Religious tribalism

Another Muslim-Christian massacre happened in Nigeria — continuing a grotesque pattern that has recurred intermittently for two centuries.

Muslim herders in the hills reportedly swooped down on three Christian villages, hacking people with machetes, torching homes, killing everyone who didn’t flee fast enough. Even babies were chopped to death. The toll was estimated at 500. More than 400 victims were buried in a single mass grave. The attack allegedly was in reprisal for a January massacre in which Christians killed 300 Muslims.

Year after year, decade after decade, such attacks and riots have marred Nigeria — mostly along a central fault-line between the Christian south and Muslim north. The land is racked by what sociologists call religious tribalism.

Several upheavals have erupted after fundamentalist evangelists attempted to convert Muslim villagers. Tension worsened after some northern states adopted Sharia law, which requires chopping off hands and feet, and execution by stoning. In 2001, about 1,000 died in rioting that flared after a Christian woman walked through a Muslim procession.

Nigeria’s government has conducted community meetings to create tolerance and coexistence, without success.

Perhaps the only cure for this tragedy is one that works in Cyprus. During the 1960s, Muslim Turks and Christian Greeks on the Mediterranean island plunged into similar tribal bloodshed. The United Nations sent peacekeeper troops to guard a 112-mile truce line between the warring camps. Subsequent efforts to end hostility between the ethnic groups have failed, so the blue-helmeted soldiers remain on patrol, four decades later.

— The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette