4th August,
2021
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC DEMANDS HIJRAH DAY
The Muslim human
rights advocacy group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has called on the
Federal Government (FG) to recognise the first day of the Islamic calendar by
declaring it as a holiday.
The demand was
made in a press release issued on Wednesday, 4th August, 2021 by the
director and founder of the group, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
“Nigerian
Muslims will be joining their fellow faithfuls around the globe to mark Hijrah
Day on Monday 9th August, 2021. Hijrah Day is the first day of the
Islamic year. It is called 1st
Muharram because Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar which was divinely
ordained in the Glorious Qur’an (9:36; 2:189; 10:5;
17:12).
“The Islamic calendar was instituted after
the hijrah (migration) of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from Makkah to Madinah in 622
C.E. (i.e. Christian Era or A.D.). The Islamic date is identified with A.H.,
meaning After Hijrah.
“MURIC and other
Islamic organisations in the country have been asking for the recognition of
Hijrah Day since a long time ago but the Federal Government (FG) does not
appear amenable to this demand. We have therefore decided to amplify our demand
this year as the date approaches while sensitising Muslim politicians and
leaders at both state and federal levels.
“We are calling on all state governors who are
Muslims to identify with this noble, peaceful and divinely rewarding struggle
by declaring this coming Monday (9th August, 2021) as Hijrah Day
holiday. Members of state executives (commissioners, chairmen of agencies, etc)
who are Muslims have a duty to bring this to the attention of state governors
as a matter of urgency.
“Also, chairmen of local governments who are
Muslims should encourage and support Islamic organisations and schools within
their jurisdiction to organise events to mark the Day. Such events include public
lectures, march past rallies, visits to hospitals, orphanages, prisons and
other charity services, including volunteer works like repairing damaged parts
of the road used by the public.
“The eschatological angle is that all government
officials who play positive roles in this struggle will reap rewards here in
this world and in the Hereafter (yaom al-Qiyaamah).
“On the other
hand, Muslims in public offices who fail to promote it will have questions to
answer before Allah yaom al-Qiyamah because they will have to explain
why they abandoned their faith and their fellow Muslims for worldly gains.
“In fact, the matter is a different cup of tea for
the country’s Muslim president and Muslim governors who have the power to
approve it but fail to do so because, as leaders, their fellow Muslims will ask
Allah to hold such leaders responsible yaom al-Qiyamah and to give them double
punishment (33:67 – 68).
“This is why Muslims in public offices should not only be conversant with their
religion but must also be bold enough to practice, manifest and seek to
entrench it among fellow Muslims. No crime has been committed so long as they
do not stop non-Muslims from practicing their faiths. Therefore they should
ignore attempts by non-Muslims to blackmail them.
“What is
unacceptable is for them to trivialize Islamic norms and values thereby
compromising their faith. They should not be afraid of blackmail. It is empty
threat. Muslims have the right to demand for Hijrah Day because Christians
already have 1st January. Democracy is about participation, equal
access, equal rights and justice.
“However, this
matter is best handled at federal level. The states do not have to do anything
about it once the Federal Government has declared 1st Muharram of
every year as Hijrah Day with a holiday to mark it.
“This is why MURIC has been on FG’s neck for years
now, pestering it to declare the day as a holiday. We have issued several press
statements on it. For example, on 1st
January, 2018, we said, ‘Give Muslims Their Own January 1st’; on 6th
September, 2018, our statement was captioned ‘Declare Hijrah Day Next Week’.
Again on 1st January, 2019, we wrote, ‘1st January: MURIC
Condemns FG For Bias Against Muslims’. Also last year, on 3rd
January, 2020, we asked FG to ‘Give Muslims Their Own 1st January’.
“Having failed to secure FG’s attention on this matter, MURIC
turned to the National Assembly by sending a petition to Senate and by issuing
a statement on 3rd September, 2019, in which we drew Senate’s
attention to the lopsidedness in FG’s treatment of 1st January and 1st
Muharram. The statement was captioned ‘Hijrah Day: MURIC Petitions NASS’.
“We assert that Muslims are
being denied the dividends of democracy in Nigeria and the recognition given to
1st January vis a vis the rejection of 1st Muharram is a
good example. Whereas Dorothy Pickle defined democracy as dialogue between the
ruler and the ruled, both FG and the NASS have elected to reject dialogue between
them and Nigerian Muslims. They have turned our pleas into mere monologue.
“So we are asking FG and our elected representatives, are you
shutting Nigerian Muslims out of your democratic practices? We remind our
leaders that there can be no true democracy until all stakeholders are allowed
to taste its dividends: liberty, equal rights, equal opportunities, equal participation,
etc.
“It is for this reason that
Davis Lane spoke of a ‘participant citizenry’ as a major index of democracy
performance and good governance. Defining the subject matter, Tunji Olagunju
laid emphasis on ‘response to the interests of the people’. Otwin Marenin
described democracy as a situation where ‘the institutions and
politics of the society represent the consent and interests of all citizens’.
“Judging by the declarations of the aforementioned political
scientists, Nigerian Muslims and the institutions of Islam cannot be said to
have been given adequate opportunity in policy making in this country. With the
exception of a few states in the North plus one in the South (Osun under Ogbeni
Rauf Aregbesola), both FG and most states have sidelined the Muslims on the
issue of the declaration of holidays on the first day of the year.
“FG is most guilty as pronounced. A public institution that is
expected to be the father of all, particularly father of the two major
religions gave recognition in this regard to only one religion (Christians were
given 1st January of every year) but has refused to recognize the
second religion.
While we admit that the evil was done by the Christian colonial
master, Britain, and FG only has vicarious liability, it still makes us very
unhappy. The lopsidedness should have been addressed since independence. Our
hearts bleed for the injustice visited upon Nigerian Muslims since
independence.
“If anyone claims that 1st
January is not for Christians then we will have no choice than to ask the
government to abolish the 1st January holiday and we will also
forget about our agitation for the declaration of 1st Muharram as a
holiday. But the first day of the Islamic year must also be recognized so long
as 1st January is given recognition.
“What is good for the goose is good for the gander. We demand
parity. Enough of all the hypocrisy. Parity must be conspicuously present where
there is good governance. That is why Jack Lively compared democracy to a
‘situation of equality’ and Margoli called it ‘equal opportunity to
participate’.
“Apart from FG,
the Nigerian elites should take a lion share of the blame. Our elites never see
eye to eye with Nigerian Muslims. They have assumed that everything is in order
so long as the Christians are satisfied. But who says? The elites need to gauge
the feelings of ordinary citizens, particularly Muslims who form the majority.
“This is why Almond and Verba associate democracy with a political system in
which ordinary citizens exercise control over elites through norms accepted by
elites and non-elites. But in Nigeria, the feelings and thoughts of non-elites
are never considered. Unfortunately Muslims happen to be among 90 percent of
Nigeria’s non-elites. But what of the rights of citizenship?
“It is part of Allah-given
fundamental human right of Nigerian Muslims to enjoy freedom on Hijrah Day.
Incidentally, and, according to this divine calendar, the 1st of
Muharram of this year (1443 A.H.) will fall on Monday, 9th August,
2021. We therefore appeal to FG to declare that day (9th August) as
a public holiday to enable Nigerian Muslims to mark Hijrah Day.
“We charge all Islamic organisations in the country to set the
machinery in motion for peaceful and orderly demands for the declaration of
Hijrah Day in all states that are yet to make the declaration. In this regard,
we give kudos to the Kwara State chapter of the National Hijrah Committee under
the leadership of Professor Yusuf Lanre Badmus for leading other Muslims in
making the demand two days ago.
“FG and the state governments should not wait until
Muslims start protesting. We are capable of doing that but we do not wish to
compound the current security challenges facing the nation. We prefer to be
responsible and patriotic activists. ‘All We are Saaaaying, Give Us This Day!…
All We are Saaaaying, Give Us This Day!… All We are Saaaaying, Give Us Hijrah
Day!!!’”
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC)
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