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) 

 

MURIC TO FG : BORROW A LEAF FROM 2021 SALAH HOLIDAY

 

15^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC TO FG : BORROW A LEAF FROM 2021 SALAH HOLIDAY

 

An Islamic human rights group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the Federal Government (FG) to borrow a leaf from the just concluded 2021 Salah holiday which marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan.  According to the group, this last holiday taught us a lesson in the prudent management of national holidays as Nigerian Muslims were only able to enjoy one out of the two days declared as holidays.

 

 

MURIC is therefore advocating reduction in the number of days declared as holidays. The human rights organisation is also seeking the understanding of religious groups who are in the habit of engaging in rivalry over the number of days declared as holidays.

 

 

This was made known in a press statement issued on Saturday, 15^th May, 2021 by the Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola.

 

 

MURIC said:

 

“The last Id al-Fitr holiday has taught us a lesson in careful planning and prudent management of holidays. This came about because although FG actually declared two days, Wednesday 12^th and Thursday 13^th, 2021 as holidays having speculated that Wednesday would be the Salah day, Ramadan did not end on Tuesday. It ended on Wednesday. As a result of this, Thursday became Salah day. This rendered the holiday declared on Wednesday superfluous, redundant and extraneous.

 

 

“The Muslims ended up enjoying only one day which was the second day (Thursday, 13^th May, 2021). But did heaven fall? No, it didn’t. Neither did the Muslims register any official complaint because they know that FG had satisfied all righteousness by declaring two days for them.

 

 

“But that may not be the issue. MURIC is calling the nation’s attention to the lessons inherent in this incident. First, any religious group which falls victim of this kind of natural and inadvertent holiday shortfall in future should learn to show tolerance and understanding instead of threatening hell and brimstone. Secondly, this incident has taught us that a single day may sometimes be enough as holiday for our religious festivals.

 

 

“It is hightime we realised that every single holiday comes with a cost. Unfortunately we do not seem to know this because we are a fun-loving, holiday-grabbing and merry-making people. Unfortunately we do not count the cost, and that is where we missed it as a nation.

 

 

“This country enjoys about fifteen (15) holidays annually and loses about N9.74 billion per annum to public holidays. This humongous amount can provide jobs for thousands of unemployed Nigerians. It can give us a well-equipped teaching hospital or build another macadamised dual carriageway in any part of the country.

 

 

“There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between our love for holidays and our culture of waste. You cannot separate time from productivity. Time is money and productivity translates to Gross Domestic Products (GDP). This is the time to choose between laziness and productivity. The fascinating products of the West which we are enjoying today were results of hardwork and sacrifice on national scale. Our superfluous holidays are simply consuming the future of coming generations.

 

 

“It is high time we took a radical look at this angle considering the poor and fragile nature of our economy. With a 0.11 GDP growth rate and $2,386.90 (2019) per capita income, it is very doubtful if we can afford the luxury of frivolous holiday declarations and reveling in the pay-day euphoria of the prodigal son.  

 

 

“We must tighten our belts. Holiday matters should be part of restructuring discussions. We can agree on reduction from two to one day only for religious holidays so long as they are fairly and equitably distributed. Christmas and the big Salah (Id al-Kabir) alone should attract two days each. All others should be restricted to one day each while religious festivals that fall on weekends should attract no extra day or days.

 

 

“The economic losses arising from our numerous holidays forced the adoption of this policy in the days of late General Sanni Abacha (rtd) and it worked. Only Allah knows why we relapsed again. The National Bureau of Statistics should make public the losses we run per day of every vacation observed in this country. Such information should be in the print, electronic and social media the day after every holiday. Perhaps this will enable us to know the value of each vacation and alert Nigerians to the danger of having too many holidays.

 

 

“This advocacy does not amount to double-speak. While it is true that we have been calling for the declaration of 1^st Muharram (the first day of the Hijrah or Islamic new year) as a public holiday in parity with January 1^st, we believe that our request can still be accommodated with equity and fairness as government’s focus.”

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

SALAH MESSAGE: INSECURITY: RECRUIT MORE POLICE, SOLDIERS

 

13^th May, 2021

SALAH MESSAGE:

INSECURITY: RECRUIT MORE POLICE, SOLDIERS

 

As Nigerian Muslims join their brethren in faith across the world to celebrate the Id Al-Fitr today, Thursday, 13^th May, 2021, an Islamic group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the Federal Government to recruit more policemen, soldiers and other security agents as a means of bringing the spate of insecurity to a halt. The group also canvassed for the procurement of state of the art equipment for all the security agencies.

 

 

The advice was contained in a Salah message sent to the media on Thursday, 13^th May, 2021 by the director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola.

 

 

“The present state of insecurity requires drastic solution. One area of our weakness is inadequate number of security men. Whereas the United Nations recommends at least one policeman for every 450, 499 or 500 citizens, the numerical strength of the Nigerian Police falls below this world standard.

 

 

“We had just 317,000 policemen as at 2009. We had less than 100,000 soldiers and about 33,000 men of the Department of Secret Services (DSS). Unfortunately no new recruitments were made from that period until 2016 when 10,000 policemen were added to police population. This has been an annual exercise and the number may have jumped to around 377,000 as at 2021. Another 70,000 would have been added if previous administrations had employed 10,000 more policemen per annum since 2009. But they did not.

 

 

“With the projected 377,000 policemen in the country as at today securing a population of 210 million people, Nigeria can only boast of one policeman to every 557 citizens. But that is in theory. In reality, the ratio is poorer than that because more than half of our police population are on special duties trying to secure very important personalities (VIPs). In some cases, more than six policemen are assigned to protect a single official. The theory of ratio 1:557 crashes in the face of this reality.

 

 

“Even at 1:557, Nigeria’s situation still falls below global best practices. With a population of 58.56 million people, South Africa’s police-civilian ratio is 1:439. The US 2019 population of 328.2 million has a 1:420 ratio. Britain’s population which is 66.65 million (2019) has 124,784 policemen, i.e. 211 policemen per every 100,000 citizens.

 

 

“What makes Nigeria’s case worse is the fact that a large number of the available officers and men are posted to guard politicians, judges, company directors, bank executives, etc. Although this is not the time to advocate full withdrawal of such protection from their current posts, this must be done as soon as the security situation improves.

 

 

“If it is true that cities are conquered by numbers, we recommend the recruitment of at least 25,000 additional policemen and 20,000 soldiers this year 2021 alone with an annual recruitment of no less than 20,000 per annum over the next five years in order to overwhelm all criminal and separatist elements. We also advocate faster pace of training and the procurement of state of the art equipment, particularly communication gadgets.”

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

 

2023: ON YORUBA MUSLIM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WE STAND : MURIC TELLS OBASANJO

 

11^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE :

2023: ON YORUBA MUSLIM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WE STAND : MURIC TELLS OBASANJO

 

Amidst rumours that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is trying to draft the current president of the African Development Bank (ADB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, into the 2023 presidential race, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has reminded the former president that the next Yoruba presidential ticket must go to a Yoruba Muslim in the name of fairness, justice and equity.

 

 

The human rights organisation based its stand on the fact that whereas three Yoruba Christians have occupied Aso Rock villa, no single Yoruba Muslim has held the post of president or vice president since independence.

 

 

This was made known to newsmen in a press statement issued on Tuesday, 11^th May, 2021 by Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director and Founder of the organization.

 

 

According to MURIC, “Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is reportedly making attempts to draft the current president of the African Development Bank (ADB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, into the 2023 presidential race. We object to this move. Obasanjo wants to waste all the efforts put in place by the Nigerian government to get Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina to that continental position.

 

 

“We remind the former president that as a Yoruba Christian, he has led Nigeria twice. He spent 3 years and 258 days as a military head of state (1976 – 1979) and another 8 years as a civilian president (1999 – 2007). Two other Yoruba Christians have also occupied Aso Rock. Chief Earnest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan was the interim head of state from 26^th August 1993 to 17^th November, 1993. The current vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is also a Yoruba Christian.

 

 

“Obasanjo’s attempt to drag Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina who is also a Yoruba Christian into the presidential race negates the principles of fairness, justice and equity. It is an attempt to rob Yoruba Muslims of the presidential slot and it violates a cardinal principle of democracy, namely, inclusiveness.

 

 

“It is an open secret that Yoruba Muslims who form the majority of the population in the South West are being denied their Allah-given fundamental human rights. This has led to complaints and court cases initiated by Muslims across Yorubaland over political and religious persecution. Yoruba Muslims are at the receiving end of deprivation of civil liberties. It is our contention that another Yoruba Christian presidency will usher in another opportunity for Christian hegemony and the marginalisation, stigmatisation, repression and persecution of Yoruba Muslims.

 

 

“Let Obasanjo tell us how many Yoruba Muslims were ministers in his administration. Even in Kwara State which is also a predominantly Muslim territory, Obasanjo picked two Christians as ministers (C. O. Adebayo and Funke Doyin). But he could not extend such ‘luxury’ to Yoruba Muslims in the South West.

 

 

“MURIC rejects this grand design to keep Muslims in Yorubaland in perpetual bondage. There are many Yoruba Muslims who are eminently qualified for the post of president. We also believe that the interest of the Yoruba people will be best served if they will channel their grievances towards ensuring that a Yoruba man emerges president instead of pursuing a separatist agenda that may lead them nowhere.

 

 

“We advise ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to relax his grip on the Nigerian jugular vein. He should stop pushing Yoruba Muslims to the background. Christians are not the only human beings in Yorubaland. Fair sharing spreads goodwill. Monopoly generates rancour and ill-feeling. There is no true democracy where there is no inclusiveness. The political party does not matter to us. What is important is that the next Yoruba presidential ticket must go to a Yoruba Muslim in the name of fairness, justice and equity.”

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

MURIC COMMISERATES WITH ADEBOYE OVER SON’S DEATH, SAYS IT IS A TEST OF FAITH

 

10^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE :

MURIC COMMISERATES WITH ADEBOYE OVER SON’S DEATH, SAYS IT IS A TEST OF FAITH

 

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has sent a message of condolence to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, whose son, Dare Adeboye, died in his sleep on Tuesday, 4^th May, 2021.

 

 

In a statement made available to journalists on Saturday, 8^th May, 2021, the Islamic human rights organisation described the death of Dare Adeboye as a test of faith for his father and his followers. The statement was signed by MURIC’s director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.

 

 

The statement reads:

 

“We are deeply touched by the death of Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s son, Dare Adeboye, at 42. But we know that it will pass. This is a trial to test the faith of Pastor Adeboye, his family members and his followers. We must be strong in tribulation. We must not be shaken because it is written that we may have to suffer various trials (I Peter 1:6).

 

 

“MURIC commiserates with Pastor Enoch Adeboye, his family and the entire members of the Redeemed Church. May Allah give them the strength to bear the loss.”

  

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)