The Media and the Wrong Narrative of Religious Violence in CAR

The Central African Republic (CAR) is currently described by the media as being on the verge of genocide and comparisons are being made between the current situation and what happened in Rwanda. An equally loud statement that is being made is that the impending genocide may be due to the conflict between Muslims and Christians in the CAR. This narrative, which is widespread in the media is far from the truth. Inasmuch as the current conflict could be assigned a cause, the cause lies in politics rather than in religion. The cause lies in the historical despotism of the state, a despotism that has historically marginalized different groups of people in the country. The horror that is going on in the Central African Republic should be traced to the historical role France has played in the country as it has contributed in sustaining despots who have marginalized segments of their societies. The violence in the CAR is not due to the fact that people are defending their faith or belief or orchestrated strictly through what may be described as religious in its narrow sense. Religious violence is often bred through intolerance of the religious beliefs and practices of the other; however, this is not the case in the CAR where Christians and Muslims have apparently lived together side by side until this year. The politicians have discovered, as politicians often do, that they may make hay by whipping up the sentiments of religious people and make their struggle for power seem like a struggle about protecting religions - nothing could be farther from the truth. Proof of the fact that this is not a religious crisis is that this crisis will not be addressed by talking to religious leaders. This is because the commanders leading this fight are not religious leaders; they are politicians seeking power because they perceive, as is often the case in many African countries, that politics is a zero sum game. The narrative ascribing the current crisis in the country to religion needs to stop; blame should be placed where blame is due and in this case the blame should be placed on the politics of the CAR rather than on religion. This is not a religious horror. Inasmuch as we can separate these things, we need to say that this is a political horror.