A Clash of Civilizations in Nigeria

By SPIEGEL Staff - http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,670178,00.html

Muslims and Christians are both growing more radical in Nigeria, home of the would-be underwear bomber. Almost nowhere else in the world does the rivalry between religions lead to bloody conflict quite so often.

In Bauchi, there are rumors that militant Muslims are preparing to attack Christians in Jos, 100 kilometers (62 miles) away. Is it true? Or just an attempt to spark fear?

Nothing is certain in Jos, a city of close to a million inhabitants in central Nigeria's so-called "Middle Belt," a broad region between the 8th and 12th parallels north. Somewhere in this region, a shifting line separates Nigeria's predominantly Islamic north from its Christian south. Many Christians fear that followers of Allah are trying to expand southward, and Jos lies in the midst of the conflict.

Violence erupted again last week, shortly after the would-be Detroit bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was identified as a Nigerian Muslim. "The Hausa-Fulani are not part of us," Christians wrote on Internet forums, referring to the country's largest Muslim ethnic group, to which Abdulmutallab traces his origins. "They are bastards, mixed with Arab blood to terrorize the world. They do not like education. They hate civilization and I wonder why they still exist as part of the human race."

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