{"id":15141,"date":"2016-05-26T09:05:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T09:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=15141"},"modified":"2016-05-26T09:05:08","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T09:05:08","slug":"nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"NIGERIA &#8211; \u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d \u2013 Cardinal and bishop appeal for peace and unity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a terrible wind blowing around our country right now. There are so many people who are fanning the flames of discord and of hatred and it is becoming very difficult to preach unity and mutual natural love and there are those who are already envisaging a clash between Christians and Muslims&#8221;. These alarming words were spoken by Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, after the recent massacres of Christians attributed to Fulani herdsmen in the southeast of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Onaiyekan said: &#8220;There are those who are interpreting the clash between herdsmen and farmers as the front line of this battle. Some are sharpening their cutlasses getting ready for the big battle&#8221;. He added &#8220;Thanks to be God there are many Nigerians who believe that we are not doomed to kill one another and that there is hope for us to live together as fellow Nigerians&#8221;. Cardinal Onaiyekan always reminds people of this when he is abroad. &#8220;I will go all over the world boasting of this, telling them that in Nigeria, we have not less than 80 million Christians, 80 million Muslims, living side by side, day by day at every level of our lives&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>While the Diocese of Nsukka in southeastern Nigeria is still coming to terms with the massacre of dozens of Christians, Bishop Godfrey Igwebuike Onah has urged Catholics of his diocese and all those affected by the violence to embrace peace even in the face of such \u201cpersistent provocation.\u201d He warned them \u00a0to resist the temptation to seek revenge, calling such actions not only illegal, but also un-Christian:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the name of God, I appeal to my peace-loving people to please remain law abiding and not to take the law into their hands,\u201d he said. \u201cReprisal attacks are not the answer.\u201d Even in light of such violence, Bishop Onah said that the diocese has \u201cabsolute faith in the abiding presence of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pleaded\u00a0 for an end to violence: \u201cFor decades (Nigerians) have continued to senselessly slaughter ourselves, squander our resources and destroy our environment. We call on all to please stop this madness, so that, as a people, we may realize our full potential for the benefit of all and to the glory of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Bishop Onah said \u201cWe are also living in fear because we do not know where and when the armed militants will strike next.\u201d He added that he found it disturbing that while the attackers killed indiscriminately, \u201cthe only houses they attacked were Christian religious houses &#8230;. We are forced to ask: If these men were only herdsmen, why did they particularly single out Churches for their attack?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Indigenous People of Biafra and the Christian Association of Nigeria\u00a0 believe that Fulani aggression is an attempt to \u201cIslamize\u201d Nigeria, whose population is currently roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Attacks in Nigeria and Central African Republic by the Fulani, who are thought to be linked with terrorist group Boko Haram, have increased alarmingly in recent years. At least 1,229 people are thought to have been killed by the Fulani in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Onaiyekan stated that &#8220;one of the primary duties of government is to ensure security of life and property of all Nigerians\u201d and it was the governments duty to clamp down on violence. &#8220;We all suffer because of corruption. We have a common task to insist on good government, to insist also on honesty in government. To do this, we must come together and fix our country&#8221;, he urged.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced after the latest massacre that his government \u201cwill not allow these attacks to continue.\u201d Bishop Onah thanked Buhari for his order to police and military to bring the perpetrators to justice, but said that only \u201cconcrete actions\u201d taken by local and federal government officials will \u201clead to the return of normalcy in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bishop added: \u00a0\u201cAll of us heaved a sigh of relief after the general elections and the smooth handover last year. But any further delay in dealing with this and similar cases all over the country may lead those who made that prediction (that Nigeria would collapse) to affirm that its realization has only been delayed not avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d \u2013 Cardinal and bishop appeal for peace and unity &nbsp; &#8220;There is a terrible wind blowing around our country right now. There are so many people who are fanning the flames of discord and of hatred and it is becoming very difficult to preach unity and mutual natural&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NIGERIA - \u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NIGERIA - \u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d \u2013 Cardinal and bishop appeal for peace and unity &nbsp; &#8220;There is a terrible wind blowing around our country right now. There are so many people who are fanning the flames of discord and of hatred and it is becoming very difficult to preach unity and mutual natural...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-26T09:05:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Cardinal-John-Onaiyekan-of-Abuja-with-the-President-of-the-Council-of-the-European-Union-Herman-Van-Rompuy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1021\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"NIGERIA - \u201cStop fanning the flames of religious discord\u201d - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Cardinal-John-Onaiyekan-of-Abuja-with-the-President-of-the-Council-of-the-European-Union-Herman-Van-Rompuy.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-26T09:05:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-26T09:05:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Cardinal-John-Onaiyekan-of-Abuja-with-the-President-of-the-Council-of-the-European-Union-Herman-Van-Rompuy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Cardinal-John-Onaiyekan-of-Abuja-with-the-President-of-the-Council-of-the-European-Union-Herman-Van-Rompuy.jpg\",\"width\":1021,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/05\/26\/nigeria-stop-fanning-the-flames-of-religious-discord-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NIGERIA &#8211; 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