IRIN Focus on underlying religious tensions

//The following report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations// LAGOS, 24 September (IRIN) - Life is returning to normal in the central Nigerian city of Jos after bloody clashes earlier this month between Muslims and Christians, but there are fears that the underlying tensions may have wider national and international ramifications. The violence, which started on 7 September, caused businesses and offices to remain closed for the better part of two weeks. Although the estimated 500 people killed have been buried, grim reminders of the carnage that occurred remain. Charred buildings dot the city. Burnt-out cars litter the streets. And over 15,000 displaced people sheltering in military barracks, police compounds and other public places are awaiting relocation. "That such a thing happened at all in Jos means that the ethnic and religious crisis rocking Nigeria in the past two years has crossed a critical threshold," Cheche Okpaga, a graduate of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, near Jos, told IRIN. "Right now it could happen anywhere in Nigeria and could easily envelop the whole nation." For many people, Jos was an unlikely place for sectarian violence. Populated predominantly by Christians from the many ethnic groups found in Nigeria’s north-central plateau region, the capital of Plateau State had been renowned for its liberal, cosmopolitan disposition. With a mild climate ranging between 15 and 25 degrees centigrade all year round, it had always been a favourite destination of European tourists and settlers since the then British colonisers opened the tin mines that led to the building of the city about a century ago. Jos also attracted large numbers of Hausa-Fulani Muslims from further north, who came as traders, and similar numbers of Christians from Nigeria’s southern states. A cocktail of ethnic, religious and political grievances Many people now trace the recent religious violence to the strong feelings aroused among local people by the introduction of strict Islamic or Sharia law in several predominantly Muslim northern states in the past two years. Jos was particularly affected by the violence that last year rocked the northern city of Kaduna, which has a large non-Muslim population, following proposals to introduce Sharia there. "A large number of the southern Christians who felt compelled to leave Kaduna because of the tension and insecurity there chose Jos as their next destination," Phil Nwachukwu, a resident of the city told IRIN. “Many came with their grievances against Muslims as well, and this has not helped inter-religious relations at all." However, there was also a mix of other political grievances among the local people against the Hausa-Fulanis that ultimately made the city highly combustible. For one, the Islamic conquests that entrenched both the Muslim religion and Hausa-Fulani rule in large parts of northern Nigeria in the early 19th century did not penetrate the plateau area and most of the central region. However, following British colonial conquest, they were to become part of Northern Nigeria, where the British practised indirect rule using the Islamic emirs as proxy rulers. Hausa-Fulani political domination continued after Nigeria’s independence in 1960, with long-bottled resentment erupting periodically into violence, such as the Tiv riots in the 1960s, periodic communal clashes in the Tafawa Balewa area of Bauchi State since the 1940s, and a crisis between the Hausa and Kataf communities in Kaduna State in 1992. But because Ahmadu Bello, the leading Hausa-Fulani political figure of the 1950s and 1960s, watered down the application of Sharia, keeping it out of criminal matters and restricting it to personal matters, he was successful in dispelling the fears of ethnic minorities in the region, giving credibility to the political notion of a united northern Nigeria. Things fall apart with introduction of strict Sharia Things have been unravelling rapidly with the return of strict Sharia in several northern states, which has awakened previously dormant fears of domination among non-Muslim ethnic minorities. Therefore, when President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government some months ago appointed a Hausa-Fulani Muslim to head a poverty alleviation programme for the Plateau State capital, it raised the hackles of the indigenes. Thus began the build-up of the tension that exploded in violence a few weeks later, ignited by a quarrel outside a mosque between Muslims at prayer and a Christian woman. And as Jos burned, the ripples were felt in far-flung parts of Africa’s most populous country. In the mainly Muslim city of Kano to the north, militant youths burned a major church in reprisal for the attacks on Muslims in Jos. In the predominantly Christian city of Onitsha in the southeast, Hausa-speaking Muslims were killed in reprisal for attacks on southerners. The disturbances also coincided with the attack launched on major landmarks in New York and Washington by suspected Islamic extremists. In Nigeria there were signs that religious sympathies coloured some of the responses to the tragic events. Newspaper reports said some youths in the northern state of Zamfara, the first to introduce strict Sharia law, rejoiced at the sad fate that befell the United States. A Lagos university teacher, Nna Odo, expressed his strong pro-Christian, anti-Muslim bias, when he told 'Vanguard', a Lagos daily, that the United States should invade Arab countries in retaliation. Some analysts feel that such reactions contain a warning for Nigeria's authorities even if the mainstream reaction has been sympathy with the US people, irrespective of religious beliefs. "If the developments related to the U.S. attacks in the international arena are allowed to fall along the Christian-Muslim divide, it is not unlikely that Nigeria could easily become one of the major flashpoints of worldwide religious conflict that might emerge," political analyst Johnson Okonjo told IRIN. The government does not appear unmindful of the risks either. Since the Jos riots, it has made efforts to get the Nigerian Inter-religious Council, which comprises Christian and Muslim leaders and has been largely dormant since it was set up by Obasanjo in the first year of his term, to work seriously towards dousing religious tension. Security agencies on the look-out for agitators Security agencies, following a new government directive in the aftermath of the U.S. terror attacks, are also now watching out for international infiltrators who might want to take advantage of increasing hostility between Muslims and Christians in the country to foment more sectarian trouble. A report in the ‘Punch’ daily said the move was informed by the fact that Mohammed Suleiman al-Nalfi, who was wanted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York, was arrested last year at Lagos airport and handed over to US law enforcement agents. Several Afghans and Pakistanis had also been arrested in recent months in Nigeria and deported because, according to the authorities, they could not give satisfactory explanations of their mission in the country. Haz Iwendi, spokesman of the Nigeria Police confirmed the new security directive last week. "We have beefed up security around the various embassies," he said. "We are also working on theories that terrorists may have links in Nigeria. We are working with Interpol ... All our men are on full alert."