We Are Being Treated As Boko Haram Because Of Our Religion – Muslims Cry Out

Muslims in Nigeria have voiced concern about an apparent increase in religious “profiling” after hundreds of terror-related arrests in the country’s Christian-majority south.

muslimveilLast month some 300 traders from the Muslim majority north of the country were detained in southern Rivers State for allegedly belonging to the banned Islamist group Boko Haram.

Most were later released.

Elsewhere, 84 apprentices were sent back to Katsina State, also in the north, after being held on suspicion of militant links as they undertook a training course in Imo, southeastern Nigeria.

In January 2012, the police in southeastern Enugu State arrested 25 hunters from northwestern Zamfara state on an annual hunting expedition to the forests, holding them for a month.

Again, they were suspected of Boko Haram links after 19 hunting rifles were found.

The insurgency by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s north is the country’s top security issue, and there are fears in the south that it could spread.

But an apparent rise in suspicions against all Muslims has prompted warnings about splitting the country further along religious and ethnic lines, as well as inter-communal violence.

Solomon Dalung, a law lecturer at the University of Jos in north central Nigeria, said the police and security forces were “profiling… citizens from a particular geo-political region”.

Current events were “taking a pattern of pre-civil war indices”, he added, drawing parallels with the situation before Nigeria’s three-year civil war.

The 1967-70 conflict came after the attempted secession of the mainly Christian Igbo in the southeast and followed religious, ethnic, cultural and economic tensions with northern Hausa Muslims.

Some one million people died in the fighting, mostly from starvation and disease. Mutual suspicions and resentment persist between north and south.

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  2. Hmmmm,wot did u expect, wen evil men hav destroy d reputation of d good,lik d great Lucky Dube sang,dat it taks a million people to build a great reputation,but dat it taks one stupid fool to destroy evrything with tym,d world now dreads & knos ur religion as d most violent in d land,everyone around u now kips deir eyes opn & vry cautious cos dey fo not to die.it’s vry tru dat not all muslims are terrorist or boko,but we’ve seen it ova tym dat all terrorist or boko haram are Muslims claiming to b fighting d cours of Allah.so do not blame d people or d world,rather u’ve got to tak it upon ursef & get rid of dis evil men among u so u can restore dignity & good reputation

  3. The discremination against Muslims did not just start wt bh. i hope and pray that wt the way things are going the scenerio in CAR will not play itself out here bcos Muslims are always on the recieving end of injustice and when u’re pushed to the wall, u’ll hav to fight back.