Nigeria: Kano State Islamic Police Threaten to Kill 5 Christian Girls Because “Israel is Killing Our Sisters in Gaza”
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Five Christian girls in Nigeria’s Kano state were recently violently harassed by Islamic police who blocked them from going to church and who threatened they might kill them, saying: “Israel is killing our sisters in Gaza,” International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Known as the Hisbah, the Islamic police in northwest Nigeria is charged with enforcing Sharia law there, ICC reports.
The five Christian girls are members of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation in Kano state and were on their way to church when Hisbah Police stopped them and ordered them to dress like Muslim women, ICC reports. When the girls refused to change, they were made to stand outside in the hot sun for three hours until their church service had ended and they were released.
One of the girls told an ICC staffer that the police said they were being punished because of Israel’s ongoing war against the Hamas Palestinian terror group, which murdered 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis and kidnapped 240 more on Oct. 7. “Israel is killing our sisters in Gaza,” the police said.
“If we like, we will kill you, too,” they added.
“Christian Leaders in Nigeria continue to remain silent to the persecution of Christians in Kano City since they are in the minority and don’t have a voice,” ICC noted in its report. “Christian girls are often denied jobs unless they convert to Islam. Ongoing persecution in Sokoto, Kebbe, Zamfara, Zaria, and Katsina often go unreported,” ICC said.
Plagued by Islamic jihadism since 2009, Nigeria ranks 6th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
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