Causes of Sectarian Violence: Resources or Religion?

I have long contemplated the issue of religious sectarian violence. I am glad to see a journalist taking issue with the subject, while all too often journalists and politicians accept religious sectarianism to be the self-evident cause of violence. Sectarianism certainly exists, but the level at which it operates as a cause of violence can vary greatly. It seems to me that religion plays the biggest role in organizing and then mobilizing violence whenever sectarianism is a real issue, but rarely are we informed about how religious leaders use rhetoric and rituals to motivate and mobilize their followers. As noted below, discussions of religious sectarian violence more often than not impede investigations into what resources are being fought over or for, such as land, water, political/military control, etc. This is something that we should always keep in mind whenever we read the code word: sectarian violence.

Here are some excerpts from the article, Violence in Nigeria: resources, not religion | Peter Cunliffe-Jones:

"Calling the killings in Jos sectarian is wrong. Resources, not religion, are the cause – made worse by bad government

Even by Nigerian standards, the city of Jos, which was the scene of hundreds of killings this weekend, is a disputatious place.

In a country where bloodshed is all too frequent, the Tin City, set in among the hills of Nigeria's central Plateau region, has gained an unenviable reputation for bloody violence in recent years – a symbol to the outside world of the supposed enmity between the country's Muslim and Christian populations.

Many hundreds – some say, up to 2,000 – died there in fighting between Muslims and Christians in 2001, when I was reporting on Nigeria for the AFP news agency. Hundreds more died in new fighting in 2008, and hundreds again died in January and this weekend.

In Jos, as elsewhere, the cause of fighting has, more often been the struggle for resources than it has religion. In Jos, my AFP colleague Aminu Abubakar reports that the original cause of the latest clash was the alleged theft of cattle, blamed by a group of settler-farmers on a group of cattle herders. Often the fighting in the north is between the semi-nomadic cattle herders (who happen to be mostly Muslim) and settler-farmers (who happen to be mostly Christian), fighting about the diminishing access to land.

'For all those who will go out and fight their Muslim or Christian brothers on the streets, there are many more (Nigerians) who will take them into their home to protect them, when fighting breaks out,' a Nigerian Islamic law student once told me, attending an animist festival in the south.

The reason these conflicts turn deadly in Nigeria is not any greater degree of religious animosity there than elsewhere, however much exists. The reason is poor government: one that fails to send in troops early enough to quell trouble when it flares and never jails those responsible when it is over. Mediation of disputes is too often left to others, too.

Religion may indeed be a dividing line in Nigeria. But politics, problem-solving and resource management hold the key to peace in Nigeria

Peter Cunliffe-Jones

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