Nigeria: Catholic Archbishop says hostility between Christians and Muslims arose because Islam came to country first
Saith Kaigama: “One may ask why the competitive spirit and even the hostility and intolerance between the two main religious groups in Nigeria? Perhaps it is because Islam was the first to arrive and the arrival of Christianity much later which like Islam, sought significant and visible presence among local populations, as well as strong and fast numerical increase of its members, triggered the unhealthy rivalry.”
Or maybe it’s because Islam has doctrines mandating warfare against unbelievers that have led Muslims throughout the 1,400-year history of Islam to pursue that warfare everywhere they have gone, as is abundantly documented, often from Islamic sources, in The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.
But the Catholic Church is committed to ignoring and denying that there is a jihad at all, and silencing those who dare to speak the truth about this threat. In light of that, it’s no surprise that Archbishop Kaigama would be so grievously unaware of the real reason why there is hostility between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“Why hostility, intolerance, violence persist between Muslims, Christians in Nigeria, by Kaigama,” Sun News Online, November 29, 2018:
Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, has identified reasons behind the competitive spirit, hostility and intolerance between adherents of Islamic and Christian religions in Nigeria.Kaigama made the disclosure during a paper presentation on Religious Freedom in Nigeria at the Presidential Palace, Malta….Kaigama said the early arrival of Islam in Nigeria before Christianity gave rise to the unhealthy rivalry.He also said that what probably is the reason for tension and violence between Muslims and Christians is perhaps the perception by Christians that Northern Muslims in Nigeria seem to consider their culture and religion to be superior to theirs.Kaigama further said the uneasy relationship the two religions had elsewhere before their arrival in Nigeria, influenced the competitive spirit, inexplicable tension, suspicious and sometimes, hostile relationship between Christian and Muslim adherents….“It is not contested that more Muslims populate the northern part of Nigeria while the South is more populated by Christians even though there are significant and vibrant Christian and Muslim groups in both the Northern and Southern part respectively.“Their significant numbers cannot and should not be underestimated, glossed over or ignored. Doing so is what ignites serious inter-religious tension and squabbles.“It is also noteworthy that there is more openness to peaceful coexistence, inter-religious marriages and common celebrations of feasts between Muslims and Christians in the southern part of the country than in the North where a hypersensitivity to the issues of religion exists so much so that the mere mention of a word that is thought to be blasphemy could lead to great conflagration and loss of lives.“The Miss World contest in 2002, when about 200 lives were needlessly lost because of the disapproval of some who felt that the whole exercise was unethical and the publication of the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in far away Denmark in 2005 which led to many deaths and before it, the new dimension of Sharia introduced in 1999 and propagated by the former Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Ahmad Sani Yerima, which almost polarised the nation, are cases in point.“One may ask why the competitive spirit and even the hostility and intolerance between the two main religious groups in Nigeria?“Perhaps it is because Islam was the first to arrive and the arrival of Christianity much later which like Islam, sought significant and visible presence among local populations, as well as strong and fast numerical increase of its members, triggered the unhealthy rivalry,” Kaigama said.Kaigama said another reason for uneasy relationship between Christians and Muslims is the fact that the British Colonial authorities favoured the North in their policy of ‘indirect rule.’He added that the Hausa and Arabic languages were used just as Muslim chiefs were imposed to rule over non-Muslim populations, saying that the situation in no small way, aided the penetration of Islam and the Islamisation of what is today Northern Nigeria….“What may be the reason for tension and violence today between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is perhaps the perception by Christians that Northern Muslims in Nigeria seem to consider their culture and religion to be superior to theirs which they refer to as pagan peoples (infidels) who must be subjected to Islamic rules and institutions. This sort of negative stereotyping gives rise to tension and eventual violence,” Kaigama stated.Concluding his presentation, Kaigama said no doubt religion plays a very crucial role in the lives of Nigerians, adding that the unhealthy rivalry between adherents of Islam and Christianity always pushed the nation to religiously inspired violence, especially in the North.He noted that violence occurred in the name of religion, but added that deep at the roots, there is social, economic, political and ethnic discontent by minority groups begging for attention….
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