THE MIDDLE BELT DIALOGUE

I wish to use this space to announce the launch of a new movement that seeks to promote the actualization of the Middlebeltan in the geographical entity called Nigeria after 50 years of marginalization. All the text below, which includes the communique issued at the end of the their first conference, has been copied from their website. It is a cause to which I fully subscribe:

A Middle Belt Summit organised by the Middle Belt Dialogue held at Manyi Royal Suite, Lafiya, Nasarawa State from 17th to 18th September 2010. Delegates from Kogi, Plateau, Kaduna, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kebbi, Niger, Gombe,Taraba, Benue States and the Federal Capital territory were in attendance. Key note addresses were presented by Professor Yusufu Turaki and Dr Bala J Takaya. Delegates thereafter broke into syndicate groups to discuss issues raised in the presentations as well as issues that had been discussed on the social networking platforms of the Middle Belt Dialogue.

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE BELT SUMMIT ORGANISED BY THE MIDDLE BELT DIALOGUE, HELD AT THE MANYI HOTEL, LAFIA, NASARAWA STATE, 17TH – 18TH SEPT. 2010. A Middle Belt Summit organised by the Middle Belt Dialogue held at Manyi Royal Suite, Lafiya, Nasarawa State from 17th to 18th September 2010. Delegates from Kogi, Plateau, Kaduna, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kebbi, Niger, Gombe,Taraba, Benue States and the Federal Capital territory were in attendance. Key note addresses were presented by Professor Yusufu Turaki and Dr Bala J Takaya. Delegates thereafter broke into syndicate groups to discuss issues raised in the presentations as well as issues that had been discussed on the social networking platforms of the Middle Belt Dialogue. It was resolved that the Middle Belt Region would support all efforts by politicians and activist groups to expand the political space in Nigeria as the 2011 Elections approaches so as to allow all groups and peoples of Nigeria to be incorporated into the Nigerian project. In that light, the Middle Belt Region will vigorously support the bid by President Jonathan Goodluck to run for the 2011 Presidential election because he presents the best prospect for more a democratic and just Nigeria. Furthermore, the Summit notes that the South-West, the North and now the South-South have held the Presidency. Consequently, the Summit resolved that by 2015 it would be the turn of the Middle Belt to produce the President. To achieve this noble goal, the Summit calls on all social and political groups including churches and traditional institutions to immediately commence vigorous mobilization of the people of the Middle Belt to come out en mass to register for the forth coming general elections. The Summit notes with great concern the increasing tendency by the Hausa Fulani Oligarchy and also other Nigerians who in their home regions and states forcefully protect their ancestral rights to land and traditional institutions only to deny the same rights to Middle Belters. It is now common practice for Nigerians from other zones to lay claim to ancestral rights of their Middle Belt host communities, sometimes attempting to chase out their hosts from their lands by means of violence. Land ownership everywhere in Nigeria is based on ancestral rights, but in the Middle Belt everybody claim ancestral rights to land and traditional institutions . The Summit therefore resolved that all non Middle Belters resident in our region remain settlers, without prejudice to their constitutional citizen rights, just like our people are treated in other parts of Nigeria. The summit viewed with concern the spate of attacks on communities of the Middle Belt and the complicity of the security agencies in allowing the free flow of arms and ammunitions. It is sad that up to date the people who were allegedly arrested for the genocide at Dago Nahauwa, Riyom and Mazzah are yet to be prosecuted. Over 200 school children at Chwelnyap who were picked by the Army in Jos are still in detention without trial. The Summit therefore resolved that henceforth, any attack by any aggressor on any community of the Middle Belt, would be considered an attack on all parts and people of the Middle Belt. The Summit welcomes the recent changes in the high command of the Armed Forces and other security agencies. The Summit is however dissatisfied that the General Officer Commanding GOC, 3rd Armoured division, Jos, General Saleh Maina who has demonstrated gross incompetence in managing the security of Jos and grown contemptuous of the Constitution. He has assumed exclusive control of the security of Jos and is behaving as alternative governor. The Summit therefore insists that the allegations of extra judicial killings personally ordered by General Maina and other serious allegations should be investigated be brought before a Court Marshall since the allegations are numerous and persistent. The Summit is alarmed and concerned with the continuous selective retirement of military officers of middle belt origin from the Nigerian Armed Forces. Over 40% percent of military officers retired in the recent retirement exercise are of middle belt origin. The Summit calls on the President to institute an inquiry into this situation. The summit calls on politicians and political parties to encourage and support women and youths of the Middle Belt to go into partisan politics and productive economic activities. Mr. Rima Shawulu Kwewum, Facilitator, Middle Belt Dialogue Barr. Mark Jacob, former PDP National Legal Adviser Ms Ngukwase Surma, Political Activist

ISLAMIC HONOR KILLINGS IN AMERICA

We are told that Islam is a religion of love and peace. In reality, it appears to be more a religion of hate and murder. The vicious acts of terrorism aside, consider the practice of honor killing. This is defined by the Human Rights Watch as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” These are very common in the Middle East and Turkey. According to the United Nations, 5,000 females are murdered every year (“Murder in the Family,” Fox News, July 26, 2008). The perpetrators usually get off scot free or with a light sentence. Islamic apologists pretend that honor killings are “cultural” rather than a product of Islam, but Jihad Watch reports that in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down ON ISLAMIC GROUNDS a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings, and Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values” (“Muslim Ran Down Daughter,” Jihad Watch, Oct. 22, 2009).

Honor killings are on the rise in the United States.

The first documented case was in November 1989, when Zein Isa, a Palestinian terrorist living in St. Louis, murdered his 16-year-old daughter, Tina, for having a boyfriend, going to a school dance, and applying to work at Wendy’s restaurant. Her mother held her down while her father plunged a 9-inch knife into her chest 13 times, the mother shouting “Shut up!” in response to the girl’s pleas for help (Ellen Harris, Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Father’s Murder of His Too-American Daughter, 1995).

In April 2004, Ismail Peltek of Rochester, New York, murdered his wife and fractured the skulls of his daughters because he was “concerned that my family’s honor was taken” (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, April 24, 2004).

In January 2008, teenage sisters Amina and Sarah Said were shot to death in Irving, Texas, by their father, Yaser Abdel Said. Their great aunt, Gail Gartrell, told reporters, “This was an honor killing” (“Honor Killing in Texas,” Human Events, Jan. 8, 2008). The mother says that Yaser killed them because they were dating non-Muslim boys (“Honor Killing Dad Secretly Taped Girls,” Fox News, Aug. 6, 2010). Yaser Said vanished the night of the murders.

In July 2008, Chaudhry Rashid strangled his daughter to death in Jonesboro, Georgia, “to restore the family’s honor” after she wanted to end her arranged marriage.

That same month, in upper state New York, 22-year-old Waheed Mohammad attempted to murder his sister for wearing western clothing. He explained the stabbing by saying that she was “a bad Muslim girl” (“An American Honor Killing,” New York Post, July 23, 2008).

In February 2009, Muzzammil Hassan beheaded his wife, Aasiya, in upstate New York after she filed for divorce. Phyllis Chesler, author of “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence,” said, “The fierce and gruesome nature of this murder signals it’s an honor killing” (“Beheading Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say,” Fox News, Feb. 17, 2009).

In October 2009, police in Peoria, Arizona, reported that Faleh Hassan Almaleki ran over his daughter because she was becoming too “westernized” (“Police: Strict Iraqi Father Ran Daughter Down,” myfoxphoenix.com, Oct. 22, 2009). Noor, the twenty-year-old woman, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and died a couple of weeks later. It had all of the appearances of an “honor killing.”

Recent honor killings in other Western nations include the following:

In August 2010, a Turkish man beat his 20-year-old daughter, Gulsum Semin, to death with a club in Germany. The assistant in the terrible deed was the girl’s own twin brother (“Honour Killing: Father Beat Daughter in Face with Club,” Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 8, 2010). The young woman had recently had an abortion.

In 2009, Mohammad Shafia was charged with murdering his three teenage daughters (Zainab, Sahari, and Geeti) and his first wife, Rona, in Montreal, Canada. Also charged was Mohammad’s son. The women were found in a car submerged in a canal. Rona’s brother and sister have testified that it was an honor killing (“More on the Canadian Honor Killings,” Atlas Shrugged, July 24, 2009).

In 2008 in Australia, a Muslim man, assisted by his three brothers, shot his daughter to death. They first shot Pela Atroshi twice in the back in an upstairs room. Her mother and sister helped her down the stairs to the lower level, but the men pursued and while the severely wounded girl pled for her life her youngest uncle shot her in the head (“Honor Killing in Australia,” Jihad Watch, April 2008).

In June 2007, a British court found Mahmod Mahmod guilty of murdering his 20-year-old daughter Banaz. She was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase, and buried in a garden. The killing stemmed from her father’s hatred of her Western ways and non-approved boyfriend. An uncle assisted in the murder. Her life had been threatened since her teenage years. Once she ran away from home, but she agreed to come back after her father sent an audio tape warning that he would kill her sisters and mother if she did not return. More than 100 homicides are under investigation as potential honor killings in Britain (“British Court Finds Muslim Father Guilty,” Fox News, June 11, 2007).

Because of an upsurge in Islamic murders in India, the nation’s Home Minister proposed in August 2010 a new law “to provide specific, severe penalties to curb honor killings” (“India Proposes New Law,” Yahoo, Aug. 5, 2010). A study found that as many as 900 honor killings are committed each year in the three northern Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.

The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization says, “We’re seeing an increase around the world, due in part to the rise in Islamic fundamentalism.”

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