(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A religious, kind-hearted and brave Muslim Nigerian cleric saved 262 Christians from attacks on June 23 in Nghar Yelwa village, central Nigeria.
This was the latest wave of violence to hit Nigeria’s central region where Christian farming communities and cattle herders often clash – usually over access to land and grazing rights regardless of religious beliefs.
On Saturday the 23rd of June, about 300 armed men started shooting sporadically and burning down homes.
The cleric immediately came to their aid, hiding in total 262 men, women and children in his home and mosque.
"I first took the women to my personal house to hide them. Then I took the men to the mosque," the imam told BBC Pidgin.
He also informed that when the attackers caught up with him, and forcefully demanded that he release to them those who were in the mosque, “I lied to the gang that everyone in the mosque were Muslims.”
The attackers threatened the imam to burn down the mosque and his house. But, along with the Muslim villagers he asked the gunmen to leave.
According to Daily Post, a similar attack occurred last weekend and resulted in over 200 deaths. Hundreds of people have been killed in 2018 to date, and the tit-for-tat violence has been ongoing for several years.
According to the BBC, a report from 2016 suggested Nigeria’s pastoral conflict was the cause of more deaths that year than Boko Haram.
Those whose lives were saved by the imam expressed their gratitude and relief. “Ever since they took us into the mosque, not once did they ask us to leave, not even during prayers. They provided dinner and lunch for us,” a Christian villager assured.
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source : BBC, About Islam
Monday
2 July 2018
12:49:15 PM
900117
A religious, kind-hearted and brave Muslim Nigerian cleric saved 262 Christians from attacks on June 23 in Nghar Yelwa village, central Nigeria.