BY JAMES SIMONS
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Police are said to have arrested a group of men following an argument over religion that ended up with a number of people thrown in the Sea. 24 migrants were feared dead yesterday after a dispute between a group of Christians and Muslims turned sour on Sea en route to Italy. Only four days earlier, 400 people had died on a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Libya after their boat sank. After the stricken vessel was spotted by a plane, an Italian navy ship was sent to the spot, but only 4 survivors were found alive. The survivors who come from Nigeria, Ghana, and Niger said they were part of a group of 45 people that set sail from Libya.
They told of the deadly stand off between a group of Muslims and their own Christian group which got out of control, after they chose to declare their Christian faith among the Muslims. A fight broke out in the boat, during which 12 Nigerian and 12 Ghanaian individuals were chucked in the sea. The survivors spoke of their struggle to escape with their lives by forcefully resisting attempts to drown them, in some cases forming a chain to make it difficult fir their attackers to achieve their aim. The survivors had also been embroiled in the fight but lucky to be alive after the carnage and deaths that followed a stupid row over whose God is the right one. A Christian zeal mixed with a Muslim passion is a bad mix.
Sources from both Nigeria and Ghana have told eye of media that Christians from Nigeria and Ghana often make a habit of impressing their faith on others as a group whenever they travel together as groups. One source from Ghana who didn’t want to be named said ”it is very likely the Christians expressed their faith to Muslims who were very radical and who could not tolerate the Christian zeal, which is sometimes delivered with a fervor that can be construed as imposition. A clash can be inevitable in those circumstances”.
Police from the Siciliian port of Palermo confirmed that 15 migrants were arrested on suspicion of ”multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate”. The incident provides a grim reminder why intense dispute over religion is never worth the energy, because of the value judgement on which such convictions are based. Just think that a number of people who set out for a nice holiday, in actual fact ironically set out on a journey to their untimely death. All for the sake of whose God is the right God. Members of both groups that took part in the fight could have avoided the senseless melee with a bit of foresight because of where they were.
I’ll tell you what, whoever’s God was the right one sure wasn’t impressed as he let them go straight down the sea! Or I guess some will say it was their time to go. In a fight? No, they bungled it because a fight should not take place in a boat over religion. By both their standards, they surely won’t make heaven will they?Not after a fight!
