NIGERIA: Nigerians have been dismayed by an Al Qaeda offer to train Muslims in the country

Record ID: 234715

  • Title: NIGERIA: Nigerians have been dismayed by an Al Qaeda offer to train Muslims in the country
  • Date: 3rd February 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS NEWS PAPER ON SALE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES READING, "VIOLENCE: AL QAEDA OFFERS TO TRAIN, EQUIP NIGERIANS"
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAD570KILAUND84LS1B0D74DS5
  • Story Text: Nigerians on Tuesday (February 2) said they were upset by Al Qaeda's offer to train Muslims in the country to defend themselves against attacks by Christians.
    Reacting to the offer recently posted on an Islamic website by al Qaeda and which was reported on by the country's leading papers, most Nigerians questioned the motive behind it.
    Ubaka Enuagwuna, an educator based in Lagos, called on the government to react to safeguard the image of the country.
    "It doesn't not portray Nigeria well in the international community so it should be discouraged, recently something happened, you know, talking about a Nigerian trying to get the plane bombed and we are trying to recover from that and another stuff is coming out, you know the Al Qaeda trying to train people from Nigeria, you know, it does not speak well for the Nigerian community outside," he said.
    A Nigerian man tried to bomb a U.S.-bound plane on Dec. 25 in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Saudi-Yemeni group using the al Qaeda name and based in Yemen.
    "They are trying to rubbish our image everybody cannot be a criminal in this country, somebody like me cannot go out, you subject me to a level I don't like, I may not like it," said Chris Ori, a businessman based in Lagos.
    An al Qaeda group in North Africa has offered to give Nigerian Muslims training and weapons to fight Christians in the West African country, where more than 460 people were killed in sectarian clashes last month. Violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian neighbours over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in previous clashes in 2008.
    Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, though traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faith.
    About 1 million people were killed in Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war, and there have been outbreaks of religious unrest since then. But more than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side in the West African oil producer.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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