A mispronunciation taken to be
blasphemous in Nigeria’s north sparked a riot by Muslim youths Thursday,
leaving four people dead as well as a church and shops burnt, police and
residents said.
“What happened in (the town of)
Bichi was misinformation,” Kano state police chief Ibrahim Idris told
reporters. “Rumours went round that someone blasphemed the Prophet and there
was a breakdown of law and order.”
Residents reported four people
dead along with the church and Christian-owned shops burnt.
The riot came on the same day
that former British prime minister Tony Blair and the incoming spiritual head
of the world’s Anglicans Justin Welby launched an initiative in the Nigerian
capital Abuja aimed at Muslim-Christian reconciliation.
According to Idris, a Christian
tailor mispronounced the name of a dress while chatting with his Muslim
neighbour in Hausa, the major language spoken in the north, changing the
meaning to ‘the Prophet has come to the market’.
Idris however denied anyone was
killed, though residents spoke of the deaths. Bichi is located some 30
kilometres (18 miles) from Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim
north.
“Four Igbos were killed in the
attacks. One of them was thrown into a ditch near my house,” one resident said,
referring to a mainly Christian ethnic group.
“Scores of shops owned by
Christians and a church were burnt by a large mob of Muslim youth who set
bonfires on the road and disrupted traffic.”
Another resident said he saw
four dead bodies “hacked with machetes by the rioters”. Religious and ethnic
tensions in the country regularly lead to outbreaks of violence.