OSUN: FEMALE CHRISTIAN STUDENTS SHOULD COPY MARY

20^th June, 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

OSUN: FEMALE CHRISTIAN STUDENTS SHOULD COPY MARY  

Sequel to the court judgment permitting female Muslim students to use hijab with their school uniforms, Christian students in the State of Osun went to school in church regalia as instructed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Osun chapter.       

While a voluminous hue and cry from various quarters has followed this development, we wish to advise Osun CAN to fall back on doctrinal teachings, model influence as well as precedence in Christendom.  

For doctrinal teaching, Osun CAN should allow the Bible to guide its action on the matter. The Bible enjoins Christian females to cover their heads with a veil (I Corinthians 11:4-13).

As a model for Christian women, Mary the mother of Jesus (peace be upon him) provided the practical example of how a Christian woman should dress. Mary uses veils in all her pictures that we have seen and she should be a model for all Christian women.

Christendom has a precedent in the use of veils by Catholic nuns. There is little or no difference between the Muslim hijab and the Catholic nun’s veil. Osun CAN and indeed all Christian women can adopt this.

So instead of this rancor, we advise synergy between Christian and Muslim doctrinal teachings. The root of religious crisis can be traced to the lacuna between scriptural teachings and the practice among adherents of Christianity and Islam. Although both religions teach love and peaceful coexistence, the practitioners do the opposite.

In this hijab controversy, however, the Muslims have proved more faithful to the teaching of their scripture. They wished to use the hijab with the school uniform but school authorities disallowed them. Instead of taking the law into their hands, they petitioned the state government.

Although Ogbeni Aregbesola is a Muslim he did not give them the permission to use it. Still exercising restraint, they went to court. Afterall the court should always be the final arbiter in a democratic setting. However, the reaction of Osun CAN to the court’s pronouncement leaves much to be desired.

In the present circumstance, we of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) are of the opinion that the way forward is for Osun CAN to dig into Christian archives, design a Christian veil that matches both the colour and stuff of the school uniforms just as the Muslims have done and direct Christian students in the state to use them. 

But nobody should expect female Muslim students of Osun to stop using their hijab after this landmark judgment. The only logical option left is for Osun CAN to seek parity for female Christian students in the state to use the Christian veil on their school uniforms. Osun CAN will be playing dog in the manger if it fails to do this but insists that Muslims should not use their hijab. If someone does not need something, he has no moral right to stop others from using it. 

This is where the Osun police command must be on alert. The police must not abdicate its responsibility. MURIC warned not too long ago that the so-called peaceful coexistence that exists in the South West is a very thin veneer. The cord holding Christians and Muslims together in the sub-region can be likened to a single thread of a spider’s web. It is too fragile and it exists because the Muslims have chosen to remain quiet on the issue of religious freedom. We can all see how it is playing out now.

To cement our position, we can trace the origin of the two religions because today was born from the wombs of yesterday. Islam came to Nigeria in 1085. Christianity came in 1842. Islam was in Yorubaland as early as the 17^th century, about 200 years before Christianity. But on arrival, the British colonialists enslaved the Muslims by imposing Christian culture on all facets of life in the land at the expense of Islamic landmarks. This should have been addressed after independence but it was not done.

Each time the Muslims ask for their rights, they were told to go and live in Kano or Sokoto if they want to enjoy their rights. We cannot take this discrimination any more. We demand the right to religious freedom. Our right is our right. This is why we support those clamouring for restructuring in Nigeria. The whole gamut of our coexistence must be revisited. They will be surprised that it cannot be about oil alone. South West Muslims demand religious emancipation.

The hijab saga in the State of Osun is informed by the reluctance of Osun CAN to set the Muslims free. CAN has long been promoting a neo-colonial agenda. MURIC advises CAN to let the Muslims go. There is no need for bickering. We can eat together and work together so long as no group lords it on the other. CAN can use its Christian veil. We are already using our hijab.

We could have ignored the church garments which Osun CAN ordered Christian students to wear but it is not even in the interest of Christian children or that of their parents. For how long can the ridiculous show continue? The Muslim hijab is cheap and small. Church regalia is costly and cumbersome. Can the parents afford it all the time? Osun CAN is cutting its nose to spite its face.

Unlike the church garment, hijab is not too conspicuous on a school uniform. The church garment covers up a school uniform whereas hijab leaves the uniform uncovered. It is about head and bosom cover, not about a garment that covers the whole body. CAN missed this point.

Again we have no serious grouse against the use of church garments in school, afterall it is more decent that the short, tight and provocative skirts we call school uniform, except that it elicits public ridicule and promotes indiscipline in schools.

MURIC invites Osun CAN to join hands with us in the fight against indecent dressing and immorality. Nigeria cannot be pretending to fight HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as premarital sex and teenage pregnancy when school uniforms are designed to seduce the opposite sex. We must be serious for once.

In our concluding remark, we remind Osun CAN that Nigeria has experienced enough religious crises. We have lost thousands of our compatriots including properties worth billions of dollars. Neither economic growth nor political stability can be achieved without peace. We therefore urge Osun CAN to tow the path of dialogue in resolving this impasse.

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

CHURCH GARMENTS IN SCHOOL: OSUN CAN PROMOTING ANARCHY

15^th June, 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

CHURCH GARMENTS IN SCHOOL: OSUN CAN PROMOTING ANARCHY   

Christian students of Baptist High School, Adeeke and those of Salvation Army Middle School, Alekuwodo, Iwo, State of Osun, yesterday attended school in church garments.

The Osun State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria had earlier vowed to order Christian students in public schools to wear church garments to school if Governor Rauf Aregbesola goes ahead to implement the judgement of the state’s High Court giving legal backing to the wearing of hijab to school. Justice Oyedeji Falola of the Osun State High Court, Oshogbo, gave the ruling on 3^rd June, 2016.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) condemns this hocus pocus. It is a manifestation of impunity of the highest order. Osun chapter of CAN has turned the judiciary into a laughing stock.

It is rather unfortunate that a religious body of the caliber of CAN has disrespected the judgement of a high court granting Allah-given fundamental human right to female Muslim students to use hijab. Nigerians can now see the true face of religious fanaticism. Something is fishy if Muslims take a case to court instead of going violent or even demonstrating and Christians now take the law into their hands. This is highly provocative.

MURIC has always maintained that violence and terrorism must be traced to provocation simply because there can never be smoke without fire. The cause-effect theory must be properly examined before apportioning blames.

Hijab is used freely in all public schools in the North because the Nigerian law allows its use. But the picture is different in the South where school authorities act a script written by CAN. But to be or not to be? That is the question. The court has made a pronouncement. We must decide who calls the shots: Osun CAN or the judiciary.

This is a very dicey situation and we call on the government of the State of Osun and the state’s police command to do the needful. The Muslims have obtained a favourable judgement and anyone who stands in the way of its implementation must be thoroughly dealt with.

Osun CAN executive is guilty of child abuse. They are using innocent children to commit illegalities. Those underaged children are being goaded to lawlessness by those old enough to be their grandfathers. What kind of legacy are those elders leaving behind? How can thuggery, hooliganism and impunity of such magnitude be encouraged among secondary school students?

Have we found any solution to cultism in schools yet? We should not be surprised if those children who wore church garments to school beat up their teachers in future. Neither should we look too far for their sponsors. At least it is now on record that CAN executive have ordered indiscipline in public schools.

But we will not lose our heads in spite of this provocation. We call on Muslim students, Muslim youths in general and Muslim parents to remain calm. They should allow Nigerians to watch and fully enjoy this theater of the absurd without being dragged into the list of the dramatis personae.

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

OSUN CHAPTER OF CAN BREEDING ANARCHY

13^th June, 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

OSUN CHAPTER OF CAN BREEDING ANARCHY   

The Osun State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has vowed to order Christian students in public schools to wear church garments to school if Governor Rauf Aregbesola goes ahead to implement the judgement of the state’s High Court giving legal backing to the wearing of hijab to school. Justice Oyedeji Falola of the Osun State High Court, Oshogbo, gave the ruling on 3^rd June, 2016.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is worried by this show of collective arrogance. Osun CAN’s threat is a manifestation of poverty of ideas. CAN is at the end of its tethers. The decision to go public with this kind of threat is short in logic, long in mediocrity.

 

MURIC is constrained to do a brief x-ray of the situation. It is high time Nigerians admitted that there are fanatics and extremists among both Christians and Muslims. It is sad to note that Nigeria is currently sandwiched between fanatical Christians and extremist Muslims. The provocative and neo-colonialist propensities of the fanatical Christians often goad extremist Muslims to violence.

In this particular scenario, Osun CAN has simply upgraded collective fanaticism to officialdom and demonstrated the fact that it has no respect for the rule of law. It should be noted that the threat coming from CAN is tantamount to contempt of court. A competent court of law gives judgement, then the executive body of a religious group which is supposed to know better, starts issuing threats.

Yet in its characteristic manner as an unrepentant anarchist, a confusionist and advocatus diaboli, Osun CAN has appealed against the judgement of the court. Is it therefore not highly hypocritical to still turn around issuing threats? If Osun CAN knew the civilized way to reject a court judgement, why has it also chosen to take the barbaric path parri passu? Why not wait for the outcome of its appeal?

For those who care to reason, we reiterate the rationale for the demand for the use of hijab by female Muslim students in all public schools. Firstly, hijab is divinely commanded in the Glorious Qur’an (24:30-31) and failure to abide attracts Allah’s wrath. Secondly, Freedom to practice and manifest one’s religion is enshrined in Section 38 (i) & (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thirdly, the conventional school uniform was designed by the British colonial masters who, essentially, were Christians. The present school uniform is therefore a Christian uniform and it is being imposed on Muslim students. This, to us, is unacceptable. It is oppressive and sectional. It assails all known principles of emocratic practices. 

MURIC therefore hails the June 3, 2016 judgement of Justice Oyedeji Falola as fair, balanced and historic. A Daniel is come to judgement.

The threat by Osun CAN stands logic on its head. It is only Muslims who use hijab everywhere they go, whether they are going to the workplace, to attend an official function, to a party or for a friendly visit. They use it whenever they are outdoors. Christians have never been known to do this.

It therefore sounds ridiculous to hear CAN threatening to direct Christian students to use church garments to school. MURIC has two posers for Osun CAN:

1.  Since it is not only female Muslim students who will be using the hijab (all conscious female Muslims in the state use hijab whenever they step out of their houses), will Osun CAN equally order Christian civil servants, businessmen, farmers and artisans in the state to start wearing sultana and other church garments anywhere they go?

2.  If CAN gives such an order, what kind of church garment will be used by Christians who are neither members of the Celestial Church nor members of any of the white-garment churches?

3.  As female Muslims use their hijab even to social events, will Osun CAN also order all Christians in the state to wear their church garments to all social events including the ‘owambe’ and overnight parties?

The high level of deceit in Osun CAN will be exposed if it fails to issue the above orders to all Christians in the state. CAN is using a tactic known as ‘elimination by procrastination’. The whole idea is to exterminate Islamic landmarks by disallowing or delaying their practice among Muslim children until the latter become adults. It is assumed that it will be too late to start practicing such things at that time since they are not used to it. A sapling is easier to bend than a tree.  

We call on the government of the State of Osun to ignore the rantings of Osun CAN. Aregbesola’s regime should not succumb to intimidation after satisfying all righteousness. Let the law take its due course.

We urge the Ministry of Education to ensure immediate and prompt compliance with the court’s directive. Hijab samples should be sent to all schools. The ministry should show the political will for implementation. Undue delay and disobedience of clear directives by school heads should be treated as insubordination and met with stiff punishment as contained in civil service rules.

We charge the Osun Police Command to do the rightful. The police has a duty to execute orders once the judiciary has made pronouncements. Anyone who incites citizens in the state to behave in a manner capable of causing public disorder should be made to face the wrath of the law. The court has made the type of garment approved by it abundantly clear. Anyone who causes minors to use unapproved garments should be dealt with according to the law.

Meanwhile, we urge Muslim parents and Islamic organizations in the State of Osun to remain proactive, calm and law abiding. We appeal to them to cooperate with the state government and the schools in ensuring that female Muslim students start using hijab made in the colour and design of their schools’ uniforms. Muslims must eschew all forms of lawlessness or the temptation to react to provocation from Osun CAN.

Finally, we call on all well-meaning citizens within and outside the State of Osun to call the state’s chapter of CAN back to the path of reason. In particular we appeal to both Mr. Femi Falana and Professor Wole Soyinka to speak out on the court’s judgement on hijab and CAN’s reaction in the same way that they intervened recently in the case of Ese Oruru of Bayelsa State. We are interested in seeing how objective the two respected social critics can be.

 

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