Nigeria: Archbishop speaks on Christmas bombings

Archbishop John Onaiyekan

Dozens of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria were killed on Christmas day when a series of bomb attacks took place on churches around the country. The extreme Islamic Boko Haram sect orchestrated the attacks. At least 35 people died in a suicide bombing on the church of Santa Teresa, in Madalla district in Abuja, the federal capital. Other bombs exploded elsewhere, including a Pentecostal church in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

The Archbishop of Abuja, Mgr John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan said: "I hope that these people have not died in vain, the Nigerians are realizing that terrorism threatens us all, Christians and Muslims."

"The day after Christmas, when I went to the site of the attack along with the Nuncio, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior, I took the opportunity to launch a strong appeal through the local press to the Islamic leadership of Nigeria to do something " the Archbishop said.

"Even if the Muslim religious leaders continue to assert that members of Boko Haram do not belong to true Islam, they must recognize that these are Muslims, and that they have the greatest opportunity to identify them.

"A number of leading Islamic groups have condemned the attacks. I just received a call from a Muslim group who visited the injured in hospital and asked me to visit the church of Santa Teresa.

"It is no time to say whether we are Muslims or Christians, we all live under the threat of these people. Among the dead there were also Muslims. The bomb exploded in the street, opposite the church, and affected not only the faithful who came out of the Mass but also passers-by. I personally prayed and blessed a Moslem man who was seriously injured, " said the Archbishop.

Mgr Onaiyekan said a security service had been organised by parishioners and the police to protect churches in Abuja. Young men had set up check posts at the two entrances of the road leading to the church of Santa Teresa. However, he explained, a suicide bomber had driven through the cordon and detonated a bomb, killing himself, one of the young men and at least three policemen, some of whom were Muslim.

"This is terrorism, which spares no one," underlined the Archbishop. "When these people say they want an Islamic State, it is not a State that gives more freedom to the Muslims. We know what they mean by Islamic State, we have the example of the Somalia of the Shabab. I believe that we have finally managed to make it clear to the vast majority of our fellow Muslims that terrorism carried out by the Boko Haram is not only against Christians. Only together, Christians and Muslims, we can go far, " concluded Mgr Onaiyekan.

Source: Fides