Religious Violence

In Nigeria, precisely in Sokoto, A girl was beaten and burnt to death on account of a statement she made on a group chat which was regarded by the opposing religious group as blasphemy. The issue on religion violence didn't start from our time, it was passed from generation to generation and all is linked to one teaching - the other religion aren't worshipping God. Childhood programming is an important part in a child's development, whatever a child has been taught in their childhood remains with them to adulthood. A child who's been taught to hate the other religion, lives with that mentally and may never see anything wrong about it. The mindset to which we perceive about other religions is what stirs up hatred, conflict, riot, and violence. Imagine a child of 6 is taught that any other religion outside his are unbelievers, what do we expect of the future if we fail to respect the belief and religion of others.

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Most of us see religion from what we've been taught. Even the Pharisees and Sadducees who were teachers in those days got the concept of religion wrongly. Even though they didn't know God, they fought to protect his name when on several occasions they accused Jesus of blaspheming and sought to kill him. The Israelites fought other nations who were not serving God and the other nations also fought back on account of religion. But this narrative was changed when the teaching of love, peace, and unity came into place, even though a lot of people accepted this teaching, a few others held onto the old teachings and traditions and passed it down to this generation.

We believe God is sovereign. This he had made known in several chapters of the bible. We don't fight for him, he fights for us instead, a teaching contrary to what some religions believe. The simple fact that love, peace, and unity isn't embraced will always lead to religious violence. We don't see each other as one, we don't believe we worship the same God, we don't agree that we are brothers and sisters because we are divided by religion. Again, the fact that people don't know the definition of true religion makes a lot of people miss it, they believe one ought to fight for his religion when in essence doing good is all that's demanded. Religion was created by men, and men had corrupted the essence of religion with doctrines they've drawn out from their carnal knowledge. This drawn out knowledge from man's carnality is what is leading to religious violence. We are on, and true religion is not the place of worship, it's not our mode of worship but that we give to orphans and widows , the needy, and to keep ourselves unspotted before God.