(cont'd from yesterday's post)
According to Rabbi Cooper and his co-author, the extremists are a small segment of the huge tribe of seventeen million Fulani. There were at least 47 attacks on churches or Christians in the first half of this year, with a sum of >12,000 Christians killed over the last five years.
Christians are not alone in being threatened by religious tensions and violence, kidnapping and criminality. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reports that religious freedom in general is poor in Nigeria. Minority Shi'a Muslims, too, are persecuted by the government.
Co-authors Cooper and Moore hope that American churches will "adopt" Nigerian churches (photo) as a way to bring global attention to their vulnerability. The rabbi says, “Nigerians feel like they’ve been totally forgotten. . . Speaking as a Jew, I think American Christians are the sleeping giant here who can help halt this violence.”
from The Stream
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