HATE SPEECH: SECURITY AGENTS MUST DO THE NEEDFUL

25^th January, 2017  

PRESS RELEASE:

HATE SPEECH: SECURITY AGENTS MUST DO THE NEEDFUL

The founder of Omega Fire Ministries, Johnson Suleman, recently instructed members of his church to kill Fulanis. An attempt by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) to arrest him in Ado Ekiti yesterday was foiled by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) strongly condemns Pastor Johnson Suleman’s vituperations. It is provocative, irresponsible and unpatriotic. In the same vein, we are nonplussed by Governor Fayose’s penchant for preventing security agents from performing their lawful duties. By shielding such a high profile suspect, Fayose has manifested blatant disregard for the rule of law, encouraged lawlessness and exhibited executive brigandage.

Pastor Johnson Suleman wants to make the country unsafe for Muslims and law abiding Fulanis. It is not in our character to issue threats. We are mature enough to control our emotions. Yet it is not out of cowardice that we prefer to tow the path of peaceful coexistence. Muslims have never been known to fear death or to compromise their faith. But we do not want to join issues with belligerent people who are always bullying Muslims and Fulanis by telling lies and issuing threats. Neither do we want to heat up the polity.

What will ordinary Muslims do when we exchange banters with firebrand Christian extremists like Johnson? Why should religious leaders speak as if they have stocked heaps of weapons in hiding? Why should spiritual guides incite their followers to kill and maim? What do religious leaders gain from goading their followers to shed blood?

The victims are usually the poor masses who are hypnotized by the rhetoric and mesmerized by the oratorical skills of their fanatical leaders. This is why leaders must weigh every word they utter. Leaders are models. They must live by example and teach their followers to learn how to love, to tolerate, to forgive and to peacefully coexist.

MURIC charges Nigerians to objectively and critically examine the Fulani herdsmen phenomenon.  They should not allow some misguided spiritual leaders who have hidden agenda to becloud their sense of assessment. Fulanis have been coming to Nigeria before the 1914 amalgamation. Their nomadic and pastoral flow has never waned since the first Fulanis came from Futa Toro in Senegal in the 11^th century. We should therefore not be surprised that the criminal elements among the herdsmen are not even Nigerians. They are Senegalese and Malians.

It is therefore unwise of us as Nigerians to allow a few lawless foreigners to cause religious or ethnic war in our land. Let us separate criminals from their tribe or religion. We should resist the temptation to stigmatise Fulanis or Muslims because a few herdsmen take the law into their hands. For the avoidance of doubts, we denounce the criminal activities of these herdsmen but we should mind where we point accusing fingers.

Are Nigerians unaware that the same Fulani herdsmen have are also been attacking and killing Muslims in Zamfara, Niger, Kano, Bauchi and other Northern states? Why have we been ignoring this angle if we are sincere? Has the status of a herdsman changed when he attacks a Northern farmer or a Muslim and steals his cattle?  Let us be objective. Let us stop criminalizing Fulanis and demonizing Muslims. It is the height of hypocrisy and absolute lack of patriotism to give the criminal activities a religious or ethnic colouration.

We therefore call on the Nigerian security agencies to do the needful. Nobody is above the law. Fayose or no Fayose, Pastor Johnson Suleman must still be questioned and cautioned for his vituperations and provocative statements. He cannot remain tied to Fayose’s apron string forever.

Even Fayose should be told point blank that his days as a free man are numbered. He must answer for his executive rascality and lawlessness. No governor in the history of Nigeria has abused his office like Fayose has done. His cup of executive recklessness has been filled to the brim. The people of Ekiti State have indeed entered a ‘one chance’ bus. Or what do we say about a state governor who is seldom sober? We do not need a micro-biologist to tell us whether or not Fayose has the ‘area boy’ syndrome virus.

We charge the Nigerian security agencies to spare no effort in dealing decisively with the notorious herdsmen who have brought untold hardship to Nigerian farmers. The full wrath of the law must be unleashed on them for killing innocent farmers and destroying their farms. We appeal to Muslims to go about their lawful duties and to remain calm and law abiding. We invite religious leaders to douse tension in their areas of influence in order to allow peace to reign.

As we round up, we remind the United Nations Organisation, the European Union and the African Union to take note of the hate speeches emanating from Nigeria and their authors for the day when the come will come to become.

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)

BILL ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS: DON’T POLLUTE OUR CLEAN WATER

18^th January, 2017

PRESS RELEASE:

BILL ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS: DON’T POLLUTE OUR CLEAN WATER

The Nigerian Senate has been rushing through a bill on discrimination against women and equal inheritance shares since August 2016. The bill has gone through its second reading. But the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar III, has already expressed strong objection to the bill.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is on the same page with the Sultan. We strongly condemn attempts to interfere in the private lives of Muslims without consulting them. The Nigerian Senate is fishing in troubled waters if it goes ahead with the bill as planned without considering the position of Muslims.

We assert that Islam has already liberated Muslim women and they are not discriminated against in any form. We remind Senate that discrimination against women was common around the world in ancient times. It never obtained in Islam. On the contrary, it was Islam which liberated women.

For the records, women were regarded as minors (no matter their age) and inferior creatures in ancient Greece. In Rome, they were given away in marriage without consent. Only males could inherit in India and any Indian woman whose husband died must be burned alive. In Persia they were pawned away in gambling. Female infanticide was the order of the day in ancient Arabia before Islam as the woman who failed to beget a male child had her female child buried alive!

But Islam changed all that. The Glorious Qur’an liberated women. They can work, earn income and own property (Qur’an 4:32). A Muslim woman is free to choose her own husband (Qur’an 4:19). Her dowry belongs to her (Qur’an 4:4). She can sue for divorce (Qur’an 4:128). The husband is under compulsion to feed, accommodate and clothe his wife according to his means (Qur’an 65:6 – 9).

What the brains behind the equal rights bill in Senate should have done is to study what obtains among the various cultures in Nigeria before attempting to impose any bill on us. It is an open secret that women are discriminated against in some places in this country, particularly in Southern Nigeria. Women are made to drink the water used to wash the corpse of their dead husbands to ascertain whether or not they had a hand in their husband’s death. They are not allowed to inherit their husbands.

But that does not apply to Muslim women. We accept the death of husbands as Allah’s wish. It is not in our character to demonise our women or to accuse them of witchcraft. We cherish them. We love them. Our women are our mothers and daughters and Allah has instructed us to show them love (Qur’an 30:21) and treat them with kindness (Qur’an 4:19).

Therefore nobody should pretend to liberate Muslim women from any perceived oppression. What have the champions of the equal rights bill done about Muslim women who are disallowed daily from using hijab in this country? Who gagged them when the hijab worn by a female Muslim candidate was yanked off by a WAEC supervisor in an examination hall in August 2016? What have they said so far since we have had to go to court to assert Allah-given fundamental human right of female Muslim students to use hijab?

We advise Senate to listen to the Sultan. The leader of Nigerian Muslims has spoken. We will not stand akimbo while a group of legislators rubbish the word of Allah. Islam has already legislated on the shares of women in inheritance and this is not debatable as far as Muslims are concerned. Islam does not discriminate against widows. It is certain traditional cultures which do. That does not warrant the imposition of unIslamic laws on Muslims who have already been protected by Islamic laws on inheritance.

It is equally didactic that the umbrella body of all Muslim women organizations in the country, the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) reeled out its position paper on the issue on January 7, 2017. FOMWAN rejected the bill, supported the Sultan’s position and warned Senate not to meddle with Muslims’ affairs. We also have it on good authority that FOMWAN leadership met the originator of the bill, Senator Christine Biodun Olujinmi last week and they told her their position.

One major problem with Nigeria is that those who claim to be interested in reform always ignore the stakeholders, particularly Muslims. They always pretend that certain perceived inequalities are general. They therefore attempt sweeping changes. But Muslims do not need reforms which ignore their Allah-given fundamental human rights. Nobody can love Muslims more than the Muslims themselves. We refuse to be led by the nose. You cannot give us what we already have. We already have clean and pure water. It is from Allah. It is divine. Caveat emptor, don’t pollute our water.  

Nigerian senators should learn from the Indian Succession Act of 1925. Under this law, every Indian woman can inherit equally with her male counterpart except those who are Bhudists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jainists and Muslims. This means that the Indian Act of 1925 recognized the laws of succession of Muslims and other faiths in India. In other words, our senators can go ahead with the bill, but please exempt Muslim women.

Permit us, therefore, to round up by affirming our rejection for the equal rights bill as passed by Senate. That law should not apply to Muslims. We have our own succession law which is already recognized by the Nigerian constitution. We support the application of the Senate bill to the oppressed women in other religions and cultures in the country. They need it. We don’t.  

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)

SOUTHERN KADUNA: HEAR FROM ALL STAKEHOLDERS

3^rd January, 2017

PRESS RELEASE:

SOUTHERN KADUNA: HEAR FROM ALL STAKEHOLDERS

The past one week has witnessed reckless violence in Southern Kaduna. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan have claimed that about 808 people have been killed so far in 53 villages.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) condemns these killings. We hate violence. We detest the sight of blood. Human life is sacred and nobody has the right to take the life of a fellow human being.

Nonetheless, we call for caution. We remind all stakeholders that both the Qur’an and the Bible enjoin caution in cases like this. The two scriptures ask mankind to investigate all cases before jumping to conclusions (Qur’an 49:6; 1^st Thessalonians 5:21).

Both the press and the security agencies have questions to answer on the pogrom going on in Southern Kaduna: the press for giving the Nigerian public only one side of the story and the security agencies for allowing the killings to continue unabated. We remind the Federal Government (FG) that the primary duty of government is to protect the citizens’ lives and properties. Article 14 Section 2(b) of the 1999 Constitution states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.

MURIC is concerned that the public has been fed with only the Christian side of the story. Justice and fair hearing demands that we hear from the other side. What happened to professionalism on the part of the press? Is hearing from the other side also not part of investigative journalism? Are there no Islamic organizations in Southern Kaduna? What of the Muslim Youth Foundation of Southern Kaduna (MYFOSKA)? Why haven’t they been interviewed?

The Nigerian press should not be asymmetrical. Parochial reportage is an ill wind that will blow nobody any good. We can only know the beginning of a crisis. Nobody can predict its end. Those who fan the embers of violence may end up as victims. MURIC feels concerned whenever there is violence in Nigeria. What this country needs for economic recovery and political stability is peace.  

     

MURIC is in possession of documents which prove that Muslims were the first victims of attacks in Southern Kaduna and the attacks which targeted Muslim business premises, homes and families had begun since October 2016. But we will not release the documents yet so that the conflict will not exacerbate. Suffice it to note that security agents have caught some Christians with arms in the area since the conflict began some days ago.

We therefore take CAN’s allegation of official endorsement of the killings with a pinch of salt. It is subtle blackmail. Why must CAN’s handling of every crisis be clouded in religious profiling? It is high time we started to see our leaders as Nigerians and not as belonging to any particular tribe or faith. Criminals also must be seen from the point of view of their actions and not necessarily associated with their religion or ethnic group. Herdsmen must therefore be called herdsmen and not necessarily tied to the aprons of Muslims or Fulanis.

Finally, we charge the Federal Government to flood Southern Kaduna with security personnel. We welcome the Senate’s decision to probe the Southern Kaduna crisis. We call on Muslims in Southern Kaduna to remain calm and law abiding, to refrain from issuing inflammatory statements and to cooperate with security agents posted to the area. We appeal to CAN and the Catholic archdiocese of Kafanchan to douse tension among Christians in Southern Kaduna.

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)