Jun 15, 2020 05:07 PM
(This post was last modified: Jun 15, 2020 05:46 PM by C C.)
New report says murders of Christians in Nigeria is paving the way for genocide
https://premierchristian.news/en/news/ar...r-genocide
INTRO: A new report has highlighted the large scale of atrocities happening to Christians in Nigeria. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG FoRB) launched its report in parliament on Monday urging the UK government to pay attention and take action to stop the violence.
The report Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? focuses on the mass murders at the hands of terror group Boko Haram and armed groups of Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Boko Haram is the militant group which frequently abduct and kill those in northern states in Nigeria who refuse to conform to their extremist brand of Islam. Teenage schoolgirl Leah Sharibu is one of many examples.
Meanwhile "attacks by armed groups of Fulani herdsmen have resulted in the killing, maiming, dispossession and eviction of thousands of Christians" in Middle Belt states the report says. Baroness Caroline Cox, co-chair of APPG FoRB told Premier there have been at least 1,000 deaths this year due to such violence and at least 6,000 deaths since 2015. More than 2.5 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes. "Every statistic is a family, is a horror. Last year I was there. I had the poignant privilege of meeting a young mum, and she'd been with a little six year old daughter, then Fulani attacked a village," she said. (MORE)
RELATED (Forbes): Is Genocide Happening In Nigeria As The World Turns A Blind Eye?
India's goddesses of contagion provide protection in the pandemic – just don't make them angry
https://theconversation.com/indias-godde...gry-139745
EXCERPTS: Hindus in India have had a helping hand – several in fact – when it comes to fighting deadly contagions like COVID-19: multi-armed goddesses co-opted to help contain and kill pestilence. Collectively known as “Amman,” or the Divine Mother, the goddesses of contagion – and it always goddesses, not gods – have been called on for their services before. They have been deployed in many of the deadly pandemics India has experienced from ancient times until the the modern age.
In conducting my fieldwork as a cultural anthropologist who studies religion, I have seen small shrines all over India dedicated to these goddesses of contagion, often in rural, forested areas outside village and town limits. The goddesses act as “celestial epidemiologists” curing illness. But if angered they can also inflict disease such as poxes, plagues, sores, fevers, tuberculosis and malaria. They are both poison and cure.
[...] During the COVID-19 crisis all the contagion goddesses have been re-conscripted. The Indian government’s quick action in instituting a stay-at-home lockdown that lasted two months prevented widespread contagion, but it also meant that people weren’t allowed to go to temples to worship the goddesses and ask for intervention. So priests offered special decorations, including garlands of acidic lemons believed to placate the goddesses.
The goddesses have also been recalled in posters by Indian artists that circulate through Facebook. Artist Sandhya Kumari’s rendering of “Coronavirus Mardini” – a hygienically masked Mother India attacking the coronavirus with a trident – recalled Shakti’s killing of evil, a familiar image to all Hindus. [...] In Kumari’s rendering, the goddess’s iconography is updated for the pandemic. The goddesses’ many gloved hands grasp sanitizer, masks, vaccination needles and other medical equipment. The coronavirus is held in chains, immovable and shorn of its virulence.
While controversies over temples reopening dominates the news, a new deity, crafted from polystyrene and called “Corona Devi” has been installed in a temple dedicated to the pox goddess. Mr. Anilan, the priest and single devotee, says he will offer worship for “Corona Warriors” – health care workers, firefighters, and other front line personnel. Here science and faith are not seen as inimical to one another, but as working together, hand-in-glove.
COVID-19 has undoubtedly increased the goddesses’ workload. And with no known cure and no viable vaccine, the contagion goddesses may well have their hands full for some time. (MORE - details)
https://premierchristian.news/en/news/ar...r-genocide
INTRO: A new report has highlighted the large scale of atrocities happening to Christians in Nigeria. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG FoRB) launched its report in parliament on Monday urging the UK government to pay attention and take action to stop the violence.
The report Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? focuses on the mass murders at the hands of terror group Boko Haram and armed groups of Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Boko Haram is the militant group which frequently abduct and kill those in northern states in Nigeria who refuse to conform to their extremist brand of Islam. Teenage schoolgirl Leah Sharibu is one of many examples.
Meanwhile "attacks by armed groups of Fulani herdsmen have resulted in the killing, maiming, dispossession and eviction of thousands of Christians" in Middle Belt states the report says. Baroness Caroline Cox, co-chair of APPG FoRB told Premier there have been at least 1,000 deaths this year due to such violence and at least 6,000 deaths since 2015. More than 2.5 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes. "Every statistic is a family, is a horror. Last year I was there. I had the poignant privilege of meeting a young mum, and she'd been with a little six year old daughter, then Fulani attacked a village," she said. (MORE)
RELATED (Forbes): Is Genocide Happening In Nigeria As The World Turns A Blind Eye?
India's goddesses of contagion provide protection in the pandemic – just don't make them angry
https://theconversation.com/indias-godde...gry-139745
EXCERPTS: Hindus in India have had a helping hand – several in fact – when it comes to fighting deadly contagions like COVID-19: multi-armed goddesses co-opted to help contain and kill pestilence. Collectively known as “Amman,” or the Divine Mother, the goddesses of contagion – and it always goddesses, not gods – have been called on for their services before. They have been deployed in many of the deadly pandemics India has experienced from ancient times until the the modern age.
In conducting my fieldwork as a cultural anthropologist who studies religion, I have seen small shrines all over India dedicated to these goddesses of contagion, often in rural, forested areas outside village and town limits. The goddesses act as “celestial epidemiologists” curing illness. But if angered they can also inflict disease such as poxes, plagues, sores, fevers, tuberculosis and malaria. They are both poison and cure.
[...] During the COVID-19 crisis all the contagion goddesses have been re-conscripted. The Indian government’s quick action in instituting a stay-at-home lockdown that lasted two months prevented widespread contagion, but it also meant that people weren’t allowed to go to temples to worship the goddesses and ask for intervention. So priests offered special decorations, including garlands of acidic lemons believed to placate the goddesses.
The goddesses have also been recalled in posters by Indian artists that circulate through Facebook. Artist Sandhya Kumari’s rendering of “Coronavirus Mardini” – a hygienically masked Mother India attacking the coronavirus with a trident – recalled Shakti’s killing of evil, a familiar image to all Hindus. [...] In Kumari’s rendering, the goddess’s iconography is updated for the pandemic. The goddesses’ many gloved hands grasp sanitizer, masks, vaccination needles and other medical equipment. The coronavirus is held in chains, immovable and shorn of its virulence.
While controversies over temples reopening dominates the news, a new deity, crafted from polystyrene and called “Corona Devi” has been installed in a temple dedicated to the pox goddess. Mr. Anilan, the priest and single devotee, says he will offer worship for “Corona Warriors” – health care workers, firefighters, and other front line personnel. Here science and faith are not seen as inimical to one another, but as working together, hand-in-glove.
COVID-19 has undoubtedly increased the goddesses’ workload. And with no known cure and no viable vaccine, the contagion goddesses may well have their hands full for some time. (MORE - details)
