The Gospel of Peace and the Violence of God

I rest my case on the rights of desire.... On the god who makes even the small birds quiver.

Andre Brink, The Rights of Desire

On January 6, 2001, I flew out of the Pittsburgh International Airport bound for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. January 6 is Epiphany on the Christian calendar and it has always been my favorite holy day. Epiphany, of course, celebrates the manifestation of God to the Magi from the East. Those Wise Men followed neither the voices of the angels nor the paths of the Hebrew shepherds to Bethlehem. They were guided instead by the stars. With the strange scents of Babylon on their bodies, they entered the house of Mary and Joseph with exotic gifts for the Christ Child.

The Magi from Persia, like Persian mystics, sages and poets who followed them, such as Rumi, understood that the breath of the divine touched the primordial elements of life: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind. Many Christian mystics throughout the ages have likewise understood well how the metaphors and rituals of religion return us not merely to a text or tradition; indeed, they return us to our elemental passions. The waters of baptism are wet with the longings and losses of life. These mystics have taught us that religion, like life, is a tremendous and terrifying mystery.

I traveled to Nigeria at the invitation of the pastors of the Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria, the EYN, which is the Nigerian denomination started by the educational and medical missions of the Church of the Brethren early in the twentieth century. (1) The Church of the Brethren, along with the Mennonite Church and the Society of Friends, is one of the Historic Peace Churches. The EYN is now an indigenous, West African peace church in partnership with the Church of the Brethren. (2) The EYN Church had seen much violence the previous year and I was invited to address the Pastors' Majalisa or Synod in a number of lectures on peace, pluralism, and religious tolerance.

I flew into Kano, a Muslim city in the north. I spent my first night in the country there before traveling on to Jos for an orientation to Nigeria presented by EYN church leaders along with American and European church workers. I was awakened before dawn by a sound that was more chilling than comforting. It was a call to prayer that pierced the silent night like a sword:

God is most great!
God is most great!
I testify that there is no God but Allah.
I testify that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah.
Arise and pray, arise and pray.
God is great.
There is no God but Allah!

I found this voice crying out of the darkness chilling not because I don't value interreligious encounters and dialogues but because of Kaduna. Let me explain.

Kaduna is a city in the north of Nigeria that was the site of what Nigerians call "The Crisis." It is one of the Nigerian cities that truly embodies the ethnic, religious, and class diversity of modern Nigeria. Churches and mosques, beer parlors and Koranic schools stand side by side on the city's active streets. The crisis of Kaduna in February of 2000 was a bloody clash between Muslims and Christians that left churches, mosques, schools, libraries, homes, and businesses burned to the ground. At the end of several days of bitter fighting--both in public riots and in private violent acts of retaliation--it is estimated that The Crisis led to the deaths of as many as three thousand people, both Christians and Muslims. (3)

What led to this crisis? I regret to say it was religion--fundamentalism, which is to say totalitarian religion. (4) It has been only two years since Nigeria has shifted from a military government to a fragile democracy. President Olusegun Obassenjo is a Christian committed to the formation of a democratic, pluralistic, secular state. However, Muslim fundamentalists, of whom there are many in Nigeria, sought to impose Sharia law, theocratic Islamic law, on the state and city of Kaduna. Thus, these words of religious law would become civil law--including its penalties of amputations and floggings, its ban on alcohol, art and cinemas, integration of the sexes--for the citizens of Kaduna:

God is most great!
God is most great!
I testify that there is no God but Allah.
I testify that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah.
Arise and pray, arise and pray.
God is great.
There is no God but Allah!

How calls to prayer can become calls to war. We must quickly concede that this is likewise true of the Lord's Prayer. "May thy kingdom come, may thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," has inspired imperialistic violence from the followers of the crusading Christ of Constantinian expressions of Christendom.

Nigeria is a rnultireligious, democratic state. (5) Therefore, in response to the threat of Sharia, on February 21, 2000, Christians in Kaduna state, under the umbrella of the ecumenical Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), staged a peaceful demonstration at the State House of Assembly and Governor's House. It was a Kingian-style nonviolent march to protest the imposition of Sharia. As the march moved from the Governor's House to its conclusion, a number of Muslims who were offended by this public display of resistance began to attack the Christian marchers and several were killed. Many Christians retaliated and responded in kind and during the next few days the violence escalated across Kaduna. An EYN pastor, the Reverend Iyasco Taru, married with seven children, was assassinated in his parsonage when he refused to confess to his attackers, "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."