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Violent Religious Protests: A Friendly Note of Caution for Nigerian Muslims

he outrage that has been shown by our Muslim brothers and sisters around the world over the irreverent depiction of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him) in a cartoon, is not unexpected, given the central place the Holy Prophet holds in Islam and in the hearts and lives of all Muslims. One might question the legitimacy of the manner of expressing the outrage but not its reason and motivation. Religion is a very deep and fragile phenomenon. It reaches down to the deepest level of our human aspirations and also touches each person in a fundamental way. Religious sentiments are also different based on our unique personal experiences and encounters with the divine. Thus, the passion for religion even among people of the same faith manifests itself in different ways. Religious sentiments in most cases are largely unpredictable. But religious acts manifest the self-consciousness and the self-identity of adherents of particular religions in reference to the divine. They are also the clearest evidence of the face of particular religions.

It is not so much what people claim about their religion but the way they live it out that offers the greatest evidence of what that religion represents. It was the Prophet Muhammad himself who said that religion is the way we conduct ourselves towards others. It is important that religious people no matter their affinity become conscious of this truth: they represent by the manner of their lives, the face of their religion to those outside their religious tradition. It is also important that writers and artists and indeed everyone that has a public responsibility be sensitive and respectful of the religious beliefs and practices of other people.

The violent manner in which some Muslims have expressed their outrage however raises fundamental questions about the limits at one's disposal in defending one's religious beliefs and practices. It is never legitimate to use violence to defend a religious truth. Nor is it expedient, even in the short run, to use violent means to press for respect for religious objects and persons in one's religion. It is important that we emphasize the need for respect to objects and persons considered sacred in different religions. This has become imperative especially in multi-cultural and multi-religious contemporary societies, where people all too easily forget the highest esteem to which people of different religious affinities hold their religious objects, persons and symbols.

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There has been increasing desecration of sacred objects, persons and places in recent times. One recalls the destruction of the highest statue of the Buddha by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a collage incorporating elephant dung by Chris Ofili in a 1999 exhibition in Brooklyn, New York. Just recently in Toronto, there were desecrations of Jewish cemeteries by extremists. The person of Jesus Christ in some contemporary works of art has been cast in different shadows that verged on the very ridiculous and blasphemous. One can recall with pain the false images of his person depicted in the Da Vinci Code or Corpus Christi to mention but a few. Religious leaders have not been spared the attacks of many writers and producers in the media. Tony Kushner of The Nation once described Pope John Paul II as a 'homicidal liar' who endorses murder because of his pro-life teaching. Some African social activists have referred to the Catholic Church as genocidal for refusing to endorse the use of condom in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The random destruction and bombing of Mosques, temples and churches in many parts of the world are all too frequent and fresh in our collective memories. I could not forget so easily the stories that are still told in many African tribes of the many effigies and totems, shrines and religious symbols of the African traditional religionists that were wantonly destroyed and burned by either the missionaries or/and their colonial brethren. In most cases, it was the 'converted' Africans who gave up these irreplaceable precious symbols of religion. Even today there are still some religious ministers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Botswana, who think that Satan and his agents cannot be eliminated in Africa unless the African Traditional Religious symbols are destroyed. These monuments of the ancient faith of our ancestors, which should be preserved as embodying our religious and cultural history, are being destroyed unabashedly as repositories of evil. The untested assumption is that they belong to the devil, but similar symbols in the West as used on Halloween are seen as creation and paradigms of Western aesthetic imagination. In Rome for instance, the temples of the Roman gods are still preserved even within shouting distance of some of the greatest churches of Christianity.

The unfortunate thing is that most of these acts are carried out by the adherents of the religion in question. For instance, it is the Muslims in Iraq that carry out acts of destruction in mosques and Islam's holy shrines. It was a Christian who desecrated a Toronto church by shooting and killing a worshipper in the midst of a religious worship. Recently, an irate Church member in a downtown New York Church shot and killed the pastor and 6 worshippers in the middle of a religious service. Many Christians have also observed that Christians do not react with outrage in a similar manner when Muslims burn their churches in Iraq or Nigeria or impound and destroy their religious objects and symbols as contrabands in Saudi Arabia for instance. It is different strokes for different folks, Is it not?

Most often the enemies of each particular religion are often found within the religion in question. We are enemies of our religious tradition, not only when we destroy or desecrate holy places and symbols but above all by a lifestyle that gives a counter-witness to all that our particular religion represents. How many religious people today, in their grand standing can proudly show that their lives are modeled after the examples of the founder of their religion? How many religious men and women today who claim to be defending God are living examples of godly lives? In terms of respect for external monuments of religion, we could ask: Is it not the Muslims in Iraq that carry out acts of destruction in mosques and Islam's holy shrines? Is it not the Christians who produce the works of arts that insult the Christian religion? In India for instance, who were the perpetrators of terrorist acts in Hindu temples within the last two years?

Religious symbols (churches, mosques, temples, pictures and statues) are external monuments that reflect the inner faith of the adherents of particular religion. They should inspire people to inner conversion and personal and group transformation. What is more fundamental then is the quality of one's spirituality and not just the external monument and magnificence of religious objects, symbols and persons that religious adherents are ready to defend or die for. What should be defended today are the values of each religion, especially those that help in building a culture of love, tolerance, happiness, progress and peace. Religious adherents should incarnate these values in their lives over and above mere externalities. One can ask for instance which one is more irreverent; bombing a mosque dedicated to Allah or depictions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon?

In the mists and swamps of our troubled times, the world must tow the time-tested path of religious tolerance. Religious tolerance is the capacity to accept others as unique human persons, who have the right to be different especially in religious beliefs and practices. It entails the loving acceptance of the other as an image of God, who has a destiny with God. For there to be religious tolerance, no religion should absolutize itself, nor seek the violent path in order to enforce itself or to defend its religious values, personalities and sacred objects and places. At the same time, it demands that even if we do not agree with the religious convictions of the other religion, we have a moral obligation to respect their esteemed personalities, founders and objects. We ought to respect that which is reverenced as sacred in various religions. The often held argument of freedom of expression does not mean license to insult or caricature the religious beliefs of others. However, advocates of different religions must understand that faith seeks understanding and conviction and not compulsion and oppression. No amount of provocation could justify the destruction of lives, property and national symbols for action executed by some errant newspapers.

Tolerance demands the common conviction that all human beings are equal in dignity and rights, and that one's religious affinity confers no right of supremacy over others. The passion for aggressive theocracy or religious totalitarianism being advocated by some form of Islamic fundamentalism, will not advance the cause of Islam nor is it acceptable in the diversity of modern societies. The Koran actually calls for restraint in promoting the cause of Islam when it says; "Believers: conduct yourself with justice and bear true witness, even if it be against yourselves, your parents, or your kin." (Quran, 4:135). Furthermore, a sense of the sacredness of the individual human person, and his or her conscience and of the value of the human community conduces to tolerance. Added to this, is the recognition of the supremacy of love and of the force of inner truthfulness in the spreading of religion. Indeed, the measure of the value and validity of any religious act is whether it stems from love and transforms the individual into a loving and lovable subject of divine and human action. Any religious acts should be judged by how it promotes the ideal of love, create conditions for human development and makes true and lasting peace and happiness a more realizable goal in our human world.

In the light of these, genuine effort should be made to use the occasion of the crisis generated by these regrettable cartoons as opportunities to call on men and women of goodwill to appreciate the sense of the sacred once more. There are obviously some merchants of violence who are using this occasion to advance political and ideological agenda that are well hidden in the cumulus of the present uncertainties. The logic has always been: God is on our side and not on the side of the other religions. Thus unrestrained violence and caustic hatred, which result in burnings, destruction and loss of human lives, are permissible for extremists who claim to be defenders of God! God is however not on the side of violence. Every authentic religion preaches peace and those who seek the violent path in the defense of religion may be worshipping a false God. Nor will the Holy Prophet Mohammed endorse the violent actions of those who claim to be defending him against insults by some Western newspapers. God is on the side of peace and love. As a Christian minister who loves and values all that is good in every religion, I urge all Nigerians especially our Muslim brothers and sisters to show some caution in any protests against these depictions of the Holy Prophet. They must respect the sacredness of religious persons and symbols of other religions, as well as the sacredness of human freedom, human lives, and the sacredness and integrity of people's property and estates. May this outrage which is sweeping through the Muslim world not give occasion to some misguided elements within the Nigerian Muslim community to turn our country into a Beirut or Damascus. Nigerians have seen the worst forms of religious violence before and we do not need another one. I pray that the God of Jesus Christ, the God of Muhammad and the God of my Ancestors, should spare Nigeria any religious violence, especially given our volatile political situation (caused by our fortune-seeking and third term seeking president, governors and legislators) and a looming health crisis(caused by the bird flu that is spreading like the Sahara wind across the land).

Stan Chu Ilo is an Igbo Catholic priest from Nigeria. He is a student in the Faculty of Theology, St Michael's College in the University of Toronto. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Face of Africa: Looking Beyond the Shadows.