Father James Iyere, one of Nigeria’s oldest priests, was beaten and burned by Muslim fundamentalists, who set fire to his parish residence. He worked at a downtown Kaduna parish.
The violence first erupted over protests by Muslim fundamentalists against the Miss World beauty pageant.
Fides published a statement of Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja in which he said that “some unscrupulous politicians use religion for their own interests.”
Archbishop Onaiyekan, president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference, stressed that “the problem is political and not religious,” and appealed to “Muslim leaders to isolate the violent and find news ways of peaceful coexistence.”
