BY
“This is the experience that we are facing in Nigeria: There exist the ‘fanatic’ Muslims — to use a bad word — just as there are also fanatic Christians.”
Is that so? As of today, there have been 33,503 violent jihad terror attacks worldwide since 9/11. How many violent attacks have there been in that span by fanatic Christians doing violence in the name of Christianity? It is commonplace to hear of violent Muslims trying to kill non-Muslims while screaming “Allah akbar.” How many violent attacks have there been by Christians screaming “Jesus is Lord”?
“Religious fundamentalism flourishes when people live in a situation of general social and economic hardship, where the government does not do what it needs to do.”
Cardinal Onaiyekan thinks that jihad will disappear if governments give money to Muslims. This has been abundantly disproven.
“Then I ask all my Muslim friends to say clearly that the discourses of Boko Haram are not the voice of true Islam!”
Boko Haram has been around for years. Does Cardinal Onaiyekan ever ask himself why his Muslim friends haven’t done this yet? Does he ever wonder why he still has to make this request in 2018? If anyone knows Cardinal Onaiyekan, please contact me at director@jihadwatch.org. I’d like to send him a free copy of my book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. In it, he would see that Boko Haram is by no means an aberration in the history of Islam. On the contrary, for 1,400 years there have been groups that behaved like it in every particular, from waging aggressive war against unbelievers to making sex slaves of non-Muslim women. From the Almoravids and Almohads in “tolerant, pluralistic” Muslim Spain to the Muslim conquerors of India, Boko Haram has abundant precedents in Islam. But few people know this history, and even fewer realize its implications. That’s why I wrote The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS — to try to prevent the same mistakes borne of ignorance being made yet again in our own age. Have you ordered your copy yet? You can still get it here.
“Cardinal John Onaiyekan Encourages Dialogue and Peace,” by Deborah Castellano Lubov, National Catholic Register, October 21, 2018:
Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, spoke with the Register in Bologna, Italy, during a break at the 32nd meeting in Assisi, Oct. 14-16. The annual meeting was started by Pope St. John Paul II in 1986 and continued by the Community of Sant’Egidio, where representatives of different cultures, faiths and religions joined together to build “bridges of peace.”…
Your Eminence, you are not new to these annual meetings of the Community of Sant’Egidio intending to perpetuate the “spirit of Assisi.” How is the “spirit of Assisi” today?
I see the spirit of Assisi as a gift, a grace that Our Lord has given to the world. We live in such a perplexing world, with so many wars! But there are also many groups that talk about peace, whose purpose is to follow this “spirit of Assisi,” and this is encouraging!
Let’s consider the guests who came to Bologna to take part in this “Bridges of Peace” encounter; many of them have been coming for many years, and this impresses me! And not just Catholics, but also Muslims, Buddhists. … They leave for a few days all their commitments to participate in this meeting, year after year; we always find ourselves here again together every time. Some might think that it is wasting time, but for me, it is a sign of hope, knowing how to come to these meetings and find peace-seekers. The “spirit of Assisi” has given life to a community of seekers of peace, which includes everyone: Christians, Muslims, rich people and poor people …
You speak of hope even if, from 1986 onwards, religious fundamentalism has surged. Looking at what these meetings promote, the world, one could observe, seems to be going at times in the opposite direction.
This is the experience that we are facing in Nigeria: There exist the “fanatic” Muslims — to use a bad word — just as there are also fanatic Christians; they have terrible ideas, which I absolutely do not agree with. But we always say: This is the price to pay for religious freedom, to let everyone speak. But then it’s up to us to work toward necessary moderation, having a nonpartial vision of what religion is, and to do our work.
How would you describe the danger of radical religious fundamentalism in Nigeria?
It’s clear to me now. Religious fundamentalism flourishes when people live in a situation of general social and economic hardship, where the government does not do what it needs to do. … Where there is no social justice, it is much easier for a pastor or imam to tell young people: “Look, the situation you are in is this way because the religion you profess is not a serious religion. … You can convert to true Islam, the serious one,” which is obviously “their” Islam. And there are Christians among the endless sects of them in Nigeria who have problematic ideas. … As archbishop of Abuja, I can only say that this is not Christianity! Then I ask all my Muslim friends to say clearly that the discourses of Boko Haram are not the voice of true Islam! We try to move forward, launching concrete messages for a peaceful country, based on justice, even exhorting the government to do what is its duty….
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/10/nigerian-cardinal-i-ask-my-muslim-friends-to-say-the-discourses-of-boko-haram-are-not-the-voice-of-true-islam
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