“Religion is not the only driver of the mass atrocities,” said Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, in December testimony before members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Not all 40 million members of the Fulani ethnic group in the region are Islamic extremists. However, there is evidence that some fraction of the Fulani have an explicit jihadist agenda. …
“A mounting number of attacks in this region also evidence deep religious hatred, an implacable intolerance of Christians, and an intent to eradicate their presence by violently driving them out, killing them or forcing them to convert.”
In a sobering Feb. 23 statement, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria warned that the “nation is falling apart.”
But conditions could quickly get worse, the bishops said, because the “clamor for self-defense is fast gaining ground. Many ethnic champions are loudly beating the drums of war, calling not only for greater autonomy but even for outright opting out of a nation in which they have lost all trust. … Calls for secession on an ethnic basis from many quarters should not be ignored or taken lightly.”
During the Lenten season preceding Easter, which is on April 4 for Catholics and Western Christians, the Nigerian bishops led a protest march in the rain, starting at the National Christian Center in the capital city of Abuja, in the center of Nigeria.
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