Ignorance the root of Muslim and Christian clash in Jos


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Only yesterday, a locally contested election between a Christian and a Muslim candidate resulted in mayhem after the Christian candidate emerged winner of the council poll in Jos, Nigeria.

Only yesterday, a locally contested election between a Christian and a Muslim candidate resulted in mayhem after the Christian candidate emerged winner of the council poll in Jos, Nigeria.

Over 50 people have been killed and many more reported wounded, as Islamist rioters vandalize properties in protest of their candidates defeat. According to reports, the situation resulted to unrest in the religiously divided city, with Christians burning mosques and Muslims burning churches.

However the mayhem has been handled by a dusk-to-dawn curfew and an army of soldiers deployed to restore order.

Jos is known for its phases of Christian and Islamic communities that have not resented from going at each other once the opportunity arose. A most recent incident was in 2001, when more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in the city. In 2004, a state of emergency was declared in Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, after more than 200 Muslims were killed in the town of Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia.

Reports say communal violence in Nigeria is complex, but it often boils down to competition for resources such as land between those that see themselves as the true indigenes of an area, and those that are considered to be more recent settlers.

In Plateau State, Christians are regarded as the indigenes and Hausa-speaking Muslims the settlers.

The protests started overnight with singing and burning of tyres on the roads by groups of Islamist youths over reports of election rigging.

The election result has not been officially announced but the protests turned violent after a rumor spread that the opposition Islamist candidate to lead the local council had been defeated.

It can be said that people have, in ignorance, fought over different religious views and needlessly so.

According to Martin, a Jos University student “We have claimed our God to be right and the only God and other people’s Gods, we have called wrong, idolatrous and pagan, yet we speak of the same entity. Another reason why this religious altercation is saddening is because Christianity and Islam did not originate in our communities”.

It was enforced on us when religious imperialism was the order of the day. It is indeed a shame that today we kill our own brothers and sisters over what we were coerced to accept. Why must we fight whenever something stems up that pinches our different religious views.” He continued.

At this level education is the only way to get people to understand that such concepts as the birth of organized religion, the history of a people, and civility, especially a society struggling to survive, are three worlds away from the rest.”

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