By NKECHI ONYEDIKA-UGOEZE, Abuja

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has warned Muslim leaders to desist from promoting violence capable of throwing the country into an avoidable religious crisis.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, its General Secretary, Joseph Bade Daramola, said the association was disturbed by the activities of some Islamic extremists in the country, whose “past time is how to trigger a religious crisis, violence and throw the already nervous country into utter confusion.”

He claimed that across the country, there were actions by some Muslim leaders that tended to provoke their Christian counterparts into anger.

Daramola said: “In Kwara State, CAN is still trying to curb the violence occasioned by the governor’s directive to mission schools to allow the wearing of the hijab. Some extremists have built Ummul Khair Central Mosque and Islamic Centre beside Catholic Bishop’s House and the Secretariat primarily to tempt peace-loving Christians into a religious crisis.

“Will Islamic schools allow Catholics or Christian women, who are their students, to dress to the school premises in their cassocks?

“To compound the problem, one Imam Abubakar Ali-Agan and the General Manager of Kwara State Physical Planning Authority are claiming that there was a Memorandum of Understanding between the Catholic Bishop of Ilorin and the owners of the Ummul Khair Central Mosque before they built the two buildings, whereas, it was absolute falsehood and misinformation.”

The CAN scribe went on: “But if they are certain about their claim, they should publish the said Memorandum of Understanding.

“It is high time we advised some Muslim leaders in the country to stop fishing in troubled waters with a view to provoking Christians whom they share the same neighbourhood. This should stop.”

Daramola, who warned that no religion has a monopoly of violence, pointed out that Christian leaders had continued to caution faithful against provoking other religions or citizens wherever they live as “Jesus Christ taught us.”

He called on the security agencies to caution and prevent any group of people from fomenting religious unrest in Nigeria. (The Guardian)

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