Love, not Religion, is the Answer.

Love, not Religion, is the Answer.

By Ogiri John Ogiri

A hungry Muslim is an angry Muslim, and an angry Muslim does not always shout "Allahu Akbar" for the right reason. He just cannot love. In the same way, a hungry Christian is an angry Christian, and an angry Christian does not always shout "Hallelujah" for he must be filled with food and water,clothed with garments and housed in a shelter for him to have the strength to do so and for the right reason. Else, he just cannot love. This is why we,in Nigeria, should de-emphasize, if not abandon, the pursuit of religious supremacism that has,over the years, divided us more, in favour of the provision of the basic necessities of food,water,shelter, clothing and recently, education.

You can trust a happy and an enlightened man to see religion in the light of what it truly is: teaching, propagation and practice of unconditional love of neighbours who are the reflections of God's love in the world and for the world. A hungry, ignorant and misguided Muslim or Christian is an easy pawn in the hands of greedy religious supremacists. It is he they use to prosecute their "holy wars" through which hundreds of thousands of their humans are killed. On the contrary, a well-fed, properly-guided Muslims or Christian is difficult to be brainwashed and used in the selfish extermination of their humans under the pretext of obeying God's commands. 

My argument is simply that love, unconditional in all its ramification and expression,is a stronger instrument of converting a convinced brother or sister to God than any sharp-edged sword, guns and bullets or rhetorics in the modern era. As long as you feel that your religion is more important than 'love of neighbour',there can never be peace between you a. People need love,acceptance and accommodation,not religion devoid of all these. Religion has failed us;let us try love for a change.