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Tensions abate following attacks on church in Senegal
Stone-throwing neighbors complain of loud music
Compass (22.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (24.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Tensions within a neighborhood in Dakar, Senegal, have eased in the wake of two recent attacks on an Assemblies of God congregation after some residents raised angry complaints that music and praise during the churchs late night programs kept them awake.
According to Senior Pastor Mignane Ndour, the first signs of difficulty for Bethel Church in Dakars Dieupeul III district surfaced on July 4, during a monthly prayer vigil held from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. About 60 church members meet on the first Friday of each month, starting their vigil with singing outside the church building where it is cooler. After midnight they move inside.
A woman living in an adjacent house came and said they were preventing the neighborhood from sleeping. She said she would raise the issue with the community and threatened to burn down the concrete block church, Pastor Ndour told Compass.
At the next prayer vigil on August 8, she returned to the church and, calling the believers undisciplined, repeated her threat to set the church ablaze. She then started to enlist neighborhood backing with a petition against the church, which was eventually signed by 54 families.
The first violent attack on the church took place two days later, during the first of a series of Sunday praise concerts during the month of August held from 5 to 8 p.m. At about 7:30 as the band was playing just outside the church, a group of about 50 young people started pelting stones en masse, Ndour said. Two women aged 16 and 45 were hurt.
As the neighbors were throwing stones, Ndour went to the nearby police station, but he was told there were no available officers to send. On August 11, the pastor lodged an official complaint against the woman as the main instigator of the attack.
During the evening praise concert the following Sunday, a group of young men burst into the church grounds around 7:30 p.m., tearing down part of a fence. Sticks and stones rained down from adjacent buildings, smashing a windowpane and sending people running for cover. An 11-year-old boy was hit with a stone on the forehead, went into a coma for about 30 minutes and was hospitalized for three days.
Three others were also hurt in the attack. Church officials retained medical certificates as proof of the injuries.
A police van arrived at the scene some minutes after the pastor went to the police station and identified some of young people involved in the attack. Two of them were arrested and spent the night in jail.
Sources close to the church point out that these incidents were not the result of religious tensions in this historically tolerant society, but rather an issue of sound systems, drums and neighbors who thought the praise music was simply too loud.
If they would come to us and tell us that our program of prayer vigils prevents them from sleeping, we would find a solution. We are here for peace. But it is necessary that the people ... recognize the right of worship and the Constitution of Senegal (which guarantees freedom of religion), Ndour said.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Senegal and many churches have expressed their support for the Bethel congregation. Some 60 percent of those attending the church, which has been in the neighborhood for several years, are expatriates from other African countries.
Its a problem of cohabitation, said Pastor Raphael Dione, national president of the Association of Assemblies of God Churches in Senegal and a former pastor of Bethel Church. For the moment it is important to calm the spirits within the community and continue to look to reconcile and find solutions.
He noted that relations with many community members involved in the incidents have already improved, and that the congregation has temporarily suspended its monthly all-night prayer meetings.
Dione said that church leaders have met with the mayor and prefect (governor) regarding the attacks. Protestant and Catholic representatives will seek an audience with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in the coming weeks to bring to his attention incidents of this kind which have happened in recent years.
Over 90 percent of the population of Senegal is estimated to be Muslim; nevertheless, the small Christian minority enjoys religious liberty as guaranteed by the West African countrys constitution. In reporting the August 17 incident, the daily Walfadjri newspaper noted: Its certainly true that Christians make up a weak minority in Senegal, but they have never been the object of a sentiment of hate from Muslims. Being in the majority does not mean denying others the right to exist and to express themselves. |
