Bloody Christmas Day Murders: Islamic Radicals Bombed Nigerian Church on Christmas Day, Dozens Dead, More Muslim Attacks Feared (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 26, 2011
Muslim radicals have claimed responsibility for this Christmas Day church bombing. Onlookers and security staff gather around a car destroyed in a blast next to St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital yesterday, killing dozens of people.
The so-called religion of “peace and tolerance” has again been linked to mass murders of Christians. The Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for bombing a Nigerian church on Christmas Day, killing at least 39 people. The group is zealous in imposing sharia law in the region.
The death toll from the heinous bombing has been steadily rising.
I’ve not seen any news reports of Christians bombing mosques nor murdering Muslims on Christmas Day. And I’m not finding any denouncements against the heinous attack on the Nigerian church from any Islamic leaders.
Prayers go to the victims, to their families, and to those who have thus far survived yet another barbaric attack from Muslims. May God bless you all.
From AFP, Blood, flesh and tears at Nigerian church hit by blast:
Blood stains and flesh still visible outside his church, Father Isaac Achi faced those who had come to worship Monday despite a Christmas Day bomb attack that killed at least 35 people here.
He told them that seeing them there gave him strength, that they had defied the extremists who blew up his friends and congregants in the attack claimed by Islamist group Boko Haram.
“I have never cried before,” Achi told the audience at the special mass in memory of the victims of Sunday’s attack, with bishops and priests from the region as well as the Vatican’s representative to Nigeria in attendance.
“Yesterday I cried. This morning I cried. But with all of you around today, I will not cry again. Seeing you coming to say this mass, I’m telling you, I will not cry again.”
The bomb attack at St. Theresa Church in Madalla near the capital Abuja was the deadliest of a wave of Christmas Day blasts blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram that shook Nigeria. At least 40 people died nationwide.
At St. Theresa, the blast hit as Christmas morning services were ending and worshippers were beginning to file out. Some of the wounded ran toward a priest to receive their final rites; other victims were burnt in their cars.
The mass on Monday was held under tight security, with soldiers positioned around the building. Signs of the previous day’s violence were all around.
Rescue workers were still picking up flesh and personal effects of victims outside the building. They declined to speak to reporters.
Some of the burnt-out cars outside had been removed while others remained. The road in front of the church remained closed.
From Associated Press, Nigerians fear more church attacks after 39 killed:
MADALLA, Nigeria (AP) — In the chaos after the Christmas terror attack on a Catholic church, one mortally wounded man cradled his wounded stomach and begged a priest for religious atonement. “Father, pray for me. I will not survive,” he said.
At least 35 people died at St. Theresa Catholic Church and dozens were wounded as radical Muslim militants launched coordinated attacks across Africa’s most populous nation within hours of one another. Four more people were killed in other violence blamed on the group known as Boko Haram.
It was the second year in a row that the extremists seeking to install Islamic Shariah law across the country of 160 million have staged Christmas attacks. Last year, a series of bombings on Christmas Eve killed 32 people in Nigeria.
[...]
Rev. Father Christopher Jataudarde told The Associated Press that Sunday’s blast happened as church officials gave parishioners white powder as part of a tradition celebrating the birth of Christ. Some already had left the church at the time of the bombing, causing the massive casualties.
At least 52 people were wounded in the attack, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.
Pope Benedict XVI denounced the bombing at his post-Christmas blessing Monday, urging people to pray for the victims and Nigeria’s Christian community.
From KEYC News, Violence Interrupts Christmas Day Church Service in Nigeria:
At least 39 people were killed in attacks in Nigeria on Christmas Day. Most were killed in a bombing outside a Catholic church near the nation’s capital where the victims had just celebrated mass . A radical Muslim group took responsibility for the attacks. The White House pledged to assist authorities in Nigeria to find those responsible.
Pope Benedict has condemned the Christmas Day attacks against Catholic churches that murdered dozens of people.
Pope condemns Nigeria Catholic church attacks in Boxing Day blessing (English subtitles)
From TVNZ, Religious war feared after Nigerian church bombings:
Nigeria’s main opposition leader accused the government of incompetence after Islamist militants killed more than two dozen people in Christmas Day attacks on churches and other targets.
Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner and former military ruler who lost a presidential election in April to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, told a Nigerian daily that the government was slow to respond and had shown indifference to the bombings.
The attacks, described by the country’s top broadsheet daily Thisday as “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever”, risk reopening old wounds and reviving tit-for-tat sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.
The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose sharia, Islamic law, across Africa’s most populous country, claimed responsibility for three church bombings, the second Christmas in a row it has caused carnage at Christian houses of worship.
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