Nigeria, Oct. 27 -- Across the world, some voices are deliberately painting Nigeria's complex security challenges as a "religious war" between Muslims and Christians. This narrative is not only false but extremely dangerous. It risks pouring fuel on existing crises and igniting fresh hostility in a country where unity is already fragile.

For decades, whenever violent clashes erupted - in Jos, Kaduna, Benue, or elsewhere - both Muslim and Christian groups have at different times accused each other of "genocide." Yet, careful investigation often revealed the root causes: land disputes, ethnic rivalries, political manipulation, and criminal opportunism. Religion was usually the banner under which anger was mobilised, but rarely the actual c...