Muslim Group Warns Against Government Funding of Religious Centers

April 26, 2004

Source: AllAfrica.com

http://allafrica.com/stories/200404270053.html

On April 26, 2004 AllAfrica.com posted a Vanguard article that reported, "A pressure group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned the federal government against funding churches and mosques in the country, saying that may set Nigeria on the path of strife caused by religious differences. The group's warning came against the backdrop of government's plans to fund, particularly, the completion of the ecumenical centre in Abuja as well as turn the national church and mosque into national monuments. MURIC said in a statement signed by its director, Dr. Is-haq Akintola: 'We of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) envision grave danger in this kind of exercise. Although Nigerians are very religious people, religion is yet to constitute an integrating factor in our body polity. What seems so simple and innocent may soon degenerate into cause for strife among adherents of the different religions. As in politics, Nigerians practice religion with bitterness. Funding of the ecumenical centre by government will definitely erode the independence of places of worship.'"