It's Just Politics, My Boy, Just Politics

Nigerian troops chase angry mobs in a street in Onitsha, Nigeria. The sectarian violence was sparked by deadly weekend protests against cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo)

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many people continue to argue that when violence erupts we must blame politics, when it subsides we have religion to thank. The story linked to the above photo, from "Christian Today", for example, says:

Experts have pointed out that although on the surface the violence appear to be religiously motivated, many of the past "Christian-Muslim clashes" in Nigeria were linked to ethnic, economic, and political conflicts with religious overtones...

Those Canadians identifying themselves as having "no religion" come to nearly 17 per cent of the total population according to the 2001 census.

Of particular interest, however, is the fact that the scheduled release of information from the 2006 census gives no indication whatsoever as to when we can expect the most recent religious demographics, despite the fact that it's listed as one of the categories on the Census Data page. (Could it be that the 43 per cent increase in the number of those checking off "no religion" from 1991 to 2001 is scaring the hell out of the religious right?) Maybe there's been some mysterious, unobserved mass-teleporting and we're all really living in France...

Quelle horreur!!