J

an. 6, p. 6

For Indonesians, the religious conflicts in Nigeria have made this African country more infamous, beside its achievements in world soccer over the last three decades. This is not only because many Indonesians supported them each time they played in the World Cup, but also because since the 1990s, dozens of their talented players have played in our soccer league.

At the same time, at some Indonesian universities we saw many Nigerian nationals study, especially in Islamic majors. During my university years in 1994-1999, some Nigerian youths studied at the State Institute of Islamic Studies in Jakarta (now the State Islamic University) and lived among us. (By Khairil Azhar, Jakarta)

Your comments:

There have always been religious conflicts between the believers of different religions. Just read some Indian newspapers and you will find 10 to 20 cases daily, but the Western media does not report on such incidents. Now they are creating a strong negative propaganda against Islam. They collect all the bad news from Islamic countries and print it regularly.

Hameed

The cause of the conflict between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria is the Western world view that the latter has adopted. The Western world views Islam as a perennial threat to Western imperialism.

When Nigeria was colonized by the British, the churches and missionary schools were established and used to develop this world view in the minds of Christians and animists.

It is true that Muslims shunned missionary school education because the missions of these institutions were to infuse students with an anti-Islamic Western world view. Their aim was not to give scientific and technological knowledge as it was claimed.

Therefore, the cause of the conflict goes well beyond 1960 and lies with the imperial goals of Britain.

Ibrahim

Sometimes conflicts do take place between religions. But the level of violence in such conflicts is negligible when compared to what ideologies have done and continue to do.

The mass murder caused by Communism under Lenin and Mao, the Capitalist genocides in Iraq today
or in the America of yesterday (against the Native Americans) make religious violence pale into
insignificance.

It is true that Christianity committed mass murder of a similar magnitude, mainly in the past during the crusades. Today it primarily facilitates capitalist mass murder as a propaganda arm of capitalism.

Dan Fodio

There has never been an independent Islamic State of Nigeria, as has been suggested. Believing something does not make it true (as the members of Boko Haram will find if they ever test their theory that the earth is flat, because that’s what their Islamic education tells them.)

Some parts of what is now Nigeria used to belong to the Sokoto Caliphate. The southern part of what is Nigeria today did not.