Nigeria framhålls ibland som ett
lyckat exempel på "fredlig sam-
existens" mellan kristna och muslimer.
De som fortfarande tror på det bör
läsa denna artikel:
KURUM, Nigeria, May 10 (CDN) — As she lay on
the ground after being shot and then slashed with
a machete, Dune James Rike looked into her
husband’s tear-filled eyes and asked,“Is this the
end between us, so we shall not be together again?”
**
Pastor James Musa Rike told Compass he held the
hands of his dying, 35-year-old wife and told her,
“Hold on to your faith in Jesus, and we shall meet
and never part again.”
Muslim extremists who attacked Kurum village, in
the Bogoro local government area of Nigeria’s
Bauchi state, had already killed two of the couple’s
children in a rampage that began Wednesday
(May 4) at midnight. Rike, pastor of a Church of Christ
in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Kurum, next heard
the cries of his 13-year-old daughter, Sum James Rike,
a few yards away.
**
“I rushed to my daughter, only to discover that she too
was cut with a machete on her stomach, and her
intestines were all around her,” he said. “I held her
hand and began to pray, knowing she too was about
to die. She told me that the Muslim militants told her
they would kill her and “see how your Jesus will save you.”
The girl told her father that she responded by telling them
that Jesus had already saved her, and that by killing her
they would only be making it possible for her to be with
Him. Pastor Rike prayed for her as she died.
**
Shooting and setting homes on fire, the Muslim extremists
killed 12 other Christians in the attack. Bauchi police
reported 16 people dead – one man, three women
and 12 children.
Pastor Rike said that when the attackers reached his
house, they tried to force their way into their bedrooms.
“I opened a backdoor, and we ran out into the dark
night while the militants pursued us,” he said.
“They shot my wife and two of our kids as they tried
to escape.”
**
Pastor Rike said that after killing the two children,
Faith James Rike and 1-year-old Fyali James Rike,
the assailants cut his wife’s abdomen with a machete.
“I was shocked at what I saw,” he said. “I knew my wife
would not last long, and the only thing I did was to
encourage her to hold on to her faith in Jesus.”
The Muslim extremists set more than 20 houses
ablaze before leaving the village, he said.
Pastor Rike and his son survived the attack, and he
said his adopted daughter, Whulham James Rike,
was injured and receiving treatment at the General
Hospital in Bogoro. He said five others others were
also receiving hospital treatment.
****
****
