This is Africa, what do you expect. Look at Mugabe. This is not Euro people.

This sounds very familiar to me except it wasn't religion...it was about the color of your skin. That black and white people could not marry It has taken us almost 100 years to solve this problem in the US and I guess it will take them even longer.

This is to be expected in Africa. If Nigeria didn't have oil, we would not care. Look at Kenya, the bastion of democracy, and they have gone back to their roots of the machete, another Rwanda is coming. African values are not European values. We should just stay out. It is too much for us to expect that they will behave like the French or the EU.

The French, Europe, EU? Where do you think religious intolorance originated. I guess horst and rochelle think Serbians are not Europeans.

They are only following in the footsteps of their former colonial masters who brought "civilization and god" to Africa, and left behind disease and corruption. Don't you dare for a minute pretend that Euros are civilized.

Perhaps Horst and Rochelle forgot that the Balkan wars were just in the 90's except, of course, for the second Kosovo War, which might start any time now since our idiot foreign policy establishment, showing no more memory, forgot that it's tough to break off a piece of a country against the will of the rest of the country without a violent result.

It's ridiculous to dismiss Nigeria's as "just Africa" as if the country is full of stupid natives. If you want to look at barbaric behavior, no one in the history of the modern world as been more barbaric than Europeans. Should I list atrocities for you Rochelle or are you educated enough to pick up a history book?

Anyway, Nigeria is a country with over 200 different languages and dozens of different ethnic groups. Additionally, nationally it is split about 35% muslim, 30% christian and the rest traditionalist. That's a whole lot of differences. In the U.S. we have a lot of different ethnic groups and some difference in religion but we are actually not that different, especially when you add that we have a reasonably strong civic culture. That is simply not true in Nigeria. It's been controlled by brutal dictators until about 10 years ago (dictators propped up by the west, btw, how is that for barbaric). It is also a very poor country. Naturally there will be struggles as people compete for resources. It's not suprising that in those struggles differences are emphasized, it's in fact normal.

Additionally, what goes on in central Nigeria is very different than what goes on in south-western Nigeria which is completely different from northern Nigeria. Nigeria is like 30 little countries smushed together. I wouldn't indict the entire country for the difficulties of a small town. I think that is particularly irresponsible because Nigeria is a country full of people working very hard to move forward.

"I wouldn't indict the entire country for the difficulties of a small town. I think that is particularly irresponsible because Nigeria is a country full of people working very hard to move forward." I agree BOA. Debbie has it in for Nigeria. May be she just had a bad experience with a Nigerian.

BOA, I beg to take exception to your statement "no one in the history of the modern world as been more barbaric than Europeans. Should I list atrocities for you Rochelle or are you educated enough to pick up a history book?"
Please do not forget that the Europeans, inspired by Christianity, were the ones who built the Western civilization. If you want to mention the religious wars or Inquisition, or genocide against Native Americans, they were just mistakes or aberrations that were gradually corrected. If you like history, you may pick up "Victory of Reason - How the Catholic Church built the Western Civilization" by Rodney Stark, a much respected historian.

The Chinese Communists, inspired by Marx, killed 100million. Hitler killed many and he was a pagan and anti-Christian because he believed that the Christians were bastard Jews. In the USSR they killed 60 million, inspired by the Jew Marx. Don't forget the genocide in Cambodia, inspired by Marx. Speaking of China, the mongols killed 60million of my people 500 years ago, and the last I check, I am not White. Africa is a failed state, get over it [deleted]. The future is China under capitalism.

Insightful analysis. It is instructive, I think, to remember the time, place and circumstances in which most religions germinated, as well as the basic needs satisfied by religion. Groups of people defined themselves and their experience of the world through the myth and imagery of religion. They were further defined by the deity, cosmology, etc they looked to for understanding and protection. Ancient history is replete with tales of communities invoking their god against other communities and their god or gods. The failure of religions to evolve to a global perspective and scope that moves beyond the glorification of one group over another is at the heart of why "god" is a problem, not a solution, to achieving greater international harmony.

Africa is not a state, it is a large continent. Some countries within Africa are doing quite well considering that they've been independent for about 60 years and prior to that endured over 400 years of European and Arab "civilization." Nothing's failed yet.

My earlier response was in regards to the attitude expressed by the Horst and Rochelle that seems to imply that there is something strangely barbaric about Africa that is outside the bounds of European thought. That simply is not so. Human beings all over the world have shown themselves capable of the same exact behavior and even a great deal worse.

ps. Ernie, I stand by my earlier comments. Yes, Europeans built western civilization but then again, the first genocide that occured in the 20th century was by Germans against the Herero people of Namibia. Also I wonder how exactly the "mistake or aberration" of the American genocide against Native Americans has been corrected.

Anybody can be evil, but to be really very evil one must be religious.

The Taiping Rebellion (or Rebellion of Great Peace) was a large-scale revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Government in China. It was conducted from 1850 to 1864 by an army and civil administration led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan. He established the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Simplified Chinese: Pinyin: Tàipíng Tiān Guó) with capital Nanjing and attained control of significant parts of southern China, at its height ruling over about 30 million people. The theocratic and militaristic regime instituted several social reforms, including strict separation of the sexes, abolition of foot binding, land socialization, suppression of private trade, and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion by a peculiar form of Christianity, holding that Hong Xiuquan was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.

The Taiping areas were constantly besieged and harassed by Qing forces; the rebellion was eventually put down by the Qing army aided by French and British forces. With an estimated death toll of between 20 and 30 million due to warfare and resulting starvation, this civil war ranks among history's deadliest conflicts. Mao Zedong viewed the Taiping as early heroic revolutionaries against a corrupt feudal system.

Yes china's future maybe under capitalism, but this curretn " branch" of capitalism is pure evil. It destroys workers while taking care of the " corporations" just like what marx forsaw in his writings on Economics and capitalism, the worker is exploited and used as a desposible commodity. The United States was at it's greates from post war 1946 untill the late 1970's when tax codes were adjusted and unions were squashed. Americans have been steadily losing the ability to get the American dream, while corporations make millions while denying employee's a good wage and health benefits. beware what you wish, all is not as it appears to be!

"Anybody can be evil, but to be really very evil one must be religious."

Were Stalin and Mao religious? Just askin'.

Huh?@!? .....

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

~ Steven Weinberg (1933 - ), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

Capt you are right, but when religion(Judaism) is mixed with ethnocentrism(Israel) then you get the worse of both words, according to the oppressed Palestinians.

For a bunch of progressives, I can't believe how intolerant all you posters are. Sure, bad things happen in the name of religions- but that doesn't mean the religions are at fault and it doesn't mean that you should condemn them for the acts of their so-called-followers. Blame the followers! It's not like matters of faith haven't helped things through time either- look at the Pope helping bring down the iron curtain, the American abolition movement was started by believers, we celebrate the works of Rev. (that's right, Reverend) Martin Luther King Jr and other church leaders in the fight for civil rights. The catholic church and its clergy advanced written and spoken language in the west, increasing both its prevalence and literacy rates.

One final note... I would encourage you guys to consider what "religion" actually means. Many commenters on Mojoblog (and indeed, many posters) simply bow at another altar- the altar of secularism, the altar of liberalism, in which that cause superceeds all else. If bowing at that altar leads you to pronounce the hateful words written in the comments above, is not that religion equally tolerant to theist ones?

or should I say equally intolerant?

Eh, we bow at the altar of "Global Warming" and Al Gore is our "High Priest". We are the true believers. Those that do not agree with us are infidels and must be "shunned".

You do not keep anything for a special occasion.because every day that you live
is a SPECIAL OCCASION.

We reached the Moon and came back,but we find it troublesome to cross our own st
reet and meet our neighbors

　God made relatives; Thank God we can choose our friends