'Mutating virus' of militant Islam

The predominantly Christian area of Gwoza in Borno state in northern Nigeria is under seige. Suspected Boko Haram militants have burned more than 1,000 homes to ashes; one source said more than 300 people had been killed.

In one village, militants told villagers to gather to hear them preach. When they gathered, they opened fire. More than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls are still held.

Church leaders gathered in London at the weekend for an emergency conference on the crisis. Pastor Ade Omooba, co-founder of Christian Concern, warned that militant Islamism is a virus in the atmosphere which mutates, affecting people in Britain as well as abroad.

"I want to emphasise that what we are seeing playing out in Nigeria is part of a much wider threat to the free world from a militant form of Islam that seeks to destroy Christianity and freedom of expression.

"Nations are sleepwalking if they think they are free from a faraway threat of Islamic ideologues. These people are out to destroy the freedoms that Christian democracies have provided - freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom to follow beliefs without fear of persecution, torture, rape and death.

"Militant Islamism will destroy the lives of those who join it, as well as the lives of their families and communities. Just look at the mutations of this radical Islamist virus - across the world we have al Qaeda, al Shabab, the Army of Islam, Hezbollah, Harak al Mujahadeen and Boko Haram. They are all part of a worldwide ideology, which is bent on imposing a sharia regime in every land."

You have been warned.