Episcopal Press and News
Gombe Starts an Interreligious Council to Deal with Fears
Episcopal News Service. October 3, 2000 [2000-153C]
(ENI) On September 8 Governor Abubakar Habu Hashidu of Gombe, Nigeria, created an interreligious council after meeting with Muslim and Christian leaders about their recent clashes which have left at least 10 people dead and caused millions of dollars of damage to property.
A report stated that the clashes, which broke out on September 7 in the town of Kaltunga and spread to the towns of Billiri and Bambam, began after the government decided to introduce Sharia, the Islamic legal code.
More than 75 percent of the state's population of 2.7 million are Christians whose leaders had previously warned the government that they would refuse to accept the Islamic legal system, maintaining that it would
- prevent the teaching of Christianity in public schools;
- prevent Christians from building new churches and enable Muslims to force existing churches in towns in Gombe to be relocated;
- discriminate against Christians in public service, as Sharia forbids non-Muslims from having authority over Muslims;
- mean that single mothers are considered as prostitutes;
- prevent women from travelling in the same vehicles as their husbands, even to attend church;
- introduce draconian penalties, such as the cutting off of a hand for those guilty of theft and death by stoning for those who commit adultery. Christians believe that such penalties are not in keeping with the biblical requirements of compassion and forgiveness.
According to Hashidu, the council will be responsible for all religious matters, holding regular meetings and conducting awareness campaigns to promote religious harmony.
Abraham Akanmu, chairman of the Gombe branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), an umbrella organization uniting all mainstream churches in Nigeria, called on all Christians in the state to remain calm, saying that CAN was already involved in discussions with the state government about the problem.
CAN's member churches include the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical and African independent denominations.