LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Jittery shopowners deadbolted their shops early Friday in some towns in northern Nigeria as Muslim-Christian tensions high after an outbreak of lethal inter-religious fighting.
Riots that broke out after Muslim Friday prayers last week claimed at least dozens - hundreds, more likely - of lives. Thousands of homes, mosques and churches were charred ruins.
There were no immediate reports of new fighting but this week's attacks on the United States also have fueled anger between northern Nigeria's Christians and Muslims, with a few Muslim extremists reportedly calling for public celebrations to mark the U.S. killings.
A mosque at the compound of Nigeria's defense headquarters in the capital, Abuja, closed its doors to the public Friday for the first time in recent memory, witnesses said.
Authorities gave no reason, although security was visibly beefed up around the place of worship.
At another mosque in Abuja's Garki Area One neighborhood, a Muslim cleric, or imam, appeared to focus attention on Palestinians, asking those worshipping to ``pray for the souls of those who have died, lost property and had to take shelter in refugee camps.''
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 120 million people, is divided into predominantly Muslim north and largely Christian south. Tensions between the two communities have repeatedly exploded since the introduction of Islamic law, or sharia, in several northern states.
Thousands have died in the clashes.
Mainstream Muslim and Christian clerics have repeatedly called for an end to the fighting and Islamic leaders have tried to calm Christian fears by assuring them that Islamic laws would not be imposed on non-Muslims.
On Friday, market owners hurriedly locked their shops in the towns of Keffi and Suleija not far from Abuja as rumors swirled that Muslims were launching attacks against Christian Igbos, the southeastern ethnic group that dominates Nigeria's mercantile trade.
There was no confirmation of any such attacks.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has called sharia a political ``gimmick'' to stir up opposition to his two-year-old elected government, this week visited Zamfara, the first state to impose Islamic law.
Zamfara's governor banned women from appearing at a public gathering to celebrate the presidential visit but witnesses said a number women openly defied the order.
AP-NY-09-14-01 1811EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.