MURIC TO PFN : MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

 

29^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC TO PFN : MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

 

Islamic human rights group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) to mind its own business. This followed a warning issued by the PFN on Thursday, 27^th May, 2021 against any move by any group to introduce Sharia law to the South-West zone of the country through the ongoing constitutional review being carried out by the Senate.

 

 

MURIC’s reaction came via a statement issued by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Saturday, 29^th May 2021.

 

 

According to MURIC, “Our Christian neighbours have come again. They are always the ones who fire the first shot. They are always heating up the polity. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) warned on Thursday, 27^th May, 2021 against any move by any group to introduce Shariah law to the South-West zone of the country through the ongoing constitutional review being carried out by the Senate.

 

 

“This is a well-known pattern. Our Christian neighbours know very well that Shariah is the Allah-given fundamental human right of Muslims. But they are determined to deprive us of it using unorthodox methods. They believe they are at war with Muslims and to them, everything is fair in war. They are using both fair and foul means to achieve their objective

 

 

“It is the gospel according to Niccolo Machiavelli : the end justifies the means, no matter what they do to achieve it. Like the German Otto Von Bismarck, they do not just wait to strike when the iron is hot, our Christian neighbours believe in striking to make the cold iron hot. This is why they heat up the polity all year round.

 

 

“PFN and other Christian groups are fully aware that Shariah was in the South West decades before the arrival of Christianity in 1842. Shariah was practiced in Ede under Oba Abibu Olagunju (Habeeb, a Muslim name) and the Ede Shariah Court operated up till 1913 at Agbeni area of the town. It was moved to Agbongbon area in 1914. Shariah was applied in Iwo under Oba Momodu Lamuye (Muhammad Lamuye) who died in 1906. Even the seventh Akirun of Ikirun, Oba Aliyu Oyewole (died 1912), instituted Shariah in Ikirun in 1910. These are just examples of the existence and spread of Shariah in Yorubaland and the Christian leaders are not oblivious of the fact that it was the British Christian colonialists who stopped Shariah in Yorubaland and imposed Christian common law.

 

 

“However, they are equally aware of the rising tide of Islamic awareness in the same South West. They have seen the hitherto passive Muslim community being transformed into an active, articulate and politically conscious populace. They are afraid that the sleeping giant is waking up to take back what belongs to it.

 

 

“We call on Nigerians to understand the siege mentality of our Christian neighbours. Like all aggressors, they believe that attack is the best form of defence. As the benefactors and inheritors of colonial rampage that lasted more than a century, they are determined to keep all the loot which their principal bequeathed to them. They are determined to keep the Muslims in a concentration camp into which the colonial masters drove them.  

 

 

“They have forgotten that the only thing that is constant in life is change. We are worried about the voyeuristic disorder which has again manifested in the PFN. It is a Peeping Tom syndrome that propels our Christian neighbours to crane their necks in order to see what is in the pot of soup of the Muslims. It is called ‘giraffing’ in examination hall parlance.

 

 

“The Constitution Review Panel asked Nigerians to forward their views regarding what they want in the constitution. Each group is supposed to submit its needs. But instead of telling the panel what the Christians want, PFN has gone ahead to say what they do not want Muslims to ask for. It is an attempt to gag Muslims in the South West and it will not work.

 

 

“The issue is what do the Christians want? It is clear that they have been overpampered by the colonial master who handed over our common patrimony to them on a platter of gold. So now they want nothing because they already have all they need. But they want to sustain the status quo because it favours them.

 

 

“Decorum, courtesy and protocol demand that Christians should ask for what they lack and what they want. But instead of doing that they are asking the committee not to tolerate the demands of Muslims. Yet Christians already have their own common law and the shariah has nothing to do with them. It is Muslims who need Shariah.

 

 

“This attitude can be compared to that of the dog in the manger whose master gave it its own meat and bone. The dog ate and was filled up. But when the master gave hay to the horse, the dog came barking ferociously in order to prevent the horse from accessing the grass. But do dogs eat grass? How uncharitable can our neighbours be?

 

 

“MURIC warns the PFN and its co-travellers to steer clear of the path of Muslims in the South West. The demand for Shariah is a civil rights matter. It is a demand for change, a demand for the status quo ante. Britain compelled the whole South West to don the toga of Christian ways of life and agents of neo-imperialism are pushing this diabolical scheme. It will not work. We say capital ‘NO’ to neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism and modern slavery.

 

 

“We are being deceived daily by those who claim that there is religious tolerance in the South West. Why is the Muslim girl child in hijab always targeted for persecution if it is true that there is religious tolerance in the South West? Why are Muslims always marginalised in political appointments if there is tolerance in Yorubaland? Why is the South West civil service totally dominated by Christians? Why is the ministry of education in particular and the teaching service authorities in the hands of Christians in all Yoruba states? The claim of religious tolerance is a sham, a phantom. It is a mantra designed to keep Yoruba Muslims in perpetual slavery.

 

 

“Muslims in the region are waking up and asking for freedom. We demand a halt to the forceful use of Christian school uniform, Christian education, Christian law, etc. We demand civil Shariah, not criminal Shariah that involves the cutting of hands but civil Shariah to regulate Muslim marriages, inheritance, family affairs, etc. It has nothing to do with Christians. We will use every peaceful and constitutional means available to attain this objective. We declare a caveat emptor in Shariah-related matters. PFN should mind its own business. No retreat, no surrender.

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

HIJAB: OAU MUST INVESTIGATE HARASSMENT OF FEMALE MUSLIM STUDENT - MURIC

 

26^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

HIJAB: OAU MUST INVESTIGATE HARASSMENT OF FEMALE MUSLIM STUDENT - MURIC

 

An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to investigate the circumstances that led a Muslim parent to withdraw his daughter from the school after a teacher allegedly harassed the girl.     

 

 

MURIC’s request was made by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 26^th May, 2021.

 

 

MURIC said, “One of the teachers of the Obafemi Awolowo International School (OAUIS), Mrs. Adeyemo, has allegedly harassed a female Muslim student of the school. The intimidation has made the girl’s parents to withdraw her from the school.

 

 

“The girl who was in the habit of using her hijab from home and removing it at the school’s gate (since hijab is not allowed by the school’s authorities) was harassed by Mrs. Adeyemo. Although the girl had removed her hijab as usual at the school’s gate, the teacher still confronted her after she entered the school claiming that she had seen the girl in hijab within the university premises. She gave the girl a totally contemptuous washdown that the latter wept profusely.

 

 

“The parents reportedly came to the school in protest. They argued that their daughter had not violated any of the school’s rules because the girl had removed her hijab before entering the school’s premises. The school authority allegedly argued that it was against the school’s policy for any female student to wear hijab on her uniform anywhere at all and that OAU campus was part and parcel of the school’s premises. Consequently, the girl’s father withdrew his daughter out of frustration.

 

 

“MURIC is greatly amused by this ugly development. As far as the school authorities are concerned, they see this as a win-win situation. On the contrary, it is a dent on the school’s image. We find it interesting that an international school within the premises of an ivory tower will encourage child abuse of such high level. It is quite nauseating.

 

 

“Or do we need a lawyer from outside OAU to explain the implications of what the authorities of OAUIS has done to a little girl? OAUIS has locked out a girl child from its premises. A girl child has been denied access to education on account of a small head scarf at a time the whole world is clamouring for education for the same girl child. It is child abuse of high level magnitude.

 

 

“Worse still, the Psychology Department of the Faculty of Education in OAU needs to work on the mentality of some of the teachers in its international school before further damage is done. Are they aware of the damage done by Mrs. Adeyemo to the psyche of the female Muslim student who was harassed by her and on account of which the girl lost her studentship?

 

 

“Records show that a number of students treated with disdain by their teachers have been known to go into a state of despondency. Many of them become melancholy, incommunicado, drooling all day long. They get detached from all types of academic work. Depression sets in. They also have high propensity for suicide if no urgent steps are taken to reset their pshyche and many are known to have committed suicide on account of tongue-lashing by insensitive teachers.

 

 

“This is exactly where we are going. Mrs. Adeyemo derided the poor female Muslim student because of hijab until the girl lost her self-confidence. She burst into tears, wishing she were never born. Mrs. Adeyemo’s behaviour on that day was contrary to the dictates of the noble profession of teaching to which she belongs. It was unethical, repugnant and despicable. She needs to be counselled before she can do further damage.  

 

 

“We must place on record the fact that the Muslim students in OAUIS are allowed to observe their Salat (prayer) in the school and Islamic Religious Knowledge is also taught there. Credit for this goes to both the OAU Muslim community and the school authorities. But the refusal to allow female Muslim students to don hijab dwarfs all these.

 

 

“Our position is based on the fact that fundamental human rights have always been whole, not partial. Whoever grants some civil liberties only to withhold some has granted no rights at all. It is like giving somebody gold with one hand and using the other to take it back. It is either you recognize all civil rights or you deny all. There is no middle way in Allah-given fundamental human rights. They are not even yours to give in the first place. They are from Allah. That is why we call them Allah-given rights.

 

 

“The argument that the use of hijab violates the school’s rules does not hold any water. The Nigerian Constitution grants religious freedom, including freedom to use hijab. It is important to note that the Constitution is the font et origo and any rule, regulation or law of any local or state government, agency or institution that contravenes any clause therein remains null, void and ultra vires. To that extent, therefore, no school within the country by whatever nomenclature it is called has the power to declare illegal the hijab which the Nigerian Constitution authoritatively makes legitimate.

 

 

“This is another example of the persecution of Muslim children in the hands of overzealous and intolerant Christian civil servants and teachers in the South West. It is interesting that Mrs. Adeyemo bears a Yoruba name. The female Muslim student is also a Yoruba girl. Will Yoruba Muslims not face worse persecution in the hands of Christians if the Yorubas eventually succeed in their plan to secede? Will Muslims be safe at that time when they are not safe even now? Will the Muslims of Yorubaland enjoy any religious freedom if the proposed Oduduwa Republic becomes a reality?

 

 

“The interesting thing is that Muslims only suffer like this in the southern part of Nigeria. They enjoy their Allah-given fundamental human rights in the whole North. Yet Nigeria has just one constitution, not two, not three. Why then should hijab be legitimate in Northern schools but ‘illegitimate’ in Yorubaland?”

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

DON’T LEGITIMISE CANNABIS – MURIC

 

19^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

DON’T LEGITIMISE CANNABIS – MURIC

Mr. Benjamin Kalu, a spokesman of the House of Representatives, has said cannabis would aid Nigeria’s industrial drive and boost her internally generated revenue (IGR). Kalu spoke on Monday, 17^th May, 2021. But an Islamic human rights group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has countered this claim. According to the group, the legalisation of cannabis will be the last nail in the coffin of morality in Nigeria.

 

 

MURIC’s reaction came through its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 19^th May 2021.

 

He said, “A spokesman of the House of Representatives, Mr. Benjamin Kalu, has solicited for the legalisation of cannabis in Nigeria. We strongly condemn this attempt to compartmentalise Nigerians into vicious drug cartels. Benjamin Kalu wants to turn Nigeria into another Mexico on the African continent.

 

 

“We already have serious security challenges. Boko Haram has been here for more than a decade. We have homegrown kidnapping crisis. Desperate separatist movements have turned into terrorists. We have cultism-related killings in our cities and among our young students.

 

 

“The Glorious Qur’an has diagnosed the Nigerian problem with microscopic accuracy. It said, ‘Evil has appeared on both land and sea as a result of the handiworks of men so that Allah may give them a taste of their deeds and perchance they will turn back from their evil (Qur’an 30:41 Zahara al-fasad fil-barri wal-bahr..)

 

 

“The security challenges we are currently facing are punishments for our recklessness. Instead of thinking of making criminal elements in the country ‘turn back from their evil’, Kalu wants to cap the edifice with drug war. There is no gainsaying the fact that the legalisation of cannabis will be the last straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of its impact on insecurity and the last nail in the coffin of morality in Nigeria in terms of the country’s descent into the abyss of moral debauchery which began a long time ago.

 

 

“Of course we know where Kalu is coming from. This lawmaker spoke in Akure, the capital of Ondo State on Monday 17^th May, 2021. Nigerians will recall that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has been advocating for the legalisation of cannabis since 2019. There is no doubt that he has not given up. Kalu is his latest recruit into his cannabis promotion camp.

 

 

“The Akeredolu school of thought is only thinking of the material aspect and economic gains obtainable from the legalisation of cannabis sativa (also known as Indian hemp). According to Kalu, The Global Industrial Hemp Market which was valued $5b in 2019 is projected to reach $36b by 2026. He also argued that countries like Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa have legalised cannabis. In addition, he contended that marijuana is medicinal, that it would create jobs, boost foreign exchange (with an estimated value of $125 billion by 2025).

 

 

“We know about all these but has Kalu and his principal, Akeredolu, given the ‘Nigerian condition’ any thought? Have they put in place the necessary precautions? Do Nigerians obey laws? Do they listen to simple instructions? Where else in the world do you have people driving in the opposite direction (one way) when there are bold traffic signs warning against it?

 

 

“Has Kalu thought of thousands of innocent lives cut short by commercial drivers who indulge in taking drugs at the motor parks and immediately jump inside their vehicles to take unsuspecting Nigerians to their early graves? Can Kalu convince us that those who burned hundreds of brand new luxurious buses of the Lagos State Government during the #EndSARS protests were sober and totally drug-free? Cannabis had not been legalised at that time. Does he want a proliferation of that disaster by giving easier access to cannabis?

 

 

“Nigeria is passing through unimaginable social trauma at this period. The crime rate is very high and it is mostly induced by drug. Suicide is rising by the day and many cases have been traced to drugs. The major point raised by Kalu and Akeredolu has been economic benefit but what have the politicians done with all the billions of dollars from oil all these years?

 

 

“The Bible says, ‘For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul’ (Mark 8:36)? What does Nigeria stand to gain if it makes billions of dollars from cannabis but destroys the country? You cannot sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind. We already have large number of youths whose lives have been ruined by taking drugs even without legalising cannabis. What then should we expect if we eventually make it legal? Students, area boys, cultists will go haywire. Drug-related cases will increase in psychriatic hospitals.

 

 

“Cannabis may have its benefits but the disadvantages outway the advantages. We therefore call on the House of Representatives to reject any attempt to smuggle the cannabis bill into the hallowed House. This House must not become the House of Marijuana. It must remain the House of Reform, Progress and Dignity.

 

 

“We advise Governor Akeredolu to drop his cannabis dream for massive investment in food production. Our people are hungry. Our land is fertile. Give us yam, rice and cassava pyramids. No to drug addiction. No to marijuana.

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

 

MURIC CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S STATE TERRORISM

 

17^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S STATE TERRORISM

 

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has condemned the ongoing bombardment of Palestine by Israel’s war planes and artillery. The group described the attacks as crimes against humanity.

 

 

The position of MURIC was revealed in a press statement issued on Monday, 17^th May, 2021 by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.  

 

According to MURIC, “We strongly condemn the ongoing aggression of Israel against Palestine. A people that does not possess a single war plane is being harassed, killed and dehumanised by an apartheid state that is armed to the teeth while the world looks on carelessly.

 

 

“Israel’s war planes are carrying out bombing raids on Gaza and other Palestinian cities. Whole blocks of flats and civilian tower buildings are being sunk to ground zero. The occupants perish with no hope of being rescued. The Palestinians have no single war plane. They have no standing army.

 

 

“The United Nations have failed to stop Israel’s aggression because America and other Western powers are always there to veto UN resolutions. The UN had never been fair in its dealings with Palestine. The Palestinians who owned 92% of the land were given only 47% by the 1947 United Nations misadventure thereby rendering 472,000 Palestinians homeless. Since then it has been killings, massacres and displacements with the Palestinians always being at the receiving end.  

 

 

“We are particularly disenchanted with the role of America in the whole issue. In 2019 alone for example, the US provided $3.8 billion in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $8 billion of loan guarantees. The United States (US) allows Israel to build a nuclear weapon but hypocritically breathes down the neck of Israel’s neighbours on the issue of nuclear energy. In as much as the US is Israel’s major supplier and backer, the US has the power to stop Israel’s aggression against Palestine.

 

 

“That is why we condemn in the strongest terms the statement made by President Joe Biden that Israel has the right to defend itself. That statement was reckless and irresponsible. It was a statement that endorsed Israel’s aggression against Palestine and it exposed the insincerity of the US in its so called search for a two-state solution to the Middle East imbroglio.

 

                                                           

“We ask Joe Biden, is the forceful eviction of Palestinians from their homes part of Israel’s right to defend itself? Is the demolition of Palestinian civilian houses by Israel’s bulldozers part of Israel’s right to defend itself? Are the historical bloody massacres of Palestinians part of Israel’s right to self-defence?

 

 

“Even Nigeria under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan played an ignoble role in the Palestinian question. The request to officially recognize Palestine as a state within the 1967 boarders with full UN member benefits and state status throughout the international community was presented by Jordan on 30^th December 2014. While justice-seeking countries like Argentina, Chad, Chile, Jordan, China, France and Russia voted ‘Yes’ to a Palestinian State, Nigeria dashed the hope of Palestine by abstaining.

 

 

“Just nine votes were mandatory for Palestine to secure the status it needed and eight had been obtained. Only one more vote was needed but Nigeria reneged on its well-known anti-apartheid stance. It was a shocking, conservative and reactionary shift from anti-apartheid champion status for which the country was known to a pro-zionist entity. It was the coup de grace. It was the day Nigeria shamefully turned its back on its principles of justice, liberty and humanity, no thanks to ex-President Jonathan’s love for anything that may hurt Muslims and favour Christians. Jonathan cannot wash his hands off that diplomatic misadventure. He allowed his religious sentiment to get the better of him.

 

 

“This is the parochial and uninformed angle from which many Nigerians look at the Palestine-Israel affair. But this matter has nothing to do with religion. Many Christians wrongly assume that the Jews are Christians but the reverse is the case. In fact there are more Christians among the Palestinians than among the Israelis. It is therefore more of a human right matter, a matter of conscience. What is happening between Israel and Palestine is that conscienceless power is subjugating powerless conscience.

 

 

“We call on the Nigerian government to condemn Israel’s crime against humanity. Nigeria has always been known for its principled stand on international issues. This great African country confronted the apartheid regime of South Africa until it was brought to its knees.  Nigeria was also at the forefront of the struggle to liberate Rhodesia, Zimbabwe and Angola from the clutches of apartheid and colonialism. This country must rise again to its traditional role of being the voice of the voiceless on the African continent before it loses its respect in the commity of nations.

 

 

“It will be recalled that this new crisis started when Palestinian Muslims were observing Ramadan evening (tarawih) prayers inside the al-Aqsa mosque and Israeli soldiers came shooting sporadically to disperse them. We assert that Israel is not defending itself. On the contrary, the Zionist state is on a mission to wipe out the Palestinians from the face of the earth. Israel is preparing for a ground invasion to claim more Palestian land after which it will refuse to withdraw.

 

 

“It is simply state terrorism. It is ethnic cleansing. It is crime against humanity. Israel’s superior firepower may seem to be winning but posterity will not forgive aggressors.  

 

 

“By endorsing Israel’s reckless onslaught against the Palestinians and by failing to bring its influence to bear on Israel when it matters most, America has lost the moral right to talk to the rest of the world about human rights and civil liberties. Thus the US has proclaimed the absence of justice in the world. We affirm that peace will continue to elude the world because although everybody keeps talking of peace but none is talking about justice. We hold America responsible for the cold-blooded killing of thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians, including vulnerable women and children.

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)