“The British colonial masters took our land and handed it over to Muslim rulers… They gave us [non-Muslim groups] an inferior social and political role in the colonial hierarchical system in northern Nigeria, and that is exactly where we are right now.” — Dr. Yusufu Taraki
It is a truth not universally acknowledged in Western politically-correct circles that Christianity has become the most persecuted religion in the world and that most of the oppression comes from the hands of Islam and in Muslim-majority areas.
Nowhere is this more true than in northern Nigeria where, in 2012, 70% of all Christians murdered worldwide were slain. Not only death but discrimination, too, is rife across the country’s twelve northern Sharia states in which Christians and other minorities live with second-class dhimmi status, and with inferior rights to jobs, justice and worship.
Much of this inequity is Britain’s responsibility, according to the keynote speaker at a recent human rights conference, a program of Gatestone Institute and organized by the Nigerian aid and advocacy charity Stefanos Foundation. 150 delegates from many minority groups met in Jos, a city on the fault-line between the mainly Christian south and the majority Muslim north, where, in September 2001, over a thousand people were reported killed in ethno-religious clashes. These clashes were followed by further major riots and fatalities in 2008 and 2010, and suicide-bomb attacks on Jos churches in February and March 2012.
 Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Nigerian Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, appears in a video communiqué claiming responsibility for an October 24, 2013 attack that killed 35 people.
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The speaker was Dr. Yusufu Taraki, a mild-mannered academic who, given the keynote platform, talked with passion on the issues in which he has specialized. With a PhD in Social Ethics from Boston University, Massachusetts, and currently Professor of Theology and Social Ethics at Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS), he was given a warm reception as he delivered his speech about the place of ethnic minority groups in northern Nigeria.
Nigeria was a British colony until 1960, during which time, he argued, “The British colonial masters took our land and handed it over to Muslim rulers… They gave us [non-Muslim groups] an inferior social and political role in the colonial hierarchical system in northern Nigeria, and that is exactly where we are right now.”
When first published in his book The British Colonial Legacy In Northern Nigeria, this thesis earned Professor Turaki a British government ban from entering the UK.
Truth hurts even hardened British authorities, but Professor Turaki was bold enough in his speech to spread around the honors: “The worst kind of slavery in Africa was conducted by Arabs and Muslims,” he said touching on another specialist subject. “The majority of African slaves went to the Middle East and Arab countries… not to the Caribbean, the US and Latin America.”
He advised the audience, for further information, to look into his book, Tainted Legacy: Islam, Colonialism and Slavery in Northern Nigeria.
Later, privately, he pointed out that, once British troops had conquered the northern Muslim forces of the Sokoto Caliphate and Kanem-Bornu Sultanate in 1902-1903 with the laudable objective of terminating their slave trade, the colonial administration and the defeated Fulani Muslim elite found they had much in common. They both had top-down authoritarian views of governance and an ordered elitist view of the world; they saw the many different non-Muslim groups across the north as pagan, uncivilized and inferior. “Read the memoir But Always As Friends by Sir Bryan Sharwood Smith, the last British governor of Northern Nigeria, to understand the British colonial outlook,” Dr. Turaki said.
A corresponding Nigerian autobiography, My Life by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna (traditional leader) of Sokoto and first Premier of the Northern Region after independence, also tellingly shows the Sardauna playing English cricket and Eton Fives. The English and Muslim Nigerian upper classes became close.
Working with the Fulani and Hausa Muslim elite, the colonialists instituted a system of “indirect rule” which was cheap and effective. A limited number of British administrators were placed at the top of the power structure; the educated Muslim elite were next; other Muslim groups were below them; and everyone else was at the bottom. Frequently the British would foist, say, a Fulani Muslim chief on a non-Muslim village or district, thereby disempowering the locals and creating an alienated hostile underclass.
Ironically, during colonial rule many of the pagan tribes converted to Christianity, which caused tension between British colonial authorities and British missionaries on the ground. The indigenous new Christians, actively supported by the missionaries, enjoyed “redemption lift” and began to assert a moral vitality, ethnic identity and spiritual independence that sometimes challenged the cozy Anglo-Islamic status quo.
But Nigerian Independence in 1960 saw the British depart, leaving behind unamended the unjust governing structure and unfettered Muslim hegemony across the north, which Professor Turaki describes as “internal colonialism.” This was the seedbed of the crisis we see today.
The interventions in Libya and — until thwarted by parliament — Syria have amply demonstrated British Prime Minister David Cameron’s liberal interventionism and his desire to reassert British power on the international stage. And, when it comes to issues such as gay rights, he has Commonwealth and former colonial countries specifically in his sights. To the fury of African leaders who want to protect their traditional values and cultures, he insists they must dance to his liberal gay agenda or risk losing overseas aid.
But Mr Cameron might do well to replace colonial arrogance with Christian humility; and he could, and should, acknowledge some British responsibility for the Nigerian crisis.
The Gatestone-Stefanos conference gave unique voice to minorities who, after half a century, continue to be marginalized across the north. Among other projects to rectify residual colonial injustice, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the British High Commission in Nigeria should consider giving strong moral and financial support to this exceptional grassroots initiative.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4146/uk-northern-nigeria
Who will remember the slaughter in Nigeria?
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Countries that ban homosexuality risk losing aid, warns David Cameron
“We are not just talking about it. We are also saying that British aid should have more strings attached,” Cameron said on BBC1′s Andrew Marr Show in an interview recorded at the summit in Perth.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/30/ban-homosexuality-lose-aid-cameron
This is only one example of using money and power to force sovereign nations to do what the bankster gangsters-western powers, and some countries in the ME want, for example, Sauds-Qatar…
Boko Haram linked to Qatar, Western Powers
November 22nd, 2011
Maaouya Ould Taya, former president Mauritania
[...]The former soldier [Maaouya Ould Taya], who was a strong ally of the United States, France and Israel during his reign, has lived in Doha, Qatar with his family since August 22, 2005, after he was offered asylum in the Arab state, the report gathered.
The Algerian government Sunday announced that it has credible intelligence that Boko Haram has linked up with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) which has its North African headquarters in Algeria. Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdelkader Messahel told journalists that intelligence report show both groups have been coordinating. We have no doubts that coordination exists between Boko Haram and al Qaeda, Messahel said.
“The former President according to our source has been coordinating with senior elements of an Arab country in the Middle East and some sympathetic Nigerian interests to DESTABILIZE Nigeria in order to enthrone Islam in the entire north.”
Is Maaouya Ould Taya the African point man designated by the powers that be, in charge of coordinating, training and developing the AQIM branch in Nigeria?
Read more: http://newsrescue.com/boko-haram-linked-to-qatar-western-powers/#ixzz2sHwh1dsg
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Motive for support of AQIM and Boko Haram terror in Nigeria
Why would Doha, Qatar and ultimately the western powers wish for a powerful radical terrorist group in Nigeria? As happened in Libya, is this a means of ultimately overthrowing Nigeria’s government to gain control of Nigeria’s abundant resources?
Nigeria is the 14th top oil producer in the world with an estimated over 36 Billion barrels of oil reserve. The Nation among other African Nations rejected an American military presence under the AFRICOM program on its soil. The United States it is known desperately seeks a military presence in Africa to counter China’s increasing influence in the natural resource abundant continent. With the global recession, collapse of Europe and increasing trouble and sacking of European leaders, the western powers are beginning to show more and more desperation to acquire and secure greater resource.
Read more: http://newsrescue.com/boko-haram-linked-to-qatar-western-powers/#ixzz2sHyUnJt3
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Qatar role in training AQIM terrorists to topple Libyan government
Alqaeda flag above courthouse in post Gaddafi Libya
During the Libyan invasion by NATO, Qatar played a major role among other Arab Nations, providing most weapons directly to the AQIM Libya revolutionists and also providing direct training of these terrorists.
According to a former US intelligence contractor: the main source of support for the Libyan rebels came from Q-SOC, the Qatari special forces. Q-SOC trained the rebels. The Qataris were the first foreign military on the ground providing military training. Qatar provided air support. The Qatari military are trained by British and French forces.
Mahmoud Jibril, the new boss of Libya. He is also the boss of Jtrack. And allegedly he is a CIA asset.
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV played its part in helping the CIA and its friends topple the regimes of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt. It is also known that Al-Jazeera has recruited a number of former BBC journalists; BBC journalists are believed to have connections to MI6 and its friends. The new emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, had toppled his father with the help of London and Washington.
Sheikh Hamad authorized the Israeli Ministry of Commerce to open an office in Doha. Sheikh Hamad brought in a firm called JTrack to help Al-Jazeera.
“From Morocco to Singapore, JTrack has trained most of the political leaders backed by the United States and Israel, often mere heredity puppets…” source
Read more: http://newsrescue.com/boko-haram-linked-to-qatar-western-powers/#ixzz2sHxzMLVi
Use the search engine at mediachecker and you’ll find well-documented articles and independent research in most of the above.
