Thursday, December 04, 2008

Why are we fretting about a "War on Christmas"?

The world's been at war with Christ for two thousand years.

It's just that the battles are more literal, and much bloodier, in places where we tend to be downright stingy with our fretfulness:

Published: December 1, 2008

JOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Iki Atsen told the women in his family to flee and grabbed an ax as a man with a bullhorn urged 100 Muslim men to storm Atsen's Christian homestead and kill all nonbelievers.

Atsen survived, but his two brothers were cut down by machetes and tossed by the mob into a well, among over 300 people slaughtered in the worst violence to hit Nigeria in years.

''My brothers couldn't find weapons. I saw one brother holding up his hands and begging for his life, but they brought the machete down across his head,'' he said. ''My other brother was also cut and died there. They put the bodies in the well and set fire to everything.''

''There was a commander who shouted go to so-and-so area and finish the nonbelievers,'' he said at his camp, where women queued for bread, children ran around and men sat under trees, chatting. Muslim victims also sat nearby.

''There has always been tension here,'' he said. ''There are differences in religion and ethnicity and few resources, so people are easily divided.''

-The New York Times



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