rule over those lives.

I am a northerner and yes i find generally that most moslems in nortrhern nigeria are intolerant of other faiths and this i say coming from my own experiences which continue till this day.  But that is not to say that all muslims are like that, the few reasonable ones are scared to speak out because they will be victimised by their own brothers an sisters.  Part of the problem is most people are being brain washed you get very shocked how few are able to think for themselves, in most cases you find people reacting in violent manner not because the koran specifically said they should, rather it is one mallam in a corner who has no job or source of income but uses little children as almajirai that instructed on the violence.  I have a cousin from the village with her traditional marks etc who was told to her face that she is not from kano because she is a christain she was told plainly that "....we do not have your type from kano..."  in a government office in front of other workers including the supervisor of the person who made the comment.  Any way i will make time and contribute