As religious violence breaks out again in Nigeria in a row over cartoons of Mohammed, a Christian student has been describing how he had to run for his life after being accused of drawing of the Muslim prophet Muhammed.
According to reports from Kano State, at least nine Christians were killed and churches, businesses and homes were burned after rumours that Christians had drawn a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and displayed it on a wall of a mosque. Under Islam any depiction of God or Mohammed is considered blasphemous.
The incident echoes the uproar in Nigeria that followed the publication of the Danish Mohammed cartoons in 2006, which claimed scores of lives and triggered Muslim protests worldwide.
Release International, an organisation reaching out to persecuted Christians, is providing relief aid to Christians who have been driven from their homes.
According to reports, rioting Muslim youths in Tundun Wada, Kano State, caused widespread damage to Christian property in the area, forcing the authorities to evacuate Christians and non-Muslims to neighbouring Bauchi State.
Secondary school student IIiya Adamu and his roommate barely escaped with their lives, RI has been told, after being accused of drawing a picture of Mohammed.
RI has said IIiya was in his room at the hostel on September 28 getting ready for school, when Muslim students burst into his room.
IIiya told Release International partners: “They started beating me. I asked what I did but they shouted me down. They pounced on my roommate and began to beat him. A teacher walked in and asked what is happening. They said to go and see what the Christians did at the mosque.
“Their reason for beating us, they said, was because we drew something. None of us had seen what they were talking about until we later heard that a picture of Mohammed was drawn with these words ‘This is your God’. They concluded that we, the Christians students, must have drawn it.”
He continued: “‘We ran to the principal’s office, and were taken to the hospital. As we were about to be given first aid, we saw some of the Muslim students and other boys coming into the hospital with machetes. We then decided to run for our lives. We climbed the fences and escaped.
