Blog 4: France Tries to Keep the CAR Intact

Summary:

The Central African Republic is still the center of intense fighting between the Christians and Muslims, which is leading France to intrude more and more in order to keep its former colony intact. Thousands of French, European, and African military forces are struggling to disarm the still-angry Christian militiamen who continue to attack Muslims. The Christians at first welcomed the French, but are now viewing them contempt as the French troops attempt to disarm all perpetrators of violence. The Christians see it as "defense," while the French view the violence against Muslims as "score settling." But even with the French troops present, some still fear that peace will be a long time in the future, as two soldiers have already been killed. Still, France's president's goal remains to “end the score settling, re-establish the government’s authority, allow dialogue and avoid that the slightest attempt to partition Central African Republic.”

Analysis:

You don't often hear about Christians killing other people in places like America or Europe. These "Christians" in the Central African Republic don't sound like the typical churchgoer here, even the occasional ones that blow up abortion clinics. This is on an entirely different level. I believe it's because these Christians have adopted the word as more of a broad cultural identifier than a personal belief. It's become a default ethnic label. It's similar to calling broad groups of people Muslim because that is their religious tradition, although every person called a Muslim might practice Islam to a more or less varying degree. I also think of being "Jewish" as a similar situation. The fact that the Christian faith calls for peace and these Christians are making war shocked me at first, but with the understanding that in the CAR these people have used "Christian" as a cultural label makes the situation clearer.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/france-vows-to-prevent-c-african-rep-breakup/2014/02/28/8bd8c0ec-a072-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html