The Human Rights Watch on Wednesday stated that hundreds of Shi’ite Muslims were killed by soldiers and buried in mass graves in an “unjustified” attack earlier this month.
Picture of bleeding sheikh Zakzaky. Source: @ZahradeenAAhmad
The New York-based rights watchdog claimed in a statement that soldiers killed “at least 300” members of the radical Islamic Movement of Nigeria earlier in December when they fired “without any provocation.”
It claimed that witnesses said that the soldiers disposed of hundreds of bodies by throwing them in mass graves, making it difficult for the organisation to establish an accurate death toll.
The violence erupted on December 12 when members of the Shi’ite group erected a makeshift roadblock during a religious procession, blocking the path of a Nigerian army chief.
“It is almost impossible to see how a roadblock by angry young men could justify the killings of hundreds of people,” Africa director at HRW, Daniel Bekele, said.
“At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shi’ite group,” he added.
The Nigerian army, which has not released an official death toll, denied HRW’s charges.
“The allegations are not true,” said Nigerian army spokesperson, Sani Usman, to AFP.
“It is therefore presumptuous and clearly out of context for anyone to make such an unsubstantiated allegations or comments.
“The incident between the Nigerian army and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria has been reported to the appropriate agencies who are investigating the issue,” Usman said.
Last week, the Federal Government set up a judicial commission to investigate the deaths.
The Nigerian army had accused the Iran-backed sect of “a deliberate attempt to assassinate” the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, releasing footage of the crowd hurling stones at his military convoy.
The allegations come amid fears that the violent clashes between the Shi’ite group and army will unleash a new Islamic threat on a country still battling Boko Haram militants.
IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, the charismatic founder of the group, was seriously wounded and remains in police custody, while his deputy was killed in the army crackdown.
Ado Ekiti—Muslims in Ekiti yesterday defied the directive of some of their leaders not to collect Sallah gifts from Governor Ayo Fayose, as they trooped to the government house in Ado Ekiti to collect the rams distributed by the governor for Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
Fayose giving ram to Muslims in Ekiti
This contravened the order earlier issued by Muslim leaders, under the auspices of League of Imams and Alfas, Ekiti State, which urged members to reject the gifts on the strength that their members were not adequately represented in Fayose’s appointments.
Though, another group had countered the League of Imams and Alfas for that action, describing those behind the attack as impostors, who were not known in Islam circle.
While distributing the rams to Imams and other top dignitaries, Fayose said he won’t allow himself to be dragged into playing politics with religion in the state.
The governor urged Muslims to prevent themselves from being used as instruments of politics by desperate politicians, who are bent on maligning his government at every slight opportunity.
In his words, “I won’t allow anybody to drag me into playing politics with religion. What I am doing today is a demonstration of love and support for the Muslims. I am not that kind of a leader who does things with religious interest.
“I will do same to Christians at Christmas exactly what I am doing to Muslims today.”
The League of Imams and Alfas in Ekiti has ordered Muslims in the state not to collect rams and other food items for Sallah celebration, if presented to them in any form by the government.
The league reached the decision at a meeting held on Tuesday at Ansar-u-deen Society Central Mosque Odo – Otu, Ado Ekiti, where it reviewed the “deliberate marginalisation of Muslims in Ekiti State government political appointment.”
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and National Council of Muslim Youth Organisation, Ekiti State, had respectively issued statements condemning Governor Ayodele Fayose for neglecting Muslims in appointments.
The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, had also described “Fayose’s treatment of Muslims in terms of appointment in the state” as “the worst since the state was created.”
The party claimed Ekiti muslims were not given up to one percent of the appointments made by the Fayose administration.
In a communique issued at the end of the meeting, the league said, “Based on the above, the League, Ekiti State Council hereby resolve that: No Muslim in the State should collect rams and other food items if presented to them in any form by the government.
The communique was signed by the state’s Assistant Secretary, League of Imams and Alfas, Alhaji Quadri Oguntuase; a Representative of Ansar-u-deen Missioner, Fatai Jimoh and Chief Imam, Ilogbo, Imam Abdul Rasak.
Against the backdrop of the incessant terrorism attacks in Nigeria and the world over, President Mohammadu Buhari yesterday urged the Muslim community to make a strong statement that would condemn the activities of insurgents.
Buhari
According to the president, speaking with one voice was a sure way of rejecting the attackers claim of acting in the name of Islam, stressing that it would also stop the abasement of their religion.
This is even as Buahri called on the international community to unite and forge a stronger worldwide consensus for more effective action against global terrorism.
The president’s injunctions came on the heels of the killing of about 150 men, women and children in Kukawa, Borno state on Thursday and also the recent murder of Egyptian Attorney General, Hesham Barakat, and the killing of about 70 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula by terrorists.
While strongly condemning the act, Buhari in separate statements issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu in Abuja further stated that it was “a very heinous atrocity which must be unreservedly condemned by all people of conscience.”
He conveyed his heart-felt condolences to families of the victims of Boko Haram’s dreadful killings in Kukawa just as he also condoled the government of Egypt and the families of the victims, reaffirming “Nigeria’s commitment to working with other countries facing terrorists’ threats to overcome the scourge of violent extremism.”
The President added that “no country can afford to be indifferent to the threats of terrorism because of its pervasive and destructive nature.”
Buhari had made tackling insurgency a campaign issue and since he assumed office as President, he has focused on the menace more than any problem facing the country. But the terrorists have continued their attacks on Nigerians and their North-East region, killing and destroying people and properties.
N’Djamena (AFP) – Chad’s decision to ban women from wearing the Islamic veil, which came two days after bloody suicide bombings hit the capital, has divided Muslims but the government defends it as part of an anti-terror strategy.
Kaduna bomber in woman’s clothes
“Wearing the burqa must stop immediately from today,” Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet told religious leaders on Wednesday, after the twin bombings left 33 people dead and more than 100 others injured in the capital N’Djamena.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but authorities blame Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, which has carried out many suicide bombings inside Nigeria in the past six years, sometimes by women who hid explosives under modest outer garments.
Chad’s army has spearheaded a regional military effort to fight Boko Haram as the militant sect extended activities beyond Nigeria’s northeastern borders. After Monday’s blasts, the Chadian air force bombed Boko Haram positions inside Nigeria.
Many Muslim women in N’Djamena wear the full-face veil with just the eyes exposed known as the niqab, which is usually black. But Deubet outlawed any clothing “where you can only see the eyes”.
In a country where Muslims make up 53 percent of the population — with Christians accounting for 35 percent — the ban on the Islamic veil, including the completely face-covering burqa, has prompted mixed reactions.
Abdelsadick Djidda, a 45-year-old teacher, said the move was “taken for our safety”.
“Wearing the burqa doesn’t derive from Chadian culture,” he said. “It comes from elsewhere. And it’s recommended nowhere in the holy book (the Koran).”
Djidda added: “As a Muslim, I find that people go overboard a little with this camouflage.”
– ‘Seize all burqas on sale’ –
Other Muslims are shocked by the decision, which comes as the holy fasting month of Ramadan gets under way.
Hassan Barka, a mechanic, said he didn’t see the connection between the burqa and terrorism.
“It isn’t people in burqas who commit attacks and this dress has become customary for many Chadians,” said Barka, a mechanic. “It is difficult to implement this decision. Maybe time is needed to spread awareness.”
The tough prohibition is a first in Africa. Some countries like Tunisia ordered similar measures before now because of a growing risk of terrorist attacks, but they were partial and temporary steps.
The Chadian regime has ordered security forces to “go into the markets and seize all burqas on sale and burn them”, while warning of arrest and summary trial for anyone caught dressed in the veil and robe.
“The Superior Council of Islamic Affairs (CSAI) finds that the government’s decision is not contrary to the principles of Islam,” influential CSAI chairman Cheick Hussein Hassan Abakar has ruled.
In a poor nation that bears deep scars after the bloody inter-faith clashes during a civil war in 1979-1982, President Idriss Deby Itno has long been wary of the emergence of extremist movements.
In power since 1990, when he toppled dictator Hissene Habre — who is set to go on trial in Senegal for crimes against humanity on July 20 — Deby has repeatedly stressed that “the secular nature of the state is an essential value”.
– ‘Very tolerant Islam’ –
“We’re lucky to have very tolerant Islam. The Muslims of Chad are mainly Sufis, they are pacifists,” said the secretary general of King Faisal University in N’Djamena, Abakar Walar Modou.
“But Islam can be manipulated. In (the civil war) politicians tried to plunge Christians and Muslims into chaos,” he recalled.
As Boko Haram has gained ground towards N’Djamena, which lies on the border with a narrow strip of Cameroon that separates it from Nigeria, the authorities have redoubled their watch over the capital.
The regime seeks to prevent radical Islam from taking root in Chad, where conservative Wahhabis and Salafis make up between five and 10 percent of Muslims, according to the US State Department.
“The Boko Haram phenomenon has thus far had no impact on the population, but the risk is there,” warned Walar Modou.
“The CSAI keeps an extremely close watch over Koranic teachings, preaching in the mosques and even the radio,” he added.
Last March, authorities dissolved a Salafist association held to be a risk to law and order. International watchdog Freedom House in 2013 reported bans on some Islamic charities operating in poor districts.
“Purely and simply banning an association is no solution,” Walar Modou said. “You can’t halt an ideology that way, it causes frustration.”
Italy’s migration crisis took on a deadly new twist Thursday as police in Sicily reported that Muslim migrants had thrown 12 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya, and aid groups said another 41 were feared drowned in a separate incident.
Palermo police said they had detained 15 people suspected in the high seas assault, which they learned of while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana who had arrived in Palermo Wednesday morning after being rescued at sea.
The 15 were accused of multiple homicide aggravated by religious hatred, police said in a statement.
The survivors said they had boarded a rubber boat April 14 on the Libyan coast with 105 passengers aboard, part of the wave of migrants taking advantage of calm seas and warm weather to make the risky crossing from Libya, where most smuggling operations originate.
During the crossing, the migrants from Nigeria and Ghana — believed to be Christians — were threatened with being abandoned at sea by some 15 other passengers from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Guinea Bissau.
The statement said the motive was that the victims “professed the Christian faith while the aggressors were Muslim.”
Earlier Thursday, the International Organization of Migration said four migrants who were picked up in recent days by the Italian Navy reported a shipwreck to aid workers after arriving in the Italian port of Trapani Thursday. They were among 580 migrants brought to the port on Thursday and said 41 others were believed to have died.
The IOM said the migrants — two Nigerians, a Ghanaian and one Nigerien — were found floating in the sea by a helicopter and were rescued by the Italian Naval ship Foscari. They had left Tripoli in Libya on Saturday and stayed adrift for four days. The location of the rescue was not immediately known.
The new tragedies come just days after aid agencies reported 400 presumed dead in the sinking of another ship near the Libyan coast. The deaths have raised calls for a more robust search and rescue of the seas between Libya and Europe amid a surge in migration between the Middle East and Africa toward Italy.
Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s most prestigious centre of learning, expressed outrage at the Islamic State group for burning to death a captive Jordanian pilot, saying its militants deserve to be killed or crucified.
After a video was released showing the caged fighter pilot, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, dying engulfed in flames, the Cairo-based authority’s head, Ahmed al-Tayib, expressed his “strong dismay at this cowardly act”.
This “requires the punishment mentioned in the Koran for these corrupt oppressors who fight against God and his prophet: killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs.”
“Islam forbids killing of the innocent human soul… It forbids mutilating the human soul by burning or in any other way even during wars against an enemy that attacks you,” Tayib added in a statement.
IS itself has implemented such punishments against its own members for robbery at checkpoints or stealing funds from religious endowments in territories controlled by the group in Iraq and Syria.
Sri Lanka’s main Muslim party has quit the government and pledged support to the opposition in a move seen as the biggest setback yet to President Mahinda Rajapakse’s re-election bid, Al Jazeera reports.
The Sri Lankan Muslim Congress leader, Rauf Hakeem, also announced his own resignation as justice minister and said he would now work for the victory of Maithripala Sirisena, the opposition candidate, in the January 8 election.
Hakeem said they left the government because of widening rifts over a 2010 law that lifted the two-term limit on the presidency and gave Rajapaksa wide powers over the police, the judiciary and the civil service.
“Good governance is the main issue for us,” Hakeem told reporters. “We are guilty of compliance [in voting for the 2010 statute], but now we want to redress the situation.”
Ameer Faaiz, a leading member of the party that represents minority Muslims in predominantly Buddhist country, cited the Rajapaksa administration’s “intolerance toward religious minorities” and disagreement with his style of rule.
Rajapaksa’s government had come under heavy criticism in recent years for backing extremist Buddhist groups and turning a blind eye on the recent anti-Muslim violence.
There was no immediate comment from the government on the resignations, but a ruling party source told the AFP news agency that the defection of the Muslim party was the biggest blow to their campaign.
Muslims, the second largest minority in the island after Hindu Tamils, account for about 10 percent of the electorate and could emerge as king-makers in January’s presidential election if the majority Sinhalese are split down the middle.
Both Rajapaksa and Sirisena are members of the majority Sinhala Buddhist community.
Hakeem has become the second Muslim minister to quit Rajapaksa’s government after industry and commerce minister Rishad Bathiudeen resigned.
KADUNA — An Islamic scholar, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, has accused the Head of the Shiite Islamic sect in Nigeria, Mallam Ibraheem El-Zakzakky, of being a bad influence on fellow Muslims in the country, saying that he was a candidate for hell unless he repented.
Sheikh Gumi
Gumi said in a condolence letter to El-Zakzakky over the reported recent killing of his three children in Kaduna yesterday that he (El-Zakzakky) had introduced a lot of bad innovations among Nigerian Muslims, adding that rather than unite, such bad influences were dividing the Islamic faithful.
The letter read in part: “After registering my condolences on the recent loss of your three children, who were gunned down by some elements in the military, I find it an obligation to help you see that some of your actions too are the contributing factors in this unfortunate avoidable tragedy.
“What I fear most for you and your followers is that the consequence of this tragedy may further alienate your group from the mainstream society and create a cult—if it is not already one — with disastrous consequences on you, your followers and the nation at large. For you especially, on the Day of Judgment you will have your account to answer.
Bad innovations
“My brother, you have brought a lot of bad innovations among Nigerian Muslims that rather than unite, the Muslims are further entrenching the divide without any added value to the worldly development nor the hereafter, but rather with serious theological implications in the hereafter.
“What triggered my attention to your group now is the most recent close encounter I had with a procession of your followers on the highway from Kano to Zaria yesterday (December 8, 2014) on my way to Dutse (Jigawa State). About four to six thousand youths and children trekking long distance for hours. I gave a two-hour lecture in Dutse and met them still trekking on my way back.
“I cannot understand under which civil or religious law you have the right and liberty to block one side of the double carriage road forcing motorists to cramp each other dangerously on one lane. If your action is to propagate your creed, I am telling you, you will only attract the poor, young ignorant miscreants of the society. Never the sane except of course the disgruntled.
Delinquency of your followers
“The delinquency of your followers and the disturbance of public peace is what makes you and them an easy target of the authority. This is happening when you can as well do very well without such unscrupulous public misbehaviour. Disruption of traffic flow is in fact a sign of unfaithfulness and lack of civilization.”
“You are blocking roads and forcing vehicles to dangerously face each other on one lane displaying arrogance and lawlessness. Young men brandishing knives and unsheathed swords, beating their chest, carrying inciting placards and chanting hate songs.
“How can you be the good servants of Allah when you are exactly opposite of what the Quran described them?
“My Brother, you have already lost three children on this path to perdition and shirk, so please repent and do not capitalise on the ignorance of our gullible youths to mislead them. If you don’t correct them now, when you die, Allah will not forgive you for whatever deviation they may add to yours.
“That they may bear their burdens entirely on the day of resurrection and also of the burdens of those whom they lead astray without knowledge; now surely evil is what they bear.”
“My Brother, I write you this open letter for others also not necessarily in your sect to get admonition. It is never intended to trigger a sectarian argument. It is about public order and mannerism.
“May Allah guide us all to his pleasure and give us the courage to revert to the truth and what is righteous.”
The Sultan of Sokoto and leader of Muslims in Nigeria, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, has challenged Islamic sects in the country to unite and fight Boko Haram insurgency.
Alhaji Sa ad Abubakar Sultan of Sokoto
The Sultan, while condemning the suicide bomb blasts at the Kano Central Mosque on Friday, which left about 120 worshippers dead and many others injured, stated that “those behind all the attacks are not Muslims.”
He spoke on Saturday in Abuja during a post-2014 Hajj conference organised by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria held at the National Mosque.
Abubakar said, “I do not believe those perpetrating these are Muslims, because if they are Muslims, they are not professing what Islam teaches.
“In the world over, it is the duty and responsibility of government to provide security for the citizenry. This is the time for all the various sects in Islam in this country to rally round one another and end insurgency in this country.”
The monarch said it was time for all stakeholders, particularly the Federal Government, to rise up to the responsibility of ending insurgency in the country.
He also enjoined stakeholders to join hands and end the violence being perpetrated by Boko Haram in the country.
The Secretary-General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, while condemning the attack, reiterated the need for the Federal Government to show more commitment towards ending the carnage in the North-East.
Aliyu further challenged the Federal Government to move from mere speech making on the issue of ending Boko Haram to taking decisive actions that would portray the government as serious in its anti-terrorism crusade.
The JNI scribe said, “I think it is very important that this matter be looked at with all purposes and intents, and with a very serious focus on efforts from the government which has the constitutional mandate to look after the security and welfare of the people.
“We have called with the loudest of our voice on the government but up till this moment, we hear only mere speeches not matched with actions and efforts aimed at curtailing this scourge and epidemic threatening the lives of the Muslims.
“Where have you ever heard that even in a worship environment, a mosque for people to worship is bombed and over hundred people killed? Up to this moment, no arrest has been made; nothing from the government unto whom we are going to rely. I call on all Muslim leaders, elders, parents, Imams and scholars to come together to speak and brainstorm on how they can provide succour and help in any effort that we are going to get from the government.”
“Society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government”.—Thomas Paine, 1737-1809.
I spent the last two weeks in Saudi Arabia among Islamists. These are Muslims who recognize the imperatives of complying with the demands of their faith to visit Makkah for the Hajj, and are blessed with the means to do so. There were millions of us, all submitting to the incomparable awesomeness of the entire exercise.
The bewildering mix of race, age, status, gender, nationalities, sects, political leaning, wealth and poverty, humbled by a breathtaking environment undertook a ritual that had been performed exactly the way we did for more than 1400 years. For four days, millions of Muslims stood in total submission to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala and prayed.
Everyone was there with their private packet of prayers and requests, but virtually everyone shared one prayer in common: that Muslims the world over will overcome the challenges they face with such seeming impotence. You got to know of this when, as I was privileged to do, you mixed with Muslims from all over the world, the category of pilgrims who are knowledgeable, informed, involved and passionate about their faith.
Muslims from the Balkans and former USSR speak about the stresses of living with violence inspired by groups bent on pushing back frontiers of oppression from non-Muslims powers. Asian Muslims and millions in many Arab countries speak of unending violence as Muslims take on each other in a vicious struggles to establish a particular version of Islamic system.
The Middle East speaks of blood and guts, of Israel’s callous savagery, the unyielding support it enjoys from the US and its allies, and of the desperation of generations who have known only war with Israel as the basic stuff of life.
The Maghreb speaks of turmoil and vicious battles to assume the power to determine how much influence the Islamic faith is allowed in public lives of Muslims. West and East Africa bleed from weak governments and determined groups that have made massive inroads into lives of citizens using terror to prop up Islamic systems.
In Central Africa, Muslims are under attack for just being Muslims. European Muslims are torn between being Muslims and being Europeans. Muslim leaders fawn at the feet of America and beg it to fight their battles for them. They are resented by their people for being weak and corrupt, for abandoning the interests of Islam, and being the cause of all the fate of Muslims.
There were Muslims from all parts of the world who worried over the perception that Muslims are engaged in a global war with every type of enemy including fellow Muslims, and they cannot understand exactly what the issues are, or how they should judge who is right or wrong.
They resent the term Islamist applied by the Western media to every group that takes up arms and claims to fight for a cause, provided they are Muslims. They worried that the global Muslim community is being weakened by multiple assaults from self-inflicted intra-Muslim conflicts as we see in Syria, Iraq, Iran and many other parts of the Muslim world. They lament the damaging image being created for Islam as a faith rooted in violence from which the rest of the world should put much distance.
Every Muslim now knows of Boko Haram, and wants to know what it represents or if it can get what it wants. Muslims from all over the world are curious over how Boko Haram , Al Shabbab and AQIM managed to grow into what they are, the social context that gives them succour, and the attitudes of other Muslims towards them. Everyone wants to know if the spectacular emergence of the Islamic State (ISIL) will inspire more Muslim uprisings or serve as impetus for groups under arms to dig in.
The Hajj provided an opportunity for much soul-searching among Muslims, but in truth, there was more pain and anger than studied analyses over the state of Islam in the world. On those rare occasions when discussions moved away from lamentations to the search for solutions, a few difficult positions struggled to emerge. One is that the Muslim world is not one world at all: it is a patchwork of Muslim communities each labouring under fairly unique stimuli and challenges.
While it has common irritants such as the brazen impunity with which Israel justifies its security, or a West which both protects it and makes much capital from the weaknesses of Muslim countries, or the humiliating capitulation of leaders of Muslim countries and communities, it is important to understand the basic differences between the goals of Chechnian Muslims, ISIL and Boko Haram. There will always be a Muslim group somewhere that will take up arms in the name of the faith, but a world in which the vast majority of Muslims live in peace with themselves and non-Muslims is feasible. More than that, it is now an urgent necessity. The detailed fatwa issued by the world’s leading Muslim leaders a few weeks ago hints at a new thinking around isolating Islam from terror.
Much as we think our version of the threats posed by Boko Haram are very serious (and they are) they pale in comparison with those in many other parts of the world. This is very fortunate for us in Nigeria (and Africa) because it means our own threat is still within the bracket of those that can be contained and, in the longer term, eliminated. But this is not to be assumed. The current appearance of success by the Nigerian state against terrorists must be supported and sustained. Our neighbours must be more actively involved in the fight to destroy the rump of the terrorists. Defeating Boko Haram militarily is only a first step towards dealing with this threat. The Northern Muslim establishment must undertake a deep and thorough search into its weaknesses and limitations. Long before it challenged the Nigerian state, Jamaatu Ahlil Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (JASLIWAJ) was pre-eminently a challenge against mainstream Muslim leadership and establishment. Its remote nourishment is still there in abundance: in sects that resist reforms in Islamic education, in poverty and corrupt and indifferent leadership. These have to be faced by religious and political leaders in Nigeria with courage, sensitivity and knowledge.
Some very big obstacles will have to be confronted and overcome. It will be a monumental mistake to assume that some of the most basic problems which generate alienation and anger among Muslims in Nigeria can only be solved by government. Nigerian Muslims lend themselves to weak governments to use, or tolerate practices and weaknesses that weaken Muslims and create conditions which breed fringe groups. It will be equally naive to assume that having a Muslim President alone will dramatically transform the state of Muslims in Nigeria. In a Nigerian state whose structure does no favour to Islam as a religion, the Muslim community will have to assume prime responsibility for its condition.
I spent the last two weeks with Islamists more deserving of the name than terrorists who serve anti-Islamic interests. For us in Nigeria, the real fight against Boko Haram will have to be fought by Muslims, because the Nigerian state cannot respond appropriately to the complex interplay between faith, society and economy which breeds groups such as them.
If Muslim leaders do not move with courage and speed to plug the many loopholes in their unity and disposition that will be exploited for the 2015 elections, they will be made even weaker. Then groups like JASLIWAJ will find even stronger impetus to rise against a state they will claim is patently anti- Islamic.
Boko Haram have taken over the town of Gwoza, killed the Emir and declared the place an islamic state. They have seceded from Nigeria and they are beheading Christians and southerners and all moderate northern muslims that do not share their views.
Fani-Kayode
I wonder what would have happened if it had been a town in the south-east that had been taken over in this way by a group of igbo nationalists and christian fundamentalists. I wonder what would have happened if they killed the local traditional ruler and then started to kill every northerner, every muslim and every moderate christian in that town that did not share their views.
I wonder what Nigeria would have done to them if it was an igbo town that declared secession in this way and not a northern one. I wonder how our northern brothers would have reacted to this and how they would have felt if any southern terrorist group had as it’s main objective the wiping out of islam and all muslims in Nigeria and the establishment of a christian fundamentalist state in the whole of the south that is governed by christian canon law.
I wonder if our northern brothers would be as calm, as forgiving and as patient as we in the south have been about Boko Haram. The last time that a part of this country attempted to secede we slaughtered and starved to death over two million igbos in order to keep Nigeria one. Yet today Gwoza has been taken over by murderous secessionist forces and we act as if it is no big deal.
The truth is that this is a nation of double standards where southerners are subject to a different set of conventions, laws, rules and regulations when compared to northerners. Northerners can get away with secession and establishing an islamic caliphate whilst southerners dare not try to do the same sort of thing.
This begs the question: is Nigeria really one country and are we really one people. And even if we say it is one country and we are one people, how much longer can this remain so given what is going on in the north today with Boko Haram?
Some northerners have said that if power does not return to the north next year they will smash up Nigeria and make the south pay dearly. They believe that they own Nigeria and that they were born to rule.
How are we as southerners supposed to react to this? Are we supposed to accept it sheepishly and just bow down and surrender? Does a southerner from the Niger Delta not have a right to serve two terms in office as President of Nigeria?
Are southerners and Middle Belters not human beings. Are they nothing but slaves to the core muslim north? Are the issues that Ojukwu raised in 1967 not still relevant today?
Surely It is time for us to answer these difficult questions even though we keep brushing these matters under the carpet. It is time to either answer the Nationality Question once and for all or begin to prepare for the break up of this great country into two or more pieces.
The ban disallows people in this group from using facilities like buses and other means of public transport and has been effective since Monday.
BEIJING: In perhaps first such instance in China, a city in the country’s restive Xinjiang region has banned beards and burka or veils worn by Muslim women within days of a major terrorist attack and subsequent police action that killed nearly 100 people in the bordering Kashgar area of the same province.
Veil by Muslims
Authorities in Karamay banned “five groups of people” — those who wear burka, headscarves, veils or hijab, any clothing bearing the crescent moon and star, as well as long beards, state-controlled media reported on Wednesday. All of these symbols are associated with Islam.
The ban disallows people in this group from using facilities like buses and other means of public transport and has been effective since Monday. This is in view of a local sports competition on August 20, the newspaper said, and may be extended beyond that.
Even more controversially, state leaders in Xinjiang are working on a proposal to amend existing rules on family planning, which allows Muslims to have more than two children. So far, Muslims are exempt from the country’s one-child policy, which has now been relaxed to allow up to two children.
A file photo shows Chinese Muslims praying during the evening prayer inside the Huxi mosque in Shanghai (AFP photo)
Southern Xinjiang will “implement family planning policy equally on all ethnic groups, to lower and stabilize an appropriate birth rate”, a Communist Party leader, Zhang Chunxian, wrote in the August edition of Qiushi, an official magazine of the Communist party. More than 45% of Xinjiang’s 22 million people are Uighur Muslims who speak Turkic language.
Chinese authorities have earlier discouraged Muslim government employees from fasting during the holy month of Ramzan on the grounds that it can affect their health and performance. But the police were particularly worried about crowding and inter-mingling during the fast breaking time because, they feared, terrorists might use this opportunity to expand their network.
About 100 people were killed when knife-wielding attackers carried out assaults in two towns in Xinjiang in July, state media said, including 59 “terrorists” shot dead by police. A suicide bombing killed 39 people at a market in Urumqi in May. The government blames Islamist separatists for the violence there.
The believe that Muslims are marginalized or intimidated is always an overstatement to me as i see people making this assertion are nothing but liars and animus creators judging from what’s going on around the world presently and the innocent people dying in the hands of the few who referred to themselves as the true Muslims and killing everyone who does not believe in their doctrine.
NDONESIA, JAKARTA : The newly crowned the Muslimah World 2013 Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola (C) of Nigeria speaks to audience during the Muslimah World competition in Jakarta on September 18, 2013. The finale of a beauty pageant exclusively for Muslim women was set to take place in the Indonesian capital on September 18, in a riposte to the Miss World contest in Bali that has drawn fierce opposition from Islamic radicals. AFP PHOTO
On the 30th of July, i was travelling from Kandy to Colombo on a public transport in Sri Lanka, when the bus got to the Muslim dominated area, a certain man with a ridiculous bag entered the bus. No one usually sit close to me but on that day, this man decided to sit on the same seat with me, i was uncomfortable. He held his cheap bag like gold in a way that he was avoiding me, who was dying inside to peep at the content.
As he came into the bus, the phone i held on my hand suddenly died, i could hardly move as the thought of what was going to happen next filled my heart. To make matter worse, he brought out a very cheap phone, the type i have seen can easily be used to trigger explosives. He was murmuring with different body signs. Deep down my heart, he was saying God is Great in his Arabic language.
On the other side of the bus was another Muslim man who folded his two hands together indicating he was praying, this gave me a relief that the man murmuring may be doing the same. But his own was different as he was touching different parts of his body, my sweat was dropping like as if i was walking in the rain.
Suddenly, he got up from my seat and moved adjacent, i believe he realized i was not comfortable as i decided to sit on one buttock looking at him instead of both, his change of seat gave me another relief but all was still not well. He still held his bag tightly to himself and the only thing i think of was ”is there any exit in this bus?” Actually there was but i can’t make it to the door if it was to explode, so my heart kept pounding the Holy Spirit out of me.
Again, he moved from the seat to the last seat and i received another fresh air. This time, i was acting more like a mathematician, calculating how i would hide under the chair or behind it. I realized the chairs were made of iron and foam, so the explosion could burn through it, then how will i look if i got roasted? Will my flesh scattered in different locations like the incident of Nyanya? Now that he is sitting at the back, should i ask the driver to stop and change bus? or should i raise an alarm of a suspicious bag? what if the alarm became false? Am i dying today?
Then another thought came to my mind about a friend in the United State who is a doctor and told me how the nurses and doctors on duty ran away at the mentioning of a Muslim’s man name who was involved in a ghastly motor accident. The man walked into the hospital dripping blood and the nurses ran towards him, gave him a wheel chair with numerous questions to understand the nature of the injury. Then one of the nurses asked his name and the moment he said Mohammed Yusuf, the nurses disappeared one after the other.
I also remembered that a young Sri Lankan Muslim has been disturbing me lately, begging me to give him Boko Haram number as he would like to talk to them and on his facebook wall, he rejoices whenever ISIS triumph in their attacks.
I recalled that the Buddhist monks had attacked the Muslims and Christians community recently leaving some Muslims dead and the water is still boiling over that.
I started thinking of all the crime i may have committed and things i have planned i haven’t achieved. I prefer public bus because you don’t have to worry yourself driving and you can sleep while travelling, did i make a wrong choice? should i have just taken the car? Will my son see me again?
The other Muslim man didn’t open his eyes after praying, i guess he upgraded the prayer to sleep, but that wasn’t my problem unless the thought that he may have been planted there to make sure the attack was successful. But another thought came to my mind that they usually use the children within a certain age and the man with the frightening bag should be within 50-52 years old.
He brought his phone out again, dialed a number, i could see him as my neck was like that of a bird trying to peep behind. You can be wowed on what you are capable of doing if you are in a position you do not expect, so i decided to monitor. If the man had stopped at any of the many villages we passed, it would have been better for me but he didn’t and never let off his bag.
To cut matter short, i arrived Colombo and i was the first to jump off the bus, then looked up with the realization that it was not my turn to die.
On the other hand, the Muslim man who kept changing seat must have realized i was not comfortable sitting with him, deep down in his heart he may have thought i hate islam forgetting that i am just fighting to stay alive. It’s true that all Muslims are not terrorists but it’s obvious that all terrorists are Muslims. I felt really bad for him but i hope he understood my position.
Therefore, it’s unfair to say that Muslims are marginalized despite the havoc many of them had caused and still causing till date. It is unfair to be scared to express how you feel about a certain religion who about 70% of its members believe in revenge and display signs of hatred towards other religions. Muslims are not hated but feared from the look of it all.
ABUJA—Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Secretary-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, has called on security agencies in the country to be fair and professional in the discharge of their duties.
Oloyede who gave the advice while delivering a keynote address at the 9th Ramadan Lecture of Muslim Media Professionals of
Gunmen
Nigeria (MMPN) in Abuja described the security situation in the country as serious. The Islamic leader said Muslims in Nigeria were for peace as long as there was justice and fairness, adding, “Muslims are not responsible for the violence in the country. Muslims are for peace. If there is any problem, it is a failure of the system.”
The NSCIA scribe said there “cannot be peace without justice. Our appeal is that Federal Government should be just to all segments of the society.” Oloyede said in the spirit of the theme of the lecture, “Peace and Leadership: The Missing Link”, there should be more consultation and dialogue among the stakeholders in the country.
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, the guest speaker, Prof. Musa Abdur-Raheem said that for peace to reign there must be justice.
“Boko Haram are not representing Islam, Muslims are for peace and most of the victims of Boko Haram attacks are Muslims,” he said.
He called on the leaders in the country to live up to expectations by urgently addressing the nation’s security challenges.
Abdur-Raheem advised all groups to channel their grievances through legal means.
Declaring the event open, a representative of Gov. Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Alhaji Hamidu Kadi-kuta, called on the populace to take steps in tackling the nation’s security challenges.
Aliyu described as unfortunate the security challenges in the country, saying it would slow down developments.
The governor also called on the Muslims to use the Ramadan period to pray for the peace and unity of the country.
Earlier, Chairman of the Association, Abdurrahman Balogun, urged politicians in the country to play politics according to the rules of the game.
“As 2015 general elections approaches, politicians should play the game according to the rules.
“Fear Allah in all their dealings and remember that everyone will account for all deeds in the hereafter,” Balogun said.
The religious war between a group of Buddhist and Muslims in Sri Lanka has escalated as a Muslim owned fashion store, No Limit, located in Panadura, a suburb of Colombo has been burned down today.
The Nolimit fashion network newly established a multi-storey fashion store in Panadura which has been an attraction in the city.
According to a resident, the shop has been damaged after being set on fire by the angry Buddhists.
The security in the area has been tightened due to the incident.
Many Muslims shop has been targeted since the beginning of this outburst, particularly Nolimit. Sources said that the network has been targeted for its refusal to allow Buddhists visit the shops during festive seasons to buy clothes.
The Buddhist extremists had earlier made seveval attempts to discourage customers from buying clothes from the shop as they threw rotten eggs on the buyers and distributed the disgusting photos on social media as a warning.
A special police team led by DIG Anura Senanayake is currently conducting investigation into the incident.
The problem between Muslims, Christians and the Buddhist extremists started awhile ago when the Buddhists took to the street to protest against the minority Muslims and Christians religion whom they say are converting their members.
Days ago, the Buddhists led by some monks attacked a surburb of Colombo with guns and other dangerous weapons, leaving 3 residents of the Muslims dominated area dead.
Sri Lankans indigenes who ended a terrorist war from the Tamil Tigers that lasted for 30 years are scared as this problem, if not properly checked, may degenerate to a bigger attacks
The Sri Lankan government has said they are working very hard to bring everlasting peace, Since the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa promised the last time that those who went destroying and attacking the Muslims will be brought to book, there have been more attacks on the minority religions.
COLOMBO, June 17, 2014 (AFP) – More deadly violence flared in a Sri Lankan coastal resort where Buddhist hardliners set shops and homes alight for a second night running in defiance of a curfew, police and residents said Tuesday.
Amid mounting international concern over the unrest, residents of a town which has borne the brunt said a security guard was killed in an attack outside a Muslim-owned farm, raising the overall toll to four.
“More than a dozen houses and shops have been burnt overnight,” a police source told AFP from the mainly Muslim town of Alutgama after another night of mob violence by followers of the extremist Buddhist Force.
Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help police put a lid on the violence. Although the unrest on Monday was not as widespread as the previous night, it came despite the announcement of an indefinite curfew.
Residents said that several vehicles had also been set alight in Alutgama although there were no reports of fresh violence in the neighbouring town of Beruwala where property was also set on fire on Sunday.
Police said that the curfew would remain in force although residents would be given a four hour window to stock up on provisions till noon (0630 GMT).
The authorities say nearly 80 people have so far been seriously injured in clashes while many more have suffered minor injuries. Dozens of homes, shops and mosques have been partially or completely destroyed.
The most senior Muslim member of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government threatened Monday to resign at the decision to allow militant Buddhists to rally in the flashpoint region on Sunday.
The fighting erupted after a prominent Buddhist monk threatened to obliterate the predominantly Muslim towns in the majority Buddhist nation.
The UN human rights chief Navi Pillay expressed concern that the riots could spread to other areas and demanded that Colombo immediately bring the perpetrators of Sunday’s attacks to justice.
“The government must urgently do everything it can to arrest this violence, curb the incitement and hate speech which is driving it, and protect all religious minorities,” Pillay said in a statement.
The United States, which has led international condemnation of Sri Lanka’s human rights record, had also urged Colombo to end the violence.
It could be recalled that in the month of June, 2013, a group of Buddhists monk who identified themselves Buddhists Nationalist Groups, invaded a church in Hikadduwa, a suburb of Colombo, destroying properties valued millions of rupees, another group of Buddhists was also identified as the anti Muslim group attacked a Muslims community burning houses and properties on sight.
THE CHIBOK GIRLS: A STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE MIDDLE BELT DIALOGUE
The abduction of over three hundred female secondary school students from Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria on April 14, 2014 has elicited consternation all over the world.
This is not the first time that Boko Haram has abducted female students. This is, however, its biggest haul. Chibok is a predominantly Christian community and the bulk of the abductees reflect this predominance in the ratio of 9:1. A few facts have since arisen about the abduction saga:
• The Sambisa Forest is some 60 kilometers from Chibok, Borno State;
• The Federal Minister of Education had advised the state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, to relocate all students sitting for this year’s West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) to Maiduguri the state capital of Borno State, Nigeria for adequate protection, because the examination body, West Africa Examination Council lost three invigilators to Boko Haram in 2013. The advice was implemented everywhere in Borno State except as it relates to GGSS Chibok;
• Muslims in Chibok cooperated with the insurgents when they invaded to carry out the abduction. As a matter of fact, a son of the former Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Chibok ward was the supplier of petrol to Boko Haram. He was arrested by the community and handed over to the military;
• Chibok is a bastion of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State, though the state is an All Progressive Congress (APC) Party ruled state;
• Boko Haram was generally avoiding Chibok after a former Chairman of the LGA, Hon. Wanangu Kachuwa, was gunned down in front of his house, shortly after returning from a Church service;
• Boko Haram invaded Chibok with fighters dressed in military fatigues in 25 pick-up vans and operated from 11 p.m to 3 a.m;
• The invaders burnt down some houses belonging to Christians in Chibok town while a detachment proceeded to the school premises, where they told the students that they were soldiers who had come to rescue them;
• Two of the vehicles that were used to transport the female
students were commandeered from the local motor park;
• Boko Haram insurgents looted the school’s food store before
burning the school down;
• The school’s Principal and Vice Principal, Administration, (both Muslims) and their families, and other teachers were nowhere around the school on the night of the abduction, suggesting some foreknowledge. The Principal is new to the school having just been appointed to take over from the former Christian Principal
in keeping with the unwritten policy in Borno State to not allow Christians head any state government institution;
• The Governor of the state claimed that he alerted the military of the pendency of an attack on the school four hours before the attack took place, yet made no attempt to evacuate the students from the school. In any case, Boko Haram does not require four hours to travel to Chibok from the Sambisa Forest, their believed
embarkation point. As such, anyone with foreknowledge of four hours before the attack must be a Boko Haram insider;
• The state Governor kept contradicting the Defence Headquarters spokesman, and the Principal repeats whatever the Governor says;
• Certain individuals are in cahoots with the insurgents. For instance, Governor Shettima of Borno State announced to the media that the girls abducted in Chibok had been forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Boko Haram fighters. A day
later, Abubakar Shekau, the sect’s leader released a video clip making the same claim. Shehu Sani, an “activist”, claimed that the sect wanted to exchange the girls with members of the sect arrested by the Nigerian authorities. A day later, another clip emanated from Shekau making the same demand;
• Notable northern and opposition leaders have voiced opposition to international assistance to help bring back the Chibok girls and to fight terrorism in Nigeria. As shocking as the Chibok incident is it is not a happenstance. Non-Muslim females have historically been preyed upon by Muslims in Northern Nigeria. The obvious conclusion is that the Chibok girls were abducted because of their faith. Also:
• In May 2013 Boko Haram attacked a police barracks in Bama, Borno State, and abducted 12 Christian women and children. Shekau took responsibility for the attack and abductions on May 7 2013;
• Hajja, a 19 year old Christian was abducted from the Gwoza, Borno State area. She was forced to convert to Islam, forced to involve herself in the sect’s operations and was set to be married to one of her captors when she managed to escape;
• In August 2013 a Christian student reported an attack on her university accommodation. The men were murdered, the women segregated into Muslim and non-Muslim and the Christian women were systematically raped;
• Mid-February 2014, Boko Haram murdered 51 persons in Konduga, Borno State, and abducted 20 young women;
• In Buni Yadi, Yobe State, earlier in 2014, 76 students of Federal Government College were murdered in cold blood and 16 female students abducted. They have not been heard of ever since.
• Forceful marriages of Christians to Muslims
• Most the new attacks by Boko Haram, such as Algarmo (Mbulakuduga), Shima, Kimber and Ablam are all Christian villages.
Forcible Conversion to Islam in Historical Context. In 1804, Shehu Othman Danfodio led itinerant Fulani from the Futa Jallon Heights in present day Gambia and Senegal to settle in present day Northern Nigeria. Danfodio led a revolt against
the existing Habe dynasties and supplanted them with Fulani emirs. The Hausa were forcibly Islamized. The Fulani Jihad, and Islam made inroads into other areas not inhabited by the Fulani or Hausa but were successfully resisted in much of today’s Middle Belt.
It was British Colonial Rule that brought non-Hausa/Fulani peoples who were never conquered by the latter under the rule of the emirates. Called Indirect Rule, it suited British colonial design to bring the different ethnic nationalities under the
rather developed emirate system for the purposes of maintaining law and order, recruiting for forced labour and exacting taxes to run the colony with.
After power was transferred to nationals and Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late sardauna of Sokoto, became Premier of the Northern Region, non-Muslim communities were denied potable water, roads, post offices, schools, hospitals and access to civil service absorption. Under the premiership of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, forcible conversions were effected.
From 1961, till he died in 1966, Sir Ahmadu Bello went on annual Islamisation drives all over the Northern Region. Traditional rulership of communities became a preserve of only Muslims. The resistance against Muslim traditional rulers led to the Tiv Riots 1960-64, and restiveness in old Gongola (today’s Adamawa and Taraba states), Southern Kaduna (Kafanchan), Tafawa Balewa (Bauchi State) and Plateau State.
Promotion in the civil service depended on if a candidate had converted to Islam. The late Sardauna promised to “dip the Koran into the sea” meaning he will spread Islam from the far North across the country to the Atlantic Ocean before he was done.
This agenda of “dipping the Koran to the sea”has continued unabated till date by consistent terror attacks and killings in the middle belt followed by mass movement of new communities of Hausa Fulani into the middle belt all the way down to the south states near the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1960, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello said “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great-grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities of the North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future.” (Parrot Newspaper, 12th Oct. 1960; republished on November 13, 2002, by the Tribune Newspaper, Ibadan.);
• The Conference of Northern Chiefs, in response to a letter from the UK-based West African Students’ Union (WASU) to the Northern emirs asking them to support the constitutional evolution of Nigeria into an independent nation, had declared “holding this country together is not possible except by means of
the religion of the Prophet. If they want political unity let them follow our religion.” (Obafemi Awolowo, Path to Nigerian Freedom, London: Faber and Faber, 1947, p.51.);
• During military rule in the 1970s Christian missionary schools were forcibly taken over by government, and in many instances their names changed to Islamic ones;
• As late as 1997 under General Sani Abacha’s rule, all Police Commissioners in Nigeria were Muslims;
• In 1990, all members of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) were Muslims except General Ike Nwachukwu, an Igbo, whose mother was a Fulani Muslim;
• During military rule, General Ibrahim Babangida surreptitiously registered Nigeria as a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) without tabling the issue before the AFRC. The then second in command, Rear Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe told the world that he heard about Nigeria’s membership of OIC like everybody else in the media. He was promptly removed and retired from the Navy;
• Babangida hosted the first Islam in Africa conference in Abuja and donated Federal Government funds to its operations, including its vision of transforming Nigeria to an Islamic state and enthroning the Sultan of Sokoto as its “supreme ruler”. (The communiqué released after the conference is herewith attached
as appendix 1);
• Under the presidency of General Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999-2007, the Sharia code of Islamic law was re-introduced in the North in an expanded format. Islamic Police (Hisbah) was introduced and Christian girls were abducted, forcibly converted and married off to Muslims in Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states. The Sharia Commissions of the states merely write parents informing
them that their daughters had converted and had been given out
in marriage;
• In a show of utter contempt, indigenous Hausa and Fulani Christians in Kaduna State are given “certificates of non- indigeneship”, meaning that they would not have access to rights and privileges accruable to indigenes of the state; Islamisation is carried out not only by Muslim rulers. Unsuspecting southern rulers are unwittingly used to drive some aspects of the Islamisation agenda:
• Under President Goodluck Jonathan, erstwhile Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi introduced Islamic Banking;
• President Jonathan has set up Almajiri schools for the exclusive benefit of Muslims in spite of robust protest by the Christian community, whose schools were taken over;
• In many Northern states like Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe and Gombe state governments refuse to give building permits for the erection of churches. As a matter of fact, a disclaimer contained in building permits in Kano State specifies that the building permit is not to be used to erect bars,
brothels and churches thereby classifying churches among undesirable establishments like bars and brothels;
• In places where churches have been destroyed in the past three decades state governments in several states in the North refuse the owners permit to rebuild. In Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Bauchi, Yobe, Sokoto, Katsina and Gombe states Christian churches numbering over five thousand have been lost this way.
None of the owners were compensated;
• The Hausa/Fulani insist that they are the largest ethnic group yet when former
president, General Obasanjo wanted to include ethnicity and religion as issues to be disaggregated in the Census exercise of 2006, the Hausa/Fulani elite pressurized him to drop the idea because doing so would expose the lie.
• The Hausa International Media outfits e.g. BBC, VOA, Germany etc. usually employ Moslem Hausa Fulani and they tend to propagate the Islamic views of events in Nigeria in line with their religious perception of not identifying with any government not ruled by a Moslem.
The Boko Haram insurgency is only the latest in the history of Islamist insurgencies in the North and they have vowed to drive away, if unable to kill all Christian and non-Moslems from northern Nigeria:
• There was the Maitatsine Rebellion in Kano, in 1980, that sought to bring to pass an Islamic fundamentalist order;
• There was the Bulumkutu Rebellion in the North East that sought to do the same thing in Maiduguri, Borno State; Jimeta, Yola; and Bauchi, Bauchi State.;
• There was the Kala Kato Rebellion in Bauchi State in the 1980s;
• The eighties and nineties also witnessed riots perpetrated by Muslims in Kano, Zaria, Kafanchan, Maiduguri and Bauchi;
• Since the return to civilian democracy, Jos has witnessed four major religious riots perpetrated by Muslims including the murder of more than 500 indigenes of Dogo Nahawa in the dead of the night in 2010. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for that attack;
• Each time something irks the Muslim world anywhere in the world Nigerian Christians are made to pay for it. In 2003 a Danish newspaper published a cartoon that Muslims felt painted Prophet Mohammed in a bad light. Nigerian Christians were slaughtered in cold blood in Maiduguri, Kano and Bauchi and their property looted and vandalized.
After US planes attacked Tripoli, Libya in the 1990′s Nigerian Christians were attacked and killed in Northern Nigeria. After the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11 2001 Muslims celebrated in Northern Nigeria. After US forces started its war on Iraq Nigerian
Christians were attacked and killed.
After late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua fell ill in 2009, there were concerted efforts by the northern political elite to prevent the then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, from being elevated to the position of Acting President.
The then Vice President was made to take an undertaking that he would not vie for election in 2011 before northern governors gave their members in the National Assembly the green light to elevate Jonathan. Before he was elevated to Acting President, Nigeria had no leader. As a matter of fact, the 2010 Appropriation Act allegedly signed by Yar’adua in Saudi Arabia was procured through forgery.
Yar’adua was not in a position to sign anything! Highly visible northerners in the ruling PDP (including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former NSA General Aliyu Gusau, former military President General Ibrahim Babangida and former
Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki) banded together to fight Jonathan under the “consensus arrangement”.
One of those leaders, Aliyu Gusau, is today Minister of Defence and this complicates the fight against Boko Haram because Gusau is a dye-in-the-wool Islamist.
The post 2011- election violence was orchestrated in places where Goodluck Jonathan did not win the required 25% (Kano, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Yobe). The spike in Boko Haram violence is a continuation of that episode. Boko Haram has not hidden its ambition to drive away if unable to kill all non-muslims from Northern Nigeria.
The inspiration for the current insurgency of Boko Haram and the murderous activities of the Fulani Militia onrampage in the Middle Belt is about the desperation of the Muslim North to have power at the center returned to it,
whether the Nigerian electorate say so or not.
In Gombe State where President Jonathan got over the 25% votes, post election violence was unleashed against the southern Gombe Christians who gave President Jonathan 70% of their votes compared to the few votes he got in Gombe North. This violence led to the house of the State PDP Chairman being burnt and he was never compensated until his untimely death.
Six northern governors namely: Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State; Alhaji Magatakarda Wamako of Sokoto State; Alhaji Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State; Alhaji Sule Lamido of Jigawa State; Alhaji Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Alhaji Abdufattah Ahmed of Kwara State banded together with Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi to demand that the sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan, should undertake not to partake in the forthcoming 2015 Presidential Election.
The refusal of the President to give such an undertaking led to an orchestrated crisis in the PDP, and led to the willful abandonment of the party by five of the aforementioned governors. Members of the National Assembly, states houses of assembly and other party faithfuls in those states also exited PDP. Such is the desperation with which northern muslims want power at the center in Nigeria.
The military campaign against Boko Haram in the North East has not been the spectacular success that would normally be expected of the Nigerian Armed Forces because:
• The Armed Forces and other security agencies are divided along religious lines. There are instances where Muslim soldiers have fired their rifles in the air rather than take aim because they do not want to harm fellow Muslims;
• Muslims in the rank and file of the Armed Forces and other security agencies serve as active moles for Boko Haram in their different organizations. Recently, soldiers of the division in Maiduguri mutinied against their General Officer Commanding, a Muslim, because they perceived that he ordered fallen colleagues
into a Boko Haram ambush;
• Corruption is a pernicious problem in Nigeria, and the Armed Forces and other security agencies are not immune to it. There are allegations that funds meant for purchase of hardware, operations and troop welfare are diverted to the private coffers of the brass.
Conclusion:
There is an active agenda of Jihad and much of the rest of the country, especially the South, are sleep-walking into what could be a fait accompli. This agenda is being actively pursued with the imprimatur of the authorities in several
states;
The Federal Government seems incapable of appreciating the true dimensions of the problem and is often a facilitator of the Jihad agenda.
All Nigerians must be prepared to play by the rules. The country is practicing democracy and in any democracy, power issues from the ballot. The international community should not allow itself to be hoodwinked into supporting the attempt by Islamists to conquer Nigeria, because that is what Boko Haram and the Fulani
Militia are attempting.
The West, including the United States of America, United Kingdom, France etc. should be wary of information they get about Nigeria if they do not want to be guilty of helping the Islamist agenda. The comments coming out of the West alleging
that President Jonathan’s government was anti-North reflects flawed intelligence about Nigeria and misinformation.
The Nigerian public must begin to ask questions concerning how humongous amounts given to the Armed Forces and other security agencies in the past three years were expended. The National Assembly of Nigeria ought to be very interested in how funds it appropriated were spent.
The Nigerian public should go beyond the façade erected by contemporary politicians to tease out what they are not saying publicly. That is the way out of sleepwalking into the Islamist agenda that we are faced with.
Appendix 1
MIDDLE BELT TOTAL TRIBES
Adamawa59
Bauchi61
Benue10
Borno15
FCT4
Gombe6
Kaduna27
Kebbi7
Kogi4
Kwara4
Nassarawa8
Niger24
Plateau67
Taraba56
Yobe5
357
HAUSA/FULANI/KANURI/SHUWA
Borno3
Gombe2
Jigawa2
Kaduna2
Kano2
Katsina2
Sokoto2
15
SOUTH EAST
Abia1
Anambra1
Ebonyi1
Imo1
Enugu2
6
SOUTHWEST
Ekiti1
Lagos3
Ogun1
Ondo2
Osun1
Oyo1
9
SOUTHSOUTH
Akwa Ibom6
Bayelsa1
Cross Rivers29
Delta4
Edo8
Rivers8
56
Appendix 2
ISLAMIC CONFERENCE: COMMUNIQUE (JOINTLY ISSUED BY THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL, LONDON; THE ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE, OIC; AND THE NEWLY FOUNDED ISLAM IN AFRICA ORGANISATION, IAO)
FURTHER DETERMINED to evolve a permanent Islamic body which has firm roots in and is securely anchored to the long-standing ideals, and values of Islam, designed to articulate the hopes and aspirations of Muslims in Africa and coordinate Islamic work variously undertaken by Muslim communities and organizations and to initiate projects which would assist in improving the lives
of Muslims on the continent and the Muslim world as a whole; We, the delegates assembled here in ABUJA, this 1st day of Jumada al Awwal, 1410 (28/11/89), DO HEREBY RESOLVE:
To call on Muslims throughout Africa to unite as an important part of the Ummah which is blessed with the guidanceand mercy brought by the messenger of Allah, Muhammad (PBUN);
To urge Muslims, who have been separated by imposed barriers of artificial boundaries drawn up by imperialists to serve colonial and anti-Islamic interests, to cooperate with their brethren throughout the Muslim world with a view to reinstating a strong and united Ummah which is determined to fulfill the commands of
Allah, the Almighty;
To call upon the Ulama to close ranks and thereby facilitate among the Ummah and to urge them to unite and to strive to remove all barriers between them and the general Muslim populace especially the youth;
To call on Muslims to review the syllabi in the various educational institutions with a view to bringing them into conformity with Islamic ideals, goals and principles and to serve the needs of their community;
To urge Muslims to pay special attention to the education of women at all levels; To encourage the teaching of Arabic language which is the language of the Quran as well as the lingua franca of the continent and to strive for the restoration of the use of Arabic script in vernacular;
The conference salutes and highly commends the efforts which the Muslim youth are making in the service of Islam and pledges its full support for them in this worthwhile endeavour;
To urge Muslims to establish strong economic ties between
African Islamic countries and other parts of the Muslim world in order to facilitate mutual assistance and cooperation in commerce, industry, and finance with a view to evolving a sound economic system based on Islamic principles;
The Conference notes the yearnings of Muslims everywhere on the continent who have been deprived of their rights to be governed by the Shari’a and urges them to intensify efforts in the struggle to reinstate the application of the Shari’a;
The Conference notes that modalities for the establishment of the African Muslim Media Practitioners Association in Nigeria has been set in motion. It appreciates this noble move and urges Muslims in the media organizations to offer it all the support it needs to succeed;
To form a permanent body to be known as Islam in Africa Organisation under the trusteeship of representatives to be selected from among participating countries; to perform, among other functions, the stated activities and seek to attain the
goals and objectives as provided for in the annexe to this communique;
The Conference unanimously expresses its gratitude and appreciation to the government and people of Nigeria for the interest shown in the Conference and in particular, extends its thanks to the President, Commander-in- Chief of the Armed
Forces of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida for the stimulating inaugural address which he sent to the Conference and was delivered by General Sani Abacha, the Chief of Army Staff of Nigeria;
To the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Islamic Council, London and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC for supporting and organizing the Conference;
To the planning committee and other officers of the Conference for all the efforts expended to ensure the success of the Conference;
To scholars and other distinguished personalities who have presented papers and chaired sessions during the Conference and to all those who have either erected stands at or otherwise helped in making the exhibition a huge success;
INSPIRED by the Unity of Allah, the Creator and Lord of the Universe; MOTIVATED by the Quranic declaration; `Verily, this year (Islamic) Ummah is oneÂ….’ and DETERMINED to comply with Allah’s directive contained in the Quranic ayah `And hold fast to the rope of Allah, and do not break up into factions,’ the PARTICIPANTS at the Islam in Africa Conference on this First day of Jumada al Awwal, 1420 A.H., (28/11/89) RESOLVE to found the Islam in Africa Organisation (IAO) with the following as its objectives, viz:
Undertake vigorous human resource development programmes; To serve as a mouthpiece for the articulation of issues of common concern to Muslims in Africa and the Muslim world generally;
Commission experts to write the history of Islam in Africa and of Muslims and the institutions from authentic Islamic viewpoint and to retrieve literary works and artifacts designed to train workers who will be trained to acquire trades and skills which equip them to be self-employed and productive;
To ensure the continuity of the noble work initiated at this Conference;
To cooperate with other national or international Islamic organizations for the attainment of its stated objectives;
To promote unity, spiritually and materially, among Muslims all over the world, particularly in Africa;
To promote peace, harmony and general human development and strive to remove all forms of discrimination;
To support, enhance and coordinate Da’wah work all over Africa and propagate the knowledge of Islam throughout the continent;
To encourage research efforts on Islamic matters and publicise the research findings;
To undertake and encourage the translation into various African languages of Islamic works, their publication and distribution;
To support the establishment and application of the Shari’a to all Muslims;
To encourage vigorous participation of Muslim youths in all spheres of its activities and to ensure that women are accorded their due rights and roles in society in accordance with the Shari’a;
To ensure the appointment of only Muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations;
To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Muslims);
To ensure that only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member countries;
To ensure the declaration of Nigeria (the 24th African and World member of the OIC) a Federal Islamic Sullanalo at a convention on any day from 28th March 1990, with the Sultan of Sokoto enthroned the Sultan and Supreme Sovereign of Nigeria;
To ensure the ultimate replacement of all western forms of legal and judicial systems with the Shari’a in all member nations before the next Islam in Africa Conference;
To organize an Islam in Africa Conference regularly as well seminars, symposia, conferences, workshops and colloquia;
Towards the attainment of these ends, therefore, a Steering Committee, with membership drawn from the following countries as well as the Islamic Council, London and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC, has been set up, viz:
1. Nigeria
2. Niger
3. The Gambia
4. Mauritania
5. Senegal
6. Libya
7. Tanzania
8. Sudan
9. Tunisia
The Permanent Headquarters of the Islam in Africa Organisation, IAO, shall be in Abuja, Nigeria. The Steering Committee has been assigned the special task of the details establishing the IAO in Nigeria, including structures and constitution within six (6) months.
The Conference decided that the Steering Committee should also work out detailed plans for transforming a national political party in each member nation into a National Islamic Party, and that the National Republican Convention, NRC, of
Nigeria should be made to serve this purpose in Nigeria as the only recognized National Islamic Party of Nigeria.
These parties so approved shall be the only ones to produce leading government
(executive and legislative) functionaries. The NRC of Nigeria and other parties shall have their names changed to reflect Islamic nature of their purpose.
The Conference further agreed and decided that the IAO should for the time being, operate from the facilities of the Islamic Council, London, and not from that of the OIC (that has become too controversial in Nigeria.)
Appendix 3
Translation of Shekau’s Message
”My fellow Muslim brothers, we are the ones that wage war in the state called plateau (jos). We are the ones that accomplished those things and if you dont know us we are the jama’atu Ahalisunna Liddahati Waljihad popularly known as Boko Haram.
The only simple reason we did what we did is because Allah has told us to fight whosoever has refuse to embrace Islam our religion after we have ask them to and also how they (Christians and government) have been killing us with no reason at all in various states were our people leave in Nigeria. What we have seen with our eyes is much more than what the media is telling the world.
We have witnessed it in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna especially Zangon Kataf, Bauchi and plateau state. Our women and children were taken from us and we don’t know there were about till date. There is a town called Sabon Gari in Kano is also an eye witness and there are so many places that such atrocities were committed that we don’t even know about but is only Allah that knows what happened.
It is because of all these that Allah has given us the authority to wage war against the Christians and whoever stands against the will of Allah. The killing of our people is a reason for us to fight but also our freedom to worship and is only Allah that knows.
Finally this is the message; I want all Muslims in Nigeria and the World at large to know that this is a religious war between Muslims and Christians. Every Muslim should take not that this is not an ethnic war, civil war or any kind of war but a religious one.
We have not started this war to finish in a week, month or year. The end of this war will be either they kill us all or we emerge victorious and for sure this war will not end because we are ready and Allah is with us in this religious war and no
government can stop us.
This stands as a warning any Muslim that helps any Christian in this war should know that he is a dead person. Salamaleikum”.
The Nolimit fashion network newly established a multi-storey fashion store in Panadura which has been an attraction in the city.