Shallow Grave Of Religious Fanaticism

Religion can be explained as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of super human agency or agencies usually involving devotional and ritual observances,and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. morality is the pivot of ideal religious practices and fanaticism has sacrificed that on the alter of brute struggle for religious supremacy and dominance. The world has in recent time experienced the proliferation of religion/ religious groups with different believe and nomenclature. This religious pluralization has created excessive religious ardor and inconsequential degree of morality. There is an incongruent relationship between the jumbo size of religious organizations and and the worshipers faith. Perpetual animosity breeded by religious fanaticism has incessantly escalated religiously orchestrated death around the globe. The struggle for religious supremacy/freedom has stupefied the ideology of religious fanatics;thereby endangering human life and copiously bleeding religious ideals to death.

This cataclysmic role of religion is not familiar go a particular country nor nation. It has marred peaceful individual relationship, propagated great rancor among countries, annihilated peaceful coexistence among nations and has baked people's ideologies with callous and unsavory condiments. It has dished her delicious yet odious and cancerous food to almost all the continent in the world through fanaticism. Religious terrorism has become the greatest problem for many countries and it has used different medium and nomenclature to operate and impede development and religious freedom. The network of religious fanaticism/terrorism is growing with the speed of light. For instance, the Taliban and Alqueda in the middle east, militant Hindu extremist and Christians in India, Shia Jahmadia and Christians in Pakistan, Shiite and Sunni Muslim feud in iraq, Christians and Muslims feud in Indonesia, Wahhabi and Sufi Muslims in Somalia,Sri lanka's Buddhist and anti machette group in Central african republic (CAR), Boko Haram; a religious crisis that has taken political dimension in Nigeria. etc. Talking about the political dimension of religion, professor Mark Juergensmeyer argued that "religion is not innocent. But it does not ordinarily lead to violence. That happens only with the coalescence of a peculiar set of circumstances- political, social, and ideological....". For political reasons, religion has been used wrongly. A Christian will most likely vote for a Christian even when a Muslim MAY BE better and vice versa.Religious affiliation now orders our voting pattern and political culture.Religious institutions have metamorphosed into campaign grounds.Some are even pro or anti government of the day instead of praying for the country atlarge.Some political party.Some religious organizations have taken side with certain political party and have opposed other political parties for no c thereby allowing politics to rob religion of insanity and morality

In Nigeria, the first threat of every national project or policy is religion. For instance, the 2014 national conference was greeted first with the accusation that Kutigi (the conference chairman ) was trying to sponsor islamic agenda. The comparative analysis of the religious composition of the delegate shifted the attention of the committee from their primary task. The Osun state revised educational policy was criticized on religious ground. It was believed that the All Progressive Congress(APC) choice of presidential candidate and running mate was delayed base on religious considerations. One hidden question is: is Professor yemi osinbajo the right running mate for General Buhari despite the calibers of seasoned politicians at the top echelon of the party or is he one of the beneficiaries of the latent function of religion? The death of Musa yaradua(former president of Nigeria and a Muslim)was believed to have caused joy in the hearts of many Chriatians.Christians were as well paid with same coins following the death of Patrick Yakowa(former governor of kaduna state and a Christian).

Nigeria's name has been on air recently for wrong reasons following the series of countless bombings, kidnap of chibok girls, verbal missiles from different political parties etc. Religious fanaticism has produced citizens with right to live but no freedom of living, it has increased the number of widows, widowers, orohans and ceaseless tears on the faces of the masses. Human bodies are barbecued in a shallow grave with no coffin.Religious love is eroding so fast yet nations are blinded with the aura of fanaticism.

Religion should be seen as a blessing and not a curse.This recent act of religious vampirism in Nigeria and the world at large has to stop in order to make the world a cosy place for everyone.Peace is an element of national development and this can be achieved through religious tolerance and not fanaticism.Effort should be made to re-orientate the citizen inorder to produce more nationalists than regional warriors because true nationalism knows no boundary, religion, race ,etc. The world should shun evil and embrace peace.Through this, shallow grave of religious fanaticism will be a thing of the past.

As at the time of writing this article,
NWANNEH, Emmanuel Madu is a Batch A 2014 Corps member.

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