The Religion of Free Speech and Freedom of Religion in Africa. Blasphemy against the 'Prophet' Mohammed is a capital offense under Islamic law.

Reuters:

Nigerian authorities have imposed a night curfew on the northern town of Dutse after Muslim mobs burned 11 churches over what they said was blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad by a Christian woman, police said on Thursday.

Scores of houses and shops owned by Christians were also torched in the capital of remote Jigawa state during a riot on Wednesday sparked by a disagreement between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, police spokesman Haz Iwendi said.

No one was killed in the riot but up to seven people were injured, Iwendi said.

"Eleven churches and so many houses and shops were burned. The house of the Anglican bishop was also ransacked," he said, adding that hundreds of Christians fled their homes to military and police barracks fearing further attacks.

According to the website Islam Memo, one Christian was killed in Baghdad after the Pope's speech two days ago. The speech created a wave of anger throughout the Islamic world, including Iraq. A poster has been placed in many Baghdad mosques for the previously unknown group, "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi," (Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions). This group threatens to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize in three days in front of the whole world to Mohammed.

Sources at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital announced on Saturday the death of a second Assyrian Christian who fell victim to multiple stab wounds at the Assyrian market in the Doura District. His murder comes a day after the attack on Syriac Catholic Church in the Ashar district of central Basra where another man was murdered.

Christian Leaders in Iraq have asked their parishioners to be extremely cautious and not to leave their homes as a new group called the young Brigades of Fundamental Islam ' has distributed papers announcing the slaying of all Iraqi Christians in three days if the Pope does not Apologize.

According to the insurgency-loyal news website, islammemo.cc, the bishop of the Syriac Catholic Church has also taken his plea to the central government of Iraq and the coalition forces in hopes that they intervene and offer protection to the native Christians.

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