Both Christianity and Islam are the two largest religious traditions globally, and both teach core values like the sanctity of life, justice, mercy, and community.
So why do insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping still happen in places where those beliefs are dominant?
It’s not because the texts themselves promote it. Scholars and religious leaders across both faiths actually condemn those acts. The gap usually comes down to how belief interacts with other human and social factors.For example
. Religion vs. Practice vs. Identity
- Doctrine ≠ Behavior: Religious doctrines set ideals. Human behavior is also shaped by poverty, trauma, peer pressure, politics, and opportunity. People can claim a religious identity while acting against its core teachings.
–Instrumental Use of Religion: Armed groups sometimes use religious language to recruit, legitimize, or control, even when their actual goals are political, economic, or territorial. That creates a “religious branding” effect that doesn’t reflect mainstream doctrine.
. Socio-Economic and Governance Gaps
- Poverty & Lack of Opportunity: In areas with few jobs, schools, or state presence, criminal/insurgent networks can look like a survival or status option, regardless of faith.
- Weak State Presence: Where justice systems are slow, corrupt, or absent, kidnapping for ransom or armed groups can fill a power vacuum.
- Grievance & Marginalization: Real or perceived exclusion along ethnic, regional, or political lines can be mobilized by armed actors, sometimes with religious framing.
. Extremist Interpretation vs. Mainstream Teaching
- Selective Reading: Insurgent groups often pull isolated texts or historical events out of context, while mainstream Christian and Islamic scholars reject violence against civilians and kidnapping.
- Clerical Authority Gaps: When communities are isolated from trained scholars, imams, or pastors, misinformation or radical narratives can spread more easily. Conflict Dynamics and Networks
- Organized Crime + Ideology Mix: In the Sahel and parts of Nigeria, for example, kidnapping/banditry often started as economic crime and later aligned with extremist groups for arms, money, or protection.
- Cycle of Violence: Retaliation, displacement, and trauma can trap communities in cycles that are hard to break with preaching alone.
. Limits of Religion Alone for Social Change
Religion shapes values, but it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Schools, jobs, policing, family structures, media, and local leadership all influence behavior too. Where those systems are weak, even strong religious belief struggles to change outcomes by itself.
What mainstream religious institutions are doing
Christianity: Churches run peacebuilding programs, interfaith dialogues, deradicalization outreach, and victim support. Many denominations explicitly condemn kidnapping and insurgency.
Islam: Ulama councils, imams, and groups like NSCIA in Nigeria issue fatwas against terrorism and kidnapping, run peace education, and partner with security agencies on counter-radicalization.
In conclusion,: The presence of a dominant religion doesn’t automatically override politics, economics, or security failures. And the actions of armed groups don’t represent the doctrine of the billions who follow those faiths peacefully.
– Benjamin Ibrahim writes from Lokoja, Kogi state.
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