Video of Nigerian Atheist Gathering Disrupted By Witchcraft Believers

The other day, I wrote this:

Leo Igwe is a Humanist and Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.

He recently returned from a conference run by the British Humanist Association, having also given an interview about superstition in his country to the BBC. He was ready to attend a conference he helped organize on “Child Rights and Witchcraft.”

The conference took place in Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria. It’s an important topic because accusations of witchcraft could (and have) lead to the accused being killed.

As the conference began, 150-200 religious protestors raided the conference and started disrupting the proceedings. Chaos ensued.

Leo’s glasses were broken and his bag, phone and camera were stolen. It took 90 minutes for cops to arrive.

There’s now video of the disruption. Watch as the people in the orange shirts disrupt the peaceful meeting. At first, it’s only an annoyance, but later, it gets more aggressive:

Remember: The people wearing white are the good guys. They’re trying to educate Africans on why it’s wrong to be superstitious, why “witchcraft” and “curses” are not real. They’re being stopped (albeit temporarily — the humanists won’t give up) by the people who believe in nonsense.

(via Center For Inquiry — Thanks to Henry for the link!)

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Cat’s Staff

If I didn’t know what was going on…the way the orange shirted thugs are carrying on, I would think that someone left the door to the local asylum open.
Chemist

To me, it looks like the rethuglican, mob-rule townhall disrupters demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate. Oh, they don’t want government health care, either — just don’t touch Medicare, VA hospitals, or Congressional health insurance ….

All these actions are dictated by a primitive part of the brain stem also used by reptiles and (former) dinosaurs.
Shane

Chemist, I don’t think accusing your opponents of using only the primitive part of their brain is informative or helpful. It is really failing to even attempt to understand the situation. Yes, American Republicans are a wacky bunch, but you are just falling into the same in-group/out-group trap (where “actions are dictated by a primitive part of the brain stem”, if you will).

That being said, I don’t claim to now or understand what motivates them, but I think it is a little small-minded and disingenuous to disregard the humanity of their intellect. I’m Canadian, though, so I don’t generally have contact with such people.

Also, I know America is the Center of the Universe, but there are, occasionally, unrelated things happening in other parts of the world.
joel

Please note that according to one of the leaders of this little cadre of ignorant fools, this is all being done in the name of Jesus. Yep, killing children, killing adults, razing homes to the ground, and destroying families. It’s all for Jesus. Thank you Christian Missionaries. Thank you so very, very much. Although, this superstition probably existed before the missionaries stepped foot in Afarica, the rise of Christianity has only encouraged this type of ingorant behavior to continue.
Henry

This conference was part of an ongoing anti-superstition campaign kicked off in May by the Center for Inquiry.

Here is the link to the CFI release on the incident.

Or visit here: http://tinyurl.com/UkpabioAssault

Thanks, Hemant, for posting the video.
Dan W

What a bunch of lunatics! The orange-shirted religious fanatics just seem completely out of their minds.