The suffering that Islam brings to the non Muslims of Nigeria continues to blight the lives of that nation’s citizens. Murder, kidnapping, oppression and general violence is all that we seem to be getting out of Nigeria’s Muslims. Like in all too many other places, it is Christians of all denominations which are bearing the brunt of appalling levels of brutal Islamic violence.

The latest example of Islamic brutality to afflict the long suffering nation of Nigeria has caused the death of fifteen people, including two priests, following a gun attack on a Catholic Mass in Benue State. The gunmen burst into the church in the community of Ayar-Mbalom and shot the worshippers and the priests at Morning Mass and the attack is part of an ongoing jihad by Muslims against non Muslims in the middle belt of Nigeria where the mostly Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north.

A Roman Catholic website is reporting on this latest tragedy and the background to it, which it says goes back to 1804 and partially relates to resistance from non Muslims to Muslim herdsmen who want to push into the non Muslim areas.

The site, Cruxnow said:

Church and government officials in Nigeria have confirmed two priests were among the at least 15 people killed on Tuesday when gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Ayar-Mbalom, a community in Benue state.

It is located in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” where the Muslim north meets the Christian south. Over the past few years, Muslim Fulani herdsmen have attacked mostly-Christian farmers in the region in violence that has both religious and ethnic undertones.

Father Moses Iorapuu, the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Makurdi, identified the murdered priests as Father Joseph Gor and Father Felix Tyolaha of St. Ignatius Catholic Church. The attack happened during the early morning Mass.

The report went on to say that prior to the attack Father Gor, one of the priests murdered, had written on social media about the appalling state of affairs faced by Christians and other non Muslims in Benue State. He complained that the Muslim herdsmen were surrounding the town of Mbalom and had attacked homes, destroyed stored food and murdered people indiscriminately. The Muslim herdsmen refused to leave the area when requested and the non Muslims of this area have had little help from the Nigerian government to deal with the situation. The Christians were ‘left on their own’ with no help and no weapons with which to defend themselves.

The Nigerian government seems to have made half-hearted attempts to control these Muslim herdsmen by bringing in anti grazing laws, but not all Nigerian states have these laws and because of that conflict has grown. The Muslim herdsmen move from place to place bringing misery wherever they go and seemingly unhindered by any law or law enforcement.

Father Moses Iorapuu, was reported by Cruxnow to have said that the Nigerian police seem to know nothing about what has gone on with regarding the ongoing attacks by the jihadists since the passing of the anti-grazing law last year. He said that the government seem to have ‘little sympathy’ for the people suffering under this jihad from the Muslim herdsmen.

Cruxnnow added:

Iorapuu said in a statement given to the press that, “It has been the goal of the jihadists to conquer Benue and Tiv people who resisted their advance into the middle-belt since 1804.”

The priest accused the rest of the country of having little sympathy for the Benue people, and expressed his fears that the violence will cause thousands of people in the state to be displaced.

There is no doubt in my mind that these attacks on Christians and other non Muslims in Nigeria are jihad. Just as with other areas of the world afflicted by conflict brought by Islam we see non Muslims being targeted for violence, murder and oppression. This is no different from the jihad brought to the Middle East by ISIS or the ‘Palestinians’ or to America by the 9/11 or the San Bernardino, or Orlando murderers or the rape jihad that too many of Britain’s towns and cities suffer from. This bestial behaviour happens on different countries and on different continents but it is all Islamic jihad wherever it occurs and this jihad is of course, everything to do with Islam.