Washington D.C., Mar 14, 2012 / 01:09 am
A U.S. advocate for international religious freedom says an attack on a Catholic church in Nigeria shows how religious tension should be acknowledged as the cause of recent violence in the country.
Nina Shea, who directs the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., predicted that violence in Nigeria between Muslim extremists and local Christians will “continue and escalate” unless something is done to prevent it.
Shea told CNA on March 13 that at the root of the problem is the fact that neither the Nigerian nor the U.S. governments are “willing to call this a religious conflict.”
The Associated Press reported at least 10 deaths in violence surrounding a suicide car bomb attack at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in the middle of Mass on March 11.