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Religion as a powerful impulse in human existence plays a paradoxical role in society as it both contributes significantly in shaping the spiritual, socio-political and economic lives of millions of people and also acts as a source of conflict. The sad experience of interreligious conflict in Northern Nigeria challenges the claim of Islam and Christianity to be religions of peace. However, understood as closely intertwined with culture and custom of a people, religion can be central in the establishment of peace and conflict resolution in and between communities. This text using the model of dialogue (Nostra Aetate) explores and presents the socio-political and theological resources available in Northern Nigeria (the locality) for a consistent peace building process.
Analyses the complexities of Christian-Muslim conflict that threatens the fragile democracy of Nigeria, and the implications for global peace and security.
As the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish contributors to this volume have discovered firsthand, religion is better at fostering peace than at fueling war. Rarely, conclude the authors, is religion the principal cause of international conflict, even though some adversaries may argue differently. But religion can often be invaluable in promoting understanding and reconciliation-and the need to exploit that potential has never been greater. Drawing on their extensive experience in organizing interaction and cooperation across religious boundaries in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Northern Ireland, and the Balkans, the contributors explore the formidable potential of interfaith dialogue. The first part of the volume analyzes the concept and its varied application; the second focuses on its practice in specific zones of conflict; and the third assesses the experiences and approaches of particular organizations. When organized creatively, interfaith dialogue can nurture deep engagement at all levels of the religious hierarchy, including the community level. It draws strength from the peacemaking traditions shared by many faiths and from the power of religious ritual and symbolism. Yet, as the authors also make plain, it also has its limitations and carries great risks.
Nigeria, a country under a military regime for several years, transitioned to a civilian regime in May 1999. Since this change, violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims have continued to erupt. They constitute one of the gravest dangers facing Nigeria, a country with a population of 189 million people. What have Nigerian religious leaders done about this situation, especially in educational circles? Have they received formal educational training to understand the causes of this violence and especially how to provide alternatives for more peaceful relations within Nigeria? Does the current educational system in Nigeria provide the main ingredients for the promotion of a culture of peace? The absence and neglect of interreligious peace education as part of a peace education core program and the lack of an interreligious curriculum for peace education in the training of religious leaders are the two problems contributing towards the lack of effectiveness of religious leaders in promoting less violent and more peaceful living. The solution to the problem is proposed in this book entitled Interreligious Curriculum for Peace Education in Nigeria. The book develops a one-year curriculum, building on Yoruba, Islamic & Christian conceptions of peace, and teaches how to create safe, caring, spiritual, peaceful and successful interfaith relationships between all Nigerian religious communities. In the long term, the book helps to educate religious leaders to contribute, in themselves and with the help of their respective religious communities, to reducing the growing religious violence in Nigeria.
Over the past thirty years, relationships between ethnic and religious groups in the northern regions of Nigeria have deteriorated. Conflict occurs on an almost daily basis between Christians and Muslims. Most Nigerians consider themselves very religious which often leads followers of the major religions to fight to protect the teachings of their faith. The high level of illiteracy and lack of interreligious understanding between the faith groups contributes to the propensity for violent clashes in the region. The literature review discusses the concept of religious education, interfaith dialogue and interfaith education as models for peacebuilding in various contexts around the world. This study examined an interfaith education (IFE) pilot program as an approach for peacebuilding in two parts of Kaduna City, one predominantly Christian and the other predominantly Muslim. The study used a qualitative research method to collect data, analyze and interpret the perceptions and experiences of students, religious education teachers and parents with the IFE pilot project, which was introduced in their schools and communities. The study also investigated how students embraced the IFE curriculum in schools and the reactions of youth to interfaith activities in the community, like visiting places of worship of the other religious group. In addition, the study collected information on the perceptions of religious leaders and parents about IFE programs. Part of the research methodology involved asking students in small focus groups to draw an ideal community or a picture of their homes or a place of worship before conflict. Then the students were asked to turn the paper over and draw something they had witnessed during interreligious conflict in their communities. Most students either sketched their homes on fire or destroyed. Some portrayed perpetrators of the violence as standing with a weapon or even stabbing someone. The sketches were then used to stimulate discussion about interreligious conflict and its causes. A majority of the participants indicated their support of IFE curriculum in schools and Community Peace Action Networks in the communities. The participants highlighted several problems that they felt contributed to the conflicts. The use of the term “arni” or infidel was cited as often triggering violence because it is such a derogatory term. Other participants pointed to poorly educated, untrained and unsupervised religious leaders who incite their followers. Participants also suggested that the IFE curriculum be used outside of schools in order to reach the many out-of-school youth who are involved in interfaith violence. The research recommended that education, regulating religious preachers, promoting reconciliation efforts, good leadership and a nationwide campaign on interfaith dialogue would contribute to peacebuilding in northern Nigeria.
In this book, Dr. Olufemi Oluniyi takes a fresh look at Muslim-Christian violence which has become synonymous with the name of Northern Nigeria. It is fresh in the sense that he takes a historical approach to the problem, dating back to the founding of Northern Nigeria. This approach inevitably brings to the fore the culpability of the colonial government for the institutionalisation of inequality and for pursuing policies which are tantamount to planting the seeds of religious violence for post-independence fruitage and harvest. By highlighting the role of the colonial administration, he is by no means suggesting that post-independence perpetrators of violence are less culpable for their crimes against humanity. Rather, the highlight is meant to raise awareness of what was really going on, despite offical cover-up.