Extreme Muslim youths attack carpenter for not fasting

The signs are that religious extremism is on the rise again in the Northern part of Nigeria. Barely a week after an Igbo woman, Mrs Bridget Agbahime was murdered in Kano for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Mohammed, extreme Muslim youths in Kakuri, in Kaduna South Local Government Area, almost killed a 41-year-old carpenter, Mr. Francis Emmanuel Francis for not observing the Ramadan fast.

According to an eye witness, Francis attracted trouble when he was caught by the Muslim boys in the Sokoto Road area of Kakuri, around 2.30pm, eating when others were supposedly fasting. This angered them and they started pounding him.
It was gathered that the carpenter was beaten to pulp and was subsequently rushed to the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital, where he is now receiving medical treatment.
He was inflicted with deep machete cuts on his head and other parts of his body and he almost lost his right eye.

Telling his ordeal to journalists from his hospital bed, Emmanuel said he was taking his lunch when the boys, numbering about six, pounced on him for not fasting.
He said, “I went to buy wood to do some work. When I came back, I bought food to eat. As I was eating, about six Hausa boys came and asked me whether I was a Muslim or a Christian. I did not answer them. They asked me why I was not fasting. 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. I didn’t know them. Nobody could come to my aid because of the type of dangerous knives they were carrying.

“They used cutlasses, scissors and knives. I became unconscious; I don’t even know who brought me to the hospital.”