The latest clashes in the Nigerian city of Jos between Christians and Muslims have left 200 dead. Jos finds itself located in Nigeria about midway between the Muslim North and the Christian South, its population almost equally divided religiously as well. The latest round of carnage was sparked by the proposal of a new mosque near a Christian dominant neighbourhood. The city has seen past bloodshed and death over Christian/Muslim tensions. There are just over 71 million Christians in Nigeria according to a 2008 census. That's more than 3x the number of Christians in Canada (2001 StatsCan census). There is almost an equal number of Muslims in Nigeria.
Anyone who thinks religious conflict is a thing of the past, or only a thing that happens "over there" is in for a surprise. The fact is, most of the world's population (about 6.8 billion) is religiously inclined (about 86%). Numbers are growing everyday, and as populations are forced into closer and closer living situations, sparks are bound to fly. It doesn't take a prophet to see that incidents like the one in Jos will only become more common.
For people who listen to Western Muslims and Christians condemn the violence with dismissals like "This isn't Islam!" or "This isn't the spirit of Christianity!" it becomes more and more confusing. If this isn't what these religions stand for, why is there such a vast number of people calling themselves by "Muslim" or "Christian" engaging in conflict? Can it be social and economic factors? This is the usual move by Western liberal media. One can't honestly question aloud whether violence isn't inherently part of the religious paradigm itself, at least not in the media. Until these kinds of conversations are openly held in a public forum without labeling those who participate as intolerant how can we ever get beyond the Western-centric bias that religion is a private matter?
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