A Catholic religious leader said recently that education is crucial in order to resolve the growing unrest and the clash of faiths in Nigeria.

Fr. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, a professor of philosophy and vice rector of the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, told Aid to the Church in Need that Muslim-Christian conflicts in Nigeria have deep historical roots, and politics, economics and ethnic differences interweave with faith, enhancing religious tensions.

Onah told ACN that education can address these roots. However, further complicating the matter of uneven distribution of education is the quality of education. For example, northern Nigerian Muslims believe Islamic education–limited to Arabic and Koranic teachings–is the only true instruction.

Radical Islamic groups like the Boko Haram claim that Western education teaches falsehoods. They find fertile ground for recruits among idle Muslim youth who roam the streets. Onah told ACN, “I think, part of the cause is the lack of proper catering to the programs that take care of the young people.”

A second factor that adds to religious conflicts is ethnicity. Onah told ACN that Nigeria historically had 350 nationalities which comprise the country today. “No attempt was made to create, of these ethnic nationalities, one people,” Onah said.

Onah noted that in Nigeria, ethnic affiliation is even stronger than religious affiliation and oftentimes, an ethnic clash is mistaken to be religious. He cites for example the clash of farmers and nomads, often mistaken to be primarily a religious issue, ACN said.

Nomads, who are largely Muslim, have traditionally had no concept of land ownership and their cattle graze anywhere. When they graze on a farmer’s land, crops are destroyed. Many farmers are Christian, Onah said.

Oftentimes there are no police in the area. The farmers therefore poison their crops so that as the cattle graze on their land, they die. Nomads respond by poisoning the dead cattle so that if the farmers eat them, they will die too, ACN reported.

Onah said with proper education and dialogue, cultural-ethnic groups will be able to understand one another and can peacefully resolve the problem. Onah told ACN, “These [ethnic] affiliations are things we have to try to overcome.”

Economic changes have also contributed to religious tensions with the existence of poverty throughout Nigeria and a growing number of young people who are disenchanted with government. This, Onah told ACN, is aggravated by politicians who enrich themselves while manipulating the poor and the youth.

Aggravating the internal political situation are the external political interests. Many Muslim groups, Onah told ACN, seek to dominate Nigeria including influences that come from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran.

Nigeria is strategic for oil and its sizeable population of 150 million people. Onah told ACN, “Within, the Muslim world is not a homogenous group, so there is often infighting among the Muslims themselves before even spilling over to the non-Muslims.”

Onah said that education will help greatly to not only address the religious divide, but to attack its roots for a long-term resolution. He told ACN, “If we don’t know the cause, we would not even be able to begin to suggest solutions.”

Catholic Christian art may be plentiful in the U.S., but in India a priest is complaining that they simply do not have enough of it.

Father Paul Kattukaran, national coordinator of Indian Christian Artists Forum, said the Church in India needs to encourage Indian Christian art because it is an important tool in spiritual formation, Catholic News India said.

The ICAF was founded on August 4 in Bangalore by the CBCI Commission for Social Communications, according to the CBCI website. The network is comprised of leading Christian artists in India, who are renowned in various parts of the country.

Fr. George Plathottam, CBCI executive secretary said the ICAF is relevant today as “Communication is becoming more and more visual and we are moving away from a literate to image based culture. Promotion of Christian art in India is essential if we are to effectively communicate the message of the gospel to the people of the country,” the website said.

Plathottam said art is not just for the elite. “The pictures on the walls are like scriptures for the laity. We need an artistic expression that is indigenous, rooted in the native symbols and ethos of our country, as we cannot live for long on borrowed images and imagery.”

Kattukaran said, “Christian art is a sacrament and a sign of unseen grace,” Catholic News India reported. Through ICAF it is hoped that a deeper understanding can be had of Indian Christian art among the laity, religious and the clergy.

According to Kattukaran, there is also a need to encourage and motivate Christian art buyers to understand the value of Christian visual artwork, and to be willing to pay a good price for it. He said this would help to promote and sustain the work of Christian artists, APEN said.

Kattukaran earned his doctorate in Christian art at Dharmaram College. He said it is important that every diocese teach children and adults art education because it can enhance mission, evangelization and catechism. He told Catholic News India, “My faith is generated and nourished by art. Images of Jesus Christ in the Bible are a great faith experience.”

Kattukaran said Christian arts was strongly boosted when Pope Benedict XVI met last year at the Vatican with some 250 artists from many nations, Catholic News India said. In that meeting the pope cited the common journey of “faith and the artist’s path,” APEN reported.

Known for his ecumenical outlook, Kattukaran has been involved with various Christian art organizations for many years. He plans to hold ICAF’s next meeting on Feb. 2011 in Kolkata, during which time they will display an art exhibition on Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, Catholic News India reported.

Peter Hitchens’ recently released book “The Rage Against God” is an antithesis to the secularism and atheism for which his brother Christopher has become a spokesman.

Peter has said that his book was written in response to his brother’s 2007 book, “God is Not Great” which has become an atheist manifesto of sorts, The New York Times said.

In arguing against atheism however, Peter’s book pulls no punches.  The beginning of the book is retrospective, with Hitchens telling the reader about  his personal spiritual journey– from the time he burned a Bible at 15 and felt fear when he saw Rogier Van Der Weyden’s painting “Last Judgment” at 29 to his gradual turn to theism.

In the rest of “The Rage Against God,” Hitchens uses historical evidence and logic as tools of argument. He speaks of his own rage at how Britons have forgotten their hymns, lost a great body of literature and do not know the heroic legacy of their forebears—all of which he says is directly related to the rise of British secularism.

His column in The Daily Mail, much of which he lifts from his book, makes some interesting points. Here are some gems:

On rage against religion:

“Why is there such a fury against religion now? Because religion is the one reliable force that stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. The one reliable force that forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law.”

Of conscience:

‘He (Christopher) often assumes that moral truths are self evident, attributing purpose to the universe and swerving dangerously round the problem of conscience—which surely cannot be conscience if he is right since the idea of conscience depends on it being implanted by God. If there is no God then your moral qualms might just as easily be the result of indigestion.”

Of religion as a cause for conflict:

“Another favorite argument of the irreligious is that conflicts fought in the name of religion are necessarily about religion. By saying this they hope to establish that religion is of itself a cause of conflict.

“This is a crude, factual misunderstanding. The only general lesson that can be drawn is that Man is inclined to make war on Man when he thinks it will gain him power, wealth or land,” The Daily Mail said.

The U.S. edition of “The Rage Against God” was released in May.