The Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) has expressed concern over what it called a “provocative and insensitive” press statement by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar.
The Islamic council had, in a statement signed by its Public Affairs Officer, Mr. Abbas Jimoh, “warned” the Federal Government of Nigeria to act quickly before Muslims “run out of patience” over what it alleged as the “persistent attacks, profiling, and marginalisation of the faith and its adherents.”
The NSCIA was reacting to a recent interview granted to Channels Television by the former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, where he stated that most of the terrorism in Nigeria can be traced to Islamic fundamentalists.
However, the CSMN, in a statement signed by its CEO/Executive Secretary, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel, said it expected the NSCIA to have been more civil by apologizing to Nigerians—particularly the Christian community—for the destruction that Islamic insurgents have caused in the country since the council’s current president became the Sultan.
According to the CSMN, the current wave of bloodletting in the country started in 2009, three years after the Sultan ascended the throne.
The group inferred that the NSCIA has no moral ground to “warn” anyone, especially the Federal Government, describing the press statement as an attempt to gaslight both the government and the Christian community.
The Christian body further stated that Pastor Oritsejafor’s interview with Channels TV was deliberately twisted by the NSCIA to claim he said “90 to 95 percent of criminals were Muslims.”
”That is a deliberate distortion,” the CSMN statement reads. “Someone of the status of a Public Affairs Officer of such a big organisation should have been a better listener and researcher.
“What the respected Christian leader actually said—which daily events and recurrent sad tales on social media vindicate—was this: ‘When you look at insecurity in Nigeria today, I would tell you that 99.9% of those who are practising and making this thing thrive are Muslims, not Christians.’”
The CSMN claimed the NSCIA spokesman deliberately twisted the statement to incite the gullible.
”He deliberately avoided quoting the word ‘insecurity,’ preferring ‘criminals’ instead, for whatever ‘better’ reason, to describe Muslims. It is a deliberate piece of mischief, for whatever the next agenda may be,” the Christian body stated.
The statement explained further: “Pastor Oritsejafor did not call Muslims ‘criminals.’ Mr. Abbas Jimoh, the Public Affairs Officer of the Islamic body, did. What the noble clergyman said was that the greater percentage of those behind the ongoing insecurity in Nigeria are adherents of the faith. That is a fact. All the terrorists and terrorist groups are Muslims: Boko Haram, Fulani ‘herdsmen,’ Lakurawa, ‘bandits,’ ISWAP, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and all the other Islamic insurgents engaged in the murder, abduction, kidnapping, and rape of innocent Nigerians.
”They are not Sango worshippers, Catholics, or Baptists. They are all Muslims, who report to the Sultan, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, as the President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and as ‘Sarkin Musulmi’—the ‘King of Muslims’ in Nigeria. Of more concern is the fact that the Sultan of Sokoto is also the traditional ruler of the Fulanis, which means that the notorious Fulani herdsmen are his subjects.”
While noting that the Sultan has not deemed it fit to call his subjects and followers to order for the carnage and destruction they have brought upon Nigeria, the CSMN said the Sultan cannot absolve himself of criminal negligence.
”As the head of the Islamic Ummah in Nigeria, it is negligence on his part that his followers are terrorising the country, and he has not called them to order,” the CSMN stated.
The CSMN also punctured allegations by the NSCIA that the suspect linked to the kidnapping of school children and their teachers in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State was “not only a Christian but a pastor.”
The group stated: “Taqiyyah is a doctrine in Islam which excuses falsehood for a Muslim in the promotion and defence of his religion. In fact, Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (Abu Abdullah) in Al-Kafi said, ‘Nine-tenths (or 90%) of religion is taqiyyah (dissimulation), and he who has no taqiyyah has no religion.’
”It is taqiyyah for anyone to infer that a Christian was behind the kidnapping in Oyo State. Will a Christian demand the implementation of Sharia in Oyo State as the ‘ransom’ for freeing his captives, or demand that arrested Muslim terrorists be released? Was it a pastor who beheaded one of the kidnapped teachers before his own little school children? Do these killers recite the Lord’s Prayer or sing a church hymn while performing these terrible acts? There should be a limit to this taqiyyah.”
The Christian body then appealed to President Tinubu to call extremist Muslims to order and warn them against using unbridled religious fervour to destabilize and disorganize Nigeria.
