URGENT MESSAGE ON THE KILLING OF MUSLIMS IN ZARIA

URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL MUSLIMS

I am drawing our attention once again to the military’s callous massacre of 35 Muslims who were marking Quds Day in a peaceful procession in Zaria on Friday 25^th July, 2013. A Muslim who did not reveal his or her name posted a message to MURIC’s blog (muslimrightsmuric.blogspot.com) in which he complained bitterly that MURIC has not said anything about the massacre.

The administrator blocked the comment because the complainant was lodging a wrong case. He was not aware that MURIC had issued a press statement on the matter since Tuesday July 29^th 2014 (3 days ago). A copy of the press statement was immediately posted to our blog. The writer’s complaint was not published because he was unfair to MURIC and he lodged the complaint out of ignorance. His complaint was capable of misleading the public. If he had taken the pains to check our blog properly, he would have found it there.

I am appealing to members of this forum to please report to us if any newspaper published our condemnation of the killing of our brothers and sisters in Zaria. Secondly, any of us who has the contact of Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Zakzaky (telephone and email address) should kindly forward it to me so I can personally condole him on the sad killing of three of his children. Such contact is necessary in building confidence in the Ummah and strengthening its unity.

Members who have the contacts of Shiite members should also forward the press statement issued by MURIC on the issue. Please note that apart from issuing a press statement, MURIC also forwarded a petition to the Federal Government demanding three things:  one, thorough investigation of the tragic incident and punishment for the perpetrators, two, due compensation for the victims and three, unreserved apology from the top echelon of the military.

Let me also inform you that in spite of the current tension in the Ummah on the moonsighting controversy, it was the General Secretary of the NSCIA, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who contacted me after receiving a copy of our press statement and advised that MURIC should forward a petition on the massacre through him to the Sultan for onward transmission to President Jonathan and, pronto, it was done. I made sure that the petition was sent to him within two hours on that same day (Tuesday, 29^th July, 2014).

So, apart from the press statement, MURIC also petitioned the Federal Government over the matter and we attached our press statement to the petition. It is important to let our brothers in Zaria know that we took action over the sad incident.

Muslims should be one, whether Sunni, Shiite or Ahmadiyyah; whether black or white, male or female. This is the vision of MURIC and we have always worked in line with this philosophy.

Let me also seize this opportunity to ask the person who lodged the complaint to please forward a copy of this to the brothers in Zaria. We in MURIC assure them that they are not alone. We stand by them in this crucial period and we share their pains.