KAKURI, Nigeria — Young Muslim men stabbed a non-Muslim in Kaduna state, Nigeria, on June 7 for failing to observe a daytime fast during the month-long Islamic celebration of Ramadan, according to local reports.
Francis Emmanuel Olokpo sustained multiple wounds in the attack. At St. Gerard Hospital in Kaduna City, he said he was recovering well.
The 41-year-old carpenter recently said he had gone to a market to buy wood and returned to his workplace in Kakuri.
“As I was eating, about six Muslims came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian but I did not answer them,” he said from his hospital bed. “They asked why I was not fasting, then I told them that I am not a Muslim. Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives.”
Kaduna City Gov. Nasir El-Rufai visited Olokpo June 8 at the hospital and later told reporters his administration would not accept the use of force and coercion to compel others to embrace religious beliefs.
“Nigeria is a free country and that means no imposition of faith or religious practices on anyone,” El-Rufai said. “We should not allow differences in faith to be a barrier to harmony or a cause for conflict.”
(MS)
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