Irrational Violence Knows No Religion

Violent protests continue in Nigeria over the infamous Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. For weeks, Muslims in Nigeria have directed their anger toward the country's Christian population. Now the Christians are fighting back, and things are getting really ugly:

AN enraged mob of Nigerian Christian youths has slaughtered dozens of Muslims in two days of rioting in the southern city of Onitsha. . . .

Nineteen corpses were seen scattered by the side of the main road into the city across the Niger River bridge, where a contingent of soldiers had set up a roadblock to hold back hundreds of rioters armed with clubs and machetes.

The bodies had been beaten, slashed and in some cases burnt. Around the bloodied corpses lay scattered the caps and Islamic prayer beads associated with the northern Hausa tribe.

See also: What Is the Role of Islam in Recent Outbursts of Violence?