I went to New Castle on Friday with my boss. I was going to write about this in the morning. Somehow, I have to shelve this, because Northern Nigeria is on fire once again.
The cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammed has sparked off religious riots in Maiduguri. Christians who are not Danish have been murdered. Sixteen the reports say. Churches-eleven as at the last count have been torched. This is sad!
The Danish editor who came up with the blasphemous cartoons is still very much alive. There are muslims in Denmark. They too protested against the outrageous cartoons. But nobody to my knowledge was reported dead there.
Does anybody know where the head-quarters of the Islamic Organisation World-wide is situated? Is it in Nigeria? May be, it is in Maiduguri...
I wrote about the protest as reported by Sky news on this blog, the very day it started. I also pasted stories of how the riots were spreading and excalating in other parts of the world.
In all of these, there was no where reports came in that christians and churches were targeted. Not even in Denmark.
However, muslims in Nigeria- Maiduguri ( maybe they are more islamic) have taken matters into their own hands. The rest of the Islamic world have delayed for too long. To them delayed action may amount to denial. Since the Danish editor is not a muslim, he must be a christian. And if he is untouchable for now,irrespective of the prize tag on his, other christians' blood will suffice. The Prophet must be avenged. Christian or non- muslim blood will do.
Yet, Islam is a religion of peace and total submission to the will of Allah...
It baffles me the way muslims react in northern Nigeria whenever "blasphemy" is committed against Islam. These muslims in northern Nigeria, do they have leaders...? Who are these leaders? If they don't have leaders, then, we have a huge problem in our hands. If however, there are leaders- people who direct, or organise such gatherings before the protest went out of hand, they should be held accountable.
But, why is it that whenever an individual 'offends' Islam, christians or non- muslims must pay the price?
Danielle Isioma wrote about the beauty pageant to be held in Abuja some years back...
She dared then to write about the Prophet. And she made comments albeit jokingly of a particular contestant and how she would have probably passed the Prophet's approval... It was blasphemous; according to some muslims. And the gate of hell was opened wide to swallow the offender or anybody remotely associated or as much as bear a christian name.You are a 'barawo' if you are not wearing a kaftan. Some christians and non-muslims and churches were used as sacrifice...
There must be, some fundamental problems associated with muslims from northern Nigeria that we have not been able to identify and address. Otherwise, why is it that other muslims living in other parts of Nigeria do not deem it appropriate to react the way their nothern counterparts do in these matters...?
Is it the high level of illiteracy... and lack of adequate enlightenment/education or the absence of responsible leadership that is making religious riots in northern Nigeria and the unwarranted killings of christians/non-muslims a recurring decimal...?
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Cartoon Protest Revisited...As Maiduguri burns...
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9 comments:
Yes at the bottom of it all is the high level of Poverty,illiteracy and a lack of adequate enlightenment/education but trust me the bad eggs amongst the leaders in the Muslim communities are very smart people.
It is all motivated by greed/politics and an absolute disregard for fellow human lives.
The government should make it clear that it will not tolerate any kind of violent rioting just like in other parts of the country
Investigate these Incidents and Jail people found responsible for initiating the violence and commiting murder.
It's Nigeria afterall people will continue to take the piss until they know they will no longer get away with it.
So-Obscure, you've raised very important question here i.e, are there muslim leaders in northern nigeria? Where are they anytime muslims in that region choose to behave like stone-age men? Or could it be they are the ones who encourage such barbaric behaviours? I doubt this; but someone need to answer these questions.
This is Nigeria we're talking about here, some States might act like they are civilized and all but really these things can't and won't change until there's a radical change.
This might sound like a cliche, but the best thing to do is PRAY.
Just one question to all of you! Imagine prophet is alive today... (I hope you won't consider my assumption blasphmeous). Now...
1. A Bedouin comes to him and beat him up.
2. A Second Bedouin comes and desecrate Prophet's place of worship in response to his nature call.
3. People call him magician, liar and whatsoever
4. People make fun of him
5. People make cartoons of him
Does he himself find these acts offensive. How is he going to respond?
(you know that it did happen with him and how he responded).
Now only the fifth case did not happen in his time but the rest. We Muslims believe in the tradition of the prophet so we have to follow his tradition. Find the answer how did he respond and teach that answer to all the Muslims. That answer would be your best response.
Sectarian voilence has to be dealt with at the roots; it must be prevented by identifying the agents and factors/conditions that facilitate/encourage fanatism.
Has this phenomenon been studied at all by Nigerian social scientists? If not, it should; this is how societies have grown and have learned to deal with their issues.
It is also strange that the Nigerian moderate Muslims, who claim to be in the majority, have yet to take measures to curb Islamic fanatism, what are they waiting for? They need to speak up, and loadly too.
As it is now, Islam is getting a very bad rap worldwide, it is just a tough sell to convince anyone at the moment that Islam is indeed a religion that's just, rational and means good for anyone for that matter.
I think that the tension in the northern states remains high regardless..all they need is a little excuse to unleash. Why do people have to be so violent? Something happens in one random part of the world so you use your bare hands to kill another human being thinking you will get your reward in heaven. Its a crying shame that there are so many ignorant poeple in Nigeria, Moslems and Christians alike.
If the tables were turned..if there were blasphemous' pics of Jesus publisized, I wonder if the reaction would have been so catastrophical...
Na wa oh! All these fights and protests, hmmm.
you know, i've been pondering the same thing all week. why are we hurting ourselves over something that happened thousands of miles away?
i asked the same questions on tuesday. why are we doing this to ourselves?
http://olawunmi.blogspot.com/2006/02/people-are-dying-in-nigeria.html
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