Read to know how a Christian and Muslim’s relationship should be in Nigeria
With a lot of challenges about Christians and Muslims relationship (particularly about the Igbo’s and the Muslim’s) in Nigeria, I have decided to write the little I know and give real and practical experiences in my analysis.
There have been a lot of killings in the country from both parties. We hear about news of the Fulani herdsmen killings (Muslims killing the Igbo’s) and the Igbo’s killing the Muslims in retaliation. As young people, we should always stand for the truth, speak the truth and encourage others to do the same. So, we as a people cannot deny or pretend that we aren’t aware of these things.
Here, I outlined my reasons and experiences on Love, Care and Understanding.
Why should it be centered on Love?
Throughout my childhood; for about 15 years of my life, I was used to the trend of sharing food to my Muslim neighbors during Christmas and Easter – that was the system I grew up with. And in reciprocation, my Muslim neighbors’ always brought food, drinks and ram meat for us during Big and Small Sallah.
Honestly, I never for one day knew that there was anything different between a Christian and a Muslim because I couldn’t feel any gap. We all acted in love, and it is this same love that can keep us going as a country (Loving each other, makes nothing different between us). We do not need to kill each other.
On the issue of understanding
The ability for us to know that there are thousands of people with different belief and the only way we can stay together is to simply allow others practice their culture or religion respectively.
When I visited Lagos last year for a program, I stayed in my friend’s house for more than a week (a Muslim friend). She was my classmate back then in secondary school, and our relationship as friends grew to the extent of becoming family friends (we weren’t just friends, the members of my family and that of hers became friends).
So, during my stay in her house, I helped her in doing some morning chores. When I was arranging the parlor, I saw a lot of books which were kind of scattered, so I arranged them properly – putting one book on top another in order for them to look neatly arranged. When I was through with the work, I went to the room to rest.
After some time, I heard my friend’s mum asking about the person that arranged the parlor. Then, my friend replied and said it was “Somto”. Her mum called me and said “Okay, please in Islam, we do not usually put anything on top of the Quran – the Quran is usually kept on its own”.
She corrected me on this because when I was arranging the books I saw in the parlor, I carried all of them together and piled them up – as Christians we do not really care. i.e. much emphasis is not really given if something is on top our Bible; though, I have noticed that sub-consciously, we keep our Bible separate or it is usually the first book on top a whole lot of books (I did not know it was a different case for Muslims). That was the first day I was hearing something like that, and I was so happy to have learnt it.
Furthermore, I asked some Muslims about the reason why their women always put on Hijab and they told me that “A woman’s hair is like a mirror and it needs to be covered, if it is left open, when the angels are passing to bless you and the reflection of the mirror shines on them – they will curse you”(kindly help me elaborate on this if you are a Muslim).
More so, my friend’s mother also told me that women are more cherished and respected in Islam than men, that even the Quran has more pages talking about women than talking about men.
I was really grateful learning all these, and I totally loved and understood their culture and religion. That is how it is meant to be, Muslims should understand the Christians and the Christians should understand the Muslims.
The need for us to care for one another
My present best friend; Atinuke Rahim is a Muslim. Every year during her birthday, I always send her money to buy a birthday cake and during mine, she sends me money to also get a cake. The care we have for each other is really deep and we don’t even want to ever hurt ourselves.
Most times when I ask her about the “Boko haram” bombings and what she thinks about it she always tells me, “Somto, I don’t just understand that kind of thing and I wonder why people will have the heart to kill someone else”.
Don’t be swayed away by these negative activities. Stay Positive.
Please if you are a Christian or a Muslim and you read this, feel free to drop your comment, so we can know our thoughts and understand ourselves better.
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