ISLAM’S BAD MOON RISING OVER NIGERIA- A PASTOR SPEAKS
http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/2015/09/16/islams-bad-moon-rising-over-nigeria/
A Muslim “comes quietly, peaceably” into a society “until he can put knife under things that hold you together,” warned a Nigerian Anglican priest at Washington, DC’s Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) on August 10. He and a colleague briefed about ten audience members of IRD staff and others over ominous implications of growing Islamic influence in their northern Nigerian home state wracked by Boko Haram jihadist terror.
The quotation from Nigerian author Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart originally described Africa’s European colonizers, but fit Muslims as well for Reverend “Peter.” (“We are on the front line,” stated this past victim of Muslim attacks in asking that the priests’ real names not be used.) “When a Muslim is in the minority in any community, he becomes friendly. He is not a fanatic at the point,” explained Reverend “Matthew” in deadly earnest what some might otherwise dismiss as conspiracy-mongering. “As a strategy, it is advisable for him to be peaceful” and “to buy time until he is able to gather his momentum” in numbers and influence.
For “every Muslim the kingdom of Islam is paramount,” stated Peter, “whatever he does is to promote the cause of Islam…wherever he is.” “We don’t plan way ahead like they do,” added Peter, who noted that polygamous African Muslim men can father 20 children in contrast to a monogamous Christian man with maybe four children. This “biological evangelism…also is a strategy.” “The average American is not really thinking about the kind of society he is going to leave for his children, not to talk about his children’s children. But a Muslim is a strategist, always,” stated Matthew.
As Islamic strength grows in a community, a Muslim “ceases to be a peaceful” and “starts making more demands,” noted Matthew. The two priests “have seen that a lot” in their home Nigerian province where initially the “local people were very accommodating” to Islamic immigration, showing what Peter considered typical African hospitality. Yet “it is always, always a desire for Muslims to be guided by Islamic law,” stated Matthew, and “not acceptable for a Muslim to be governed by non-Muslims.” Gradually “before you know it, if you are not careful, they have taken over your home and you are answering to them;” particularly evangelization “makes them very uncomfortable.”
“Think about the country you are going to leave to your grandchildren,” Peter stated to his American audience in light of a growing Islamic presence here. Following decades of Islamic immigration, “now you can hear them [Muslims] making a lot of noise in Britain,” noted Matthew. “It can’t happen here, that is a lie,” stated Peter, “we became aware when we started suffering.”
The priests were particularly grim concerning Muslim violence, such as Matthew’s description of surrounded churches set alight so that individuals fleeing the flames died in a hail of gunfire. Boko Haram, Peter noted, is often “portrayed as a bunch of fanatics who are doing what mainstream Islam is not in support of.” Yet Boko Haram actually represents a “calculated attempt to redraw the map of Christianity in northeast Nigeria.”
Muslims surrounded Peter himself and his church during Sunday communion and began stabbing individuals as the congregants hid their children. He asked his parishioners whether he should close the service and allow them to make an escape attempt. “You taught us that Jesus is worth dying for,” they responded, “this may be our last communion, we’ll take it and die.” Peter and the congregation miraculously survived in a manner that the two priests refused to divulge for security reasons.
Muslim targeting of Christians supplemented violence with deception, Matthew explained. Because the Nigerian “government is politicized along religious lines” in a country evenly divided from north to south between Muslims and Christians, Muslims in government service sometimes covertly aid Boko Haram and others. Placed by Muslims in mosques, the corpses of Christians killed in Muslim attacks can also serve to feign Christian violence, reminiscent of similar Hamas deception. In political campaigns, dubiously large donations from Muslim sources help split Christian votes among several candidates, giving victory to united Muslim coalitions.
Peter criticized media biases for preventing proper coverage of the threats facing Nigerian Christians, stating that today “you are not just listening to news, you are listening to an opinion.” Westerners often are “not willing to be harassed by Islam or the liberal world and branded” anti-Islam. Christians should “be bold to speak and not feel intimated,” just as Muslims often support their coreligionists, for the “conspiracy of silence must be broken.”
Peter’s call for boldness demanded greater Christian discipleship in the United States and elsewhere as he expressed to Africa specialist Scott Morgan. He commented that American Christians are “afraid of being ostracized again” with criticism of Islam after suffering scorn for opposition to same-sex “marriage” (SSM). Peter rejected Christians seeking to be “accepted by the world” and “politically correct but spiritually wrong” by supporting SSM while expressing shock that, “for God’s sake,” President Barack Obama focused on SSM in Africa.
“We have lost our way,” Peter stated, while “our children must be taught the faith of their fathers.” The “faith that we are passing now is a fantasy faith. We will need to get back to the Biblical Christianity.” He criticized that congregations in the past had told him to keep his sermons short, but then had lingered after worship for extensive coffee hours.
Nigeria’s Islamic threats could reach beyond that country. IRD analyst Faith McDonnell noted that Boko Haram sent a vehicle caravan of jihadists to Mali’s Al Qaeda-led uprising, complete with a cook. Morgan mentioned Boko Haram fundraising and recruitment in Spain, raising the possibility of similar activities among America’s large Nigerian community. Nigeria’s experience gives dark meaning to Islam’s traditional symbol, a growing moon crescent.
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