By Wale Abideen,LAGOS/ Not a few Nigerians have called on the federal government to end the insurgence ravaging the Northeast of the country. The frontline Islamic group, MURIC (Muslim Rights Concern) yesterder totally disassociate MURIC and Islam with Boko Haram and its campaign. MURIC condemns Boko Haram’s attempt to compel Leah to use hijab. The group added that “Equally reprehensible is the attempt to force her to convert to Islam”.
Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC Director in a widely circulated press statement enlighten Nigerians about the teachings of Islam regarding his or her relationship with non Muslim.
Penultimate day, Boko Haram returned 104 out of the 110 girls abducted on 19th February, 2018. Five of them had reportedly died while one, Leah Sherubu, was not released. According to Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls, Leah was not released because she is a Christian and she refused to put on hijab or convert.
MURIC added that, “We reiterate for the umpteenth time that Boko Haram’s doctrine is heretical and its methods stand in contradistinction to those of pristine Islam. The Glorious Qur’an asserts that there is no compulsion in Islam (2:256). It says Allah himself could have made the whole mankind Muslims if He had wished (11:118). It forbids forceful conversion or punishment of non-Muslims by Muslims and limits the role of Muslims to admonitions alone (lasta alayhinm bimusaytirin 88: 21 – 24). Furthermore, it declares that each shall have the right to follow his or her religion (lakunm diinukunm wa liya diin 109:1 – 6).
“Once again we reject Boko Haram as an Islamic group. We urge the leadership and members of the group to re-examine its ideological base. Leah Sherubu must be set free because the basis for holding her after setting her schoolmates free is faulty and unIslamic.”
The Islamic body called on the Federal Government (FG) to widen the scope of dialogue with Boko Haram by incorporating doctrinal issues. Islamic scholars should be involved in such discussions with the insurgents. This process is sine qua non for the deradicalisation of Boko Haram. Military defeat of Boko Haram alone amounts to a pyrrhic victory without ideological re-engineering.
“We charge (FG) to go back to the negotiation table in order to secure the release of the only Christian girl among the Dapchi girls who is being held back by the insurgents. Nigerians have been united in their prayers for the release of the Dapchi girls. FG should note that Boko Haram is not as daft as many people think. By withholding the Christian girl, they seek to divide Nigerians once again along religious lines.
MURIC expresses solidarity with the parents of Leah Sherubu, the Christian girl in captivity. Our hearts are heavy with grief over her plight. We salute her courage. Shame on Boko Haram for oppressing a lone, vulnerable and helpless girl. Shame on all those who suppress freedom of worship. We appeal to Nigerians to invoke special prayers in the mosques and churches for this Christian girl who had the courage to stare her oppressors in the face. We should also continue to pray for the remaining Chibok girls.
“As we round up, we repeat our exhortation to the Nigerian authorities: to set Leah Sherubu free is a task that must be done”. Nigerian Muslim body declared
Commending MURIC for this noble declaration, Dr. Bolaji Akinyemi, National Coordinator of PVC-NAIJA urges the federal government to ensure the release of Leah Sheribu. PVC=NAIJA, a group committed to creating awareness on the political rights and responsibility of Nigerians noted Nigeria is not a fate based nation and so why could a group torment a Nigerian over her religious affinity. Akinyemi wonders what stop federal government from treating the group as and ensure an end to it onslaught against Nigerians. “If an Islamic body like MURIC can condemn and disassociate itself from Boko Haram, then nothing stops President Buhari from declaring and practically treat the terrorists like a dreadful criminals”
Famous THISDAY Journalist, Olawale Olaleye in his facebook page posted that “For personal reasons, I have refrained from the controversy on whether or not the Dapchi girls’ kidnap was arranged or real. However, I am concerned about something different and disturbing. I saw it on the countenance of the girls. They come across as the quintessential “poster kids of the pervasive poverty and under-development in the North”.
The northern political and traditional leadership should be ashamed of what the north still represents af…ter many years of being in power. Even in ramshackle schools in the South, children in creche, play group or pre-school still speak “learner’s English”.
But hey, these secondary school lot cannot even string the simplest of sentences together. WTF!!! In the present day Nigeria? This is disturbing. What kind of education is applicable in the north? What are they teaching them in school and in what language?
Like it or not, that these kids are unable to communicate in our national language is a disaster. Let us halt the debate over the veracity of the kidnap story and focus on a more important issue.
The north needs help. The whole of Nigeria needs to come together and save the North from itself. If it has taken the northern leadership this long to not realise there is an existential threat to development in the north, the rest of Nigeria sure knows the danger of a growing illiterate population. Let us help the north.
It is an emergency; it is urgent!”
And the reactions of many Nigerians to Olaleye’s post was not in anything different from his post.
