(Reuters) – At least 52 people were killed in religious rioting sparked by three suicide bombings against churches in northern Nigeria, where the dead were piled up on Monday in mortuaries and cemeteries in the city of Kaduna.

Rioting broke out on Sunday after suicide car bombers attacked three churches in northern Nigeria, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens.

Christian youths had set up roadblocks and dragged Muslims from cars or motorbikes and killed them, witnesses said.

Although there has been no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s church bombings, Islamist sect Boko Haram, which is waging an insurgency in the northeast against President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, had claimed deadly church attacks on the previous two Sundays, as well as others.

A Reuters reporter visited two hospitals in Kaduna. At the St Gerald Hospital, spokesman Sunday Aliyu said there were 40 bodies in the hospital morgue and 72 people being treated for burns and other wounds. At Barau Dikko Hospital, Matron Hassana Garba confirmed 12 dead and two injured people being treated.

GUNFIRE IN DAMATURU

On Monday evening residents reported gunfire and explosions in Damaturu, the capital of northeast Yobe state and the site of several previous attacks by Boko Haram.

“We are all indoors, the explosions and gunshots have been going on since 5pm. It’s boom, boom, boom, everywhere,” Oluchi Jonah, a local resident, told Reuters by phone.

Local police were not available for comment.

In November, 65 people were killed in attacks claimed by Boko Haram on churches, mosques and police stations in Damaturu, where security forces often clash with Islamists in gun battles.Corpses littered church grounds in parts of Kaduna on Monday. They were piled one on top of the other in an old cemetery, some charred. A soldier guarding the site said there were at least 30 bodies of people killed in the violence there.

They had been dragged to the secluded cemetery, in a majority Christian neighbourhood, by the mobs, he said.

“Some people were killed and dumped down wells. We’ve had violence before, but this is the worst I’ve seen,” he said.

A 24-hour curfew imposed by the Kaduna state government on Sunday largely succeeded in restoring order, residents said.

The violence stoked fears of wider sectarian conflict in Nigeria, an OPEC member and Africa’s top oil producer that is home to the world’s largest equal mix of Christians and Muslims.

Mohammed Inuwa said he was lucky to escape with his life. He hid in a bush when rampaging Christian youths pulled Muslims off their motorcycles and beat them to death.

“They were mostly killing okada riders (motorbike taxis). I was hiding in the bush while all this was going on. If they saw me, that would be it,” the second-hand clothes seller said, estimating 15 people were killed right by where he was hiding.INFLAMING TENSIONS

Boko Haram church bombings seem calculated to trigger wider sectarian strife, often striking at the heart of Nigeria’s volatile “Middle Belt”, where the mostly Christian south and Muslim north meet.

The Islamists’ leader, Abubakar Shekau, has said the attacks on Christians were in revenge for the killings of Muslims.

But such attacks have usually failed to spark sustained conflict in a nation whose Muslims and Christians mostly co-exist peacefully, despite periodic flare-ups of sectarian violence since independence from Britain in 1960.

The Vatican issued a statement on Sunday condemning the “systematic attacks against Christian places of worship” which it said proved the existence of an “absurd plan of hate” in Nigeria.

Religiously mixed Kaduna is near the Middle Belt and has several times been a flashpoint. Riots killed hundreds there in April last year when Jonathan, a southern Christian, defeated northern Muslim Muhammadu Buhari in elections.

SOURCE:REUTERS

Life is just not simply living. It is made up of a mighty myriad of things. Some things are easy to understand. some not so easy and some not comprehensible at all. This applies only to us on account of us being the creation of Allah Taala.
Had we been otherwise the above would not be a presenting problem. So there are a great many things in life that just don’t seem to make sense no matter how hard we try to understand these occurrences and happenings.
And even though we live in a world of make-believe, not everything we see and hear is fiction. And if there is one absolute truth then it is the truth of the existence of Our Creator Allah Rabbul Izaah. And, whilst a vast majority of creation, believe in the existence of this Creator, not with standing, the verious forms and names given to Him, there are still those who amazingly haven’t accepted this fact. Belowis a litle incident of a well-educated man who solemnly announced to his friends that he would never believe anything which he could not understand.

An old farmer overheard the remark, turned to the young intellectual and said, “As I went into town today, I passed a field where some sheep were feeding. Do you believe that?” “yes,” said the young man. “Not far away from the sheep some cows were also grazing. Do you believe that?” “yes,” was the reply, “Not far from the cows were some pigs eating grass, Do you believe that?” “Yes” “All right, now you listen to this,” said the farmer. “The grass the sheep are turned into wool.
The grass the cows are turned into hair. The grass the pigs are turned into bristles. The grass that the chicken fed on turned into feathers. Do you believe that?”
“yes, ” the young man said. “Do you understand it ?” “No,” admitted the young man.
“Young man,” said the farmer, “if you live long, you will find that there are a great many things which you believe without understanding. God is one of them.”
As Muslims we have the edge for we all believe without an iota of doubt in the existence of our Creator Allah Taala. However, at times this belief is a very shaky and weak one. This is reflected very clearly in our low commitments to the obedience of His laws. His presence is always there and will always be. Had it been otherwise, then He could have never been the one worth of exclusive worship. It is only the weakness of our faith in Him that at times we battle to perceive His presence.
Once, the companions of the Prophet (S.A.W.) asked him with regards Allah Taala’s presence. On this request, the verse of the Quraan, “And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him then his jugularvein”. (Surah Qaaf, verse 16).
Thus our lives and our doings can never be out of seight of Allah Taala. And even if he were not so close to us, His atributes of As-samee (The All-Hearing) and Al-Baseer (The all-seeing) still gives Him the power to know and see every detial of our lives.
So whilst ‘actual seeing, is beliveing’ may apply to some theories and philosophies, with regards to Allah Taala, the above theory cannot hold true.

Egypt’s ruling military council reaffirmed on Monday that it will transfer power to civilian authority by the end of the month, but Egypt analysts warn that the nation could be teetering toward another political crisis as a standoff brews between the interim military rulers and Islamists.

As Egyptians celebrated the apparent victory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi in Tahrir Square, the nation’s military power issued an addition to its constitutional declaration that limits the president’s powers in overseeing the military and puts legislative affairs in the generals’ hands.

“The military is clearly trying to turn the clock back to what existed under the Mubarak regime,” said Marina Ottaway, a Middle East analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “What is clear more and more is that the military sacrificed (Hosni) Mubarak to maintain the power of the old establishment.”

Mubarak was driven from office more than a year ago by a revolt. Since then, Islamist parties have emerged as the strongest political force in Egypt, alarming many in the powerful military establishment who seem eager to maintain control.

In Washington, the Obama administration expressed concerns about the move by the Egyptian military, which was foreshadowed by an Egyptian court decision last week to dissolve the parliament.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said that the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about the constitutional declaration and that the administration would encourage Egyptian officials “to relinquish power to civilian elected authorities.”

“This is a critical moment in Egypt, and the world is watching closely,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “We are particularly concerned by decisions that appear to prolong the military’s hold on power.”

The military’s decision to take charge of writing the constitution was a challenge to the democratic process, Egypt analysts said.

“I would call it a paper coup,” said Eric Trager, an Egypt analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The questions now are: ‘Will there be mass protests? Will there be some type of accommodation between the Brotherhood and the military?’ “

Morsi’s victory hasn’t been certified, and his main challenger, Ahmed Shafiq, is disputing the Brotherhood win. Official election results are scheduled to be announced Thursday.

If Morsi becomes president, he’ll have little power because of the military’s declaration.

“This is the beginning of another phase of the fight over the future of Egypt,” said Khalil Al-Anani, a Middle East expert at Durham University.

Morsi, a U.S.-educated engineer, became the Brotherhood’s presidential nominee when the organization’s first choice, Khairat Al-Shater, was barred from running on legal grounds.

It’s a remarkable turn of events for the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928, the same year Mubarak was born. For many years the group — whose ideology is said to have inspired Osama bin Laden — was banned under Mubarak’s government.

“It would be the first time the Muslim Brotherhood ascended to the highest office in the land anywhere in the Arab world,” said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center, a think tank in Qatar. “This would be a major (and) symbolic victory for Islamist groups across the region.”

The Obama administration appears ambivalent about the Muslim Brotherhood, which has espoused virulent anti-American rhetoric throughout the years.

Representatives of the group met with State Department and White House officials in Washington this year, but FBI Director Robert Mueller noted to a House committee last year that elements of the organization have supported terrorism.

The Muslim Brotherhood seeks rule by Islamic law, but not necessarily a fundamentalist interpretation of it. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are more moderate than hard-liners known as Salafis, who follow a seventh-century view of Islam.

Morsi has said he will respect the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Morsi has complained, however, that Israel repeatedly breaks the treaty.

The Brotherhood has said it believes in free-market economic policies, and it says it will build the nation by focusing on education, individual empowerment and the private sector.

“I think you will see some possible cultural and social changes,” said Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. “Although I don’t know how aggressive they’ll be.”

SOURCE:USA TODAY