Articles Analyze Background of Nigeria's Muslim-Christian Violence

Nigeria's Daily Sun this week published an extensive two-part article explaining the background of the recent much-publicized Muslim-Christian violence in the city of Jos. (See prior posting.) Part 1 of the article titled Beyond the Black Friday in Jos says that "an incendiary mix of factors including politics, ethnicity, religion and class combine to create ideal circumstances for sectarian violence" which is common in northern Nigeria. Part 2 says that "the Federal Government must work on erecting a wall of separation between religion and politics," including an end to sponsorship of Mecca and Jerusalem pilgrimages. It also complains that "a frightening number of our young people are unemployed, unschooled and unskilled. They live on the margins of the society from where they can be recruited to torch churches and mosques or to blow up oil pipelines." It analyzes the cause: "some politicians come in the name of Allah; others come in the name of Jesus. The end result is the same – the plunder of the treasury and the impoverishment of the people."