Black Lives Matter Also in Nigeria

Destroyed Church in Nigeria

Christianity Today

World Watch Monitor, reporting in Christianity Today, informs us that "Nigerian Churches Unite, Launch Plan Against World's Deadliest Terrorists" (February 25, 2016):

The world's deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. It's in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015.

The article is informative, for me anyway, because I learned that the jihad in Nigeria has deeper roots than I expected. According to Rev. Samuel Dali, President of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, jihad spread Islam in the early 19th century: :

We want the churches in the south and other parts of Nigeria to see this terrorism as not only for the churches in the north but for the whole country, because whatever affects Christians in northern Nigeria, eventually it will affect the rest of the country. The Jihad of Usman Dan Fodio, in 1814, started in the north. But after he subdued all the north, he moved towards the south and that’s why part of western Nigeria, populated by Yoruba, is converted to Islam. This is to say that Boko Haram is not just the issue of the north, because if they succeeded in capturing the north they will be in enough number to conquer the other parts of the country.

And groups such as Boko Haram are not limited to Nigeria, either. Islamist groups throughout the world are pressing hard against non-Muslims along what have been termed "bloody borders." Sometimes, however, Islamists get the opposite of what they aim for:

[S]ome of the Christians interviewed by Open Doors reported that church membership actually is increasing. Pews are filling up, they said, not only with Christians arriving from more violent locales, but also with former Muslims who say they are attracted by a Christian spirit of forgiveness, are driven by their own guilt, or are responding to dreams of Jesus.

Though even this Open Doors report implies that Christians in large numbers are being driven out of other areas . . .