Wasila Umar

Islamophobia And The Prospects Of Interfaith Diaolgue In Nigeria

Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Gombe State University

It was in 2005, while doing my one-year compulsory post-graduation national service in Enugu that I had the unique privilege to extensively discuss with learned Christians on issues relating to Muslim-Christian interactions. I still remember my first encounter with one Pastor Gbenga from the South-South, a handsome and very brilliant young Pastor whose open-mindedness and understanding epitomizes the Qur’anic declaration that the Christians are the closest to the Muslims in terms of affection compared to the adherents of other faiths because, as the Quran further explains ‘among them there are priests and monks and they are not arrogant’ (5:82).

One particular morning while waiting for the kickoff of the morning parade at the parade ground, we were discussing Nigerian politics with some fellow corps members from the North when I observed that Gbenga, who was sitting beside me, had picked interest in the discussion. But because the language of the discussion was Enghausa (a combination of English and Hausa) he could not fully comprehend the conversation. I quickly appealed that the language be changed to English, and that was granted. His first question was that “I heard you mentioned General Abdussalami Abubakar… So why did he decide to grow beards?” Because he is a Muslim, I responded smilingly. “But why do Muslims do that?” Because all Muslims respect all Prophets, including Jesus Christ (pbuh). “What do you mean?” He asked. I said yes we so much like Christ so much so that his name appears 25 times, that is 5 times more than Prophet Muhammad’s name, in the Qur’an. And all the pictures of Christ that we see from the Christians show him with beards, so by growing beards we are emulating the Messiah. When he realized we were ready to engage in intellectual discussion with him he opened up for more questions about what he had been hearing about Islam: “Is it true that your Koran declares that the more you kill the closer to God you are? Why do Muslims marry more than one wives? Why does Islam make begging compulsory for Muslims?” and many similar apparently “” questions. Our series of discussions with him at the Awgu Orientation camp revealed to me the need for more peaceful dialogue between the followers of Islam and Christianity in Nigeria. I had since lost contact with the peace-loving gentleman.

One day, while discussing with some Igbo Christians (including one Ijioma and Mercy) at the neighborhood of the Islamic Centre, Uwani, Enugu, a guy came and interrupted. He started making reference to the brutal killing of innocent Igbo Christians that according to him was taking place at that time in Kano. Asked about the source of that story he pointed to somebody whom he said was “just from Kano” where his house and property were destroyed and who narrowly escaped the attacks of the “Moslem terrorists”. “So oga you cannot tell us that Islam is peace”, he continued saying, shouting. I quickly moved to the so-called Kano victim. “Sorry oga. Please what’s the situation now in Kano?” I asked. He continued the narrations. My next question was, please where do you reside in Kano? “Inside Kano”, he responded. I asked again; please tell me the specific area. “I said inside the town, inside…” To cut the story, this man had never been to Kano! But because the people there have since been programmed to believe that every Muslim is a terrorist and that killing others is part and parcel of Islam, the people accepted his claim without questioning its authenticity. To them it was an exhibit about their belief that in Islam the more you kill the closer to God you are. It was an opportunity for me to educate them about the myth of the long prejudice many of them harbored against Islam and of course the North which is predominantly Muslim.

On another day, a corps member gave me a pamphlet titled “Letter to the Muslim.. Enough is Enough”, written by one Evangelist Blessed Usman who purported himself as a “former Muslim Jihadist turned evangelist” and was (as he claims) a former national secretary of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI). That pamphlet contains a lot of blatant lies and blasphemous claims against Islam that any person in his mental equilibrium should not accept. But alas, we realized that the author of the pamphlet had since gained popularity. In fact, he then could camp himself at the University of Nigeria Nsuka (UNN) for over two weeks preaching his gospel of hatred while many, including some intellectuals, were his gullible “customers”. I had since then written and published a pamphlet with the title “Letter to the Christian Friends” as a rebuttal to the person’s lies.

But what does that guy propagate and why do lies propagated by this man and his likes continue to be accepted by even those who answer the title of intellectualism? In one book titled: The Revelation Truth about Jesus Christ in the Quran authored by the referred “Retired Jihadist” one sees a lot of answers to the above questions. The simple fact is that we have allowed the art of “calling to God” to be so porous that everybody can venture into it without check. People like the so-called Blessed Usman have found it a very lucrative business to embark on propagating false propaganda against Islam as their churches and publications are patronized because of that.

The so-called repented Jihadist claims in page vi of the book; ‘As one time Secretary-General and P.R.O of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (J.N.I) and Joint Islamic Youth Organization (JIYO) respectively, I am going to prove to you as you journey ahead with me in this book how Muslims are (remote) controlled by the system of Islam, which governs their entire life’. On the back page of that book one reads: “If Allah is God why instructing Muslims that: Fighting, Persecution and killing is ordained for all Muslims as ordered by Allah in the Quran”.

The forward of the book was written, as he claims, by one Evangelist Mahmud Ado Bayero Paul (JP) who writes (as the author claims): “As an Islamic Scholar turned preacher and motivational teacher of the some gospel of Jesus Christ (sic) I once persecuted. As a renowned Islamic Jihadist I have come across a multiplicity of materials on this subject matter.” The author also thanked many people for supporting him in writing the book including “Alhaji (now Evangelist) Samuel Maccido” whom the author claims is the son of the late Sultan Muhammadu Maccido. And in one of his magazines the Evangelist claims that the hand of Ahmad Sani’s (Yeriman Bakura) daughter was amputated simply because she converted to Christianity! The picture of the “Yerima’s daughter” he published showed a typical Igbo woman in Hausa attire, but the blind sight of his readers could not allow them to see any reason! None of his readers could, for instance, ask whether in the whole history of Islamic organizations there has ever been any JIYO. They could not ask: who are the sons of Maccido and Ado Bayero that accepted Christianity. When was that? Where are the anti-Islamic media that the story was not made a headline for three weeks or more as it is always the case with anything unfavorably connected to Islam and Muslims? Why will these lies be accepted by people who see themselves as the monopolists of wisdom and intellectualism?

But the simple fact is that those people’s minds have been programmed since childhood to believe that Islam is a religion of violence. Their belief is that whenever there is any crisis between Muslims and non-Muslims the former are naturally the culprits and they do that to implement what their “Koran” teaches them!!! But why all this? Candidly the answer to these questions is simply “Islamophobia.” According to the former Chairman of Religions in Britain Research Organization, (RIBRO) Christopher Allen, Islamophobia refers to the “proliferating climate of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic prejudice, discrimination and hatred.” Another relevant explanation of the term by Aisha Umar Yusuf is “lies and cover-ups packaged and called Islamic terrorism.”

The media can be seen as the first culprits in this growing trend of prejudice against anything Islamic or Muslim. As Mas’ud (2002) puts it succinctly: “Journalists are trained to report the who, what, when, where, why and how of stories. The “who” in stories of Christians and Jews is a human being, often described by friends, family, teachers, and neighbours, if relevant to the story. Very seldom is their religion mentioned. In the case of Muslims, religion is invariably mentioned, and it is about the only thing mentioned of this “other” being. In the case of Christians and Jews, there is usually much discussion of “why” the person did what he or she did. In the case of Muslims all the reader is told is that the person was a militant, extremist, or fundamentalist, as if they were sufficient explanation…The media appear to have excruciating difficulty writing about Muslims without mentioning their religion.”

The way the media cover events relating to Muslims with apparent bias is unfortunate. The media are supposed to be a source of solution to problems. They are expected to report, inform, educate and enlighten based on the Universal ethics of journalism. They are supposed to follow-up the rights of the oppressed in any community irrespective of his/her religion, colour or ethnicity. Their news should be “truthful, timely and of public interest” as one media expert suggests. When the media practitioners become subjective in their professional services they change to be a problem rather than a source of solution. And this exactly is the situation in Nigeria. The media have become a problem in that they have thrown objectivity to the garbage and by that, become agents of destruction in the society.

Before I appear to be one-sided let me be quick to say that much as Islamophobia has penetrated deep into the inner corners of the minds of many non-Muslims (and there are many who are largely objective and non-Islamophobic), so also are there many “Christophobic” elements among the Muslims. To be fair, the injustice against the followers of other faiths is not a monopoly of any people. Among Muslims there are those who assume that nothing good can come from a Christian. They judge Christianity based on the bad behaviors of some godless Christians. This is not only an utter display of injustice but a clear rejection of the Qur’anic declaration that among the people of the book (Christians and Jews) there are just and truly God- fearing people. A Christian, like a Muslim, can be good or bad. And it will be wrong of one to support a wrong door just because they belong to the same religion. This negates the essence of religion.

Nigeria is in need of real God-fearing people from both Islam and Christianity to come together to address the recurring crises claiming the lives of Nigerians. And the media should be able to facilitate such. When in January 2009, precisely 21^st to 25^th, the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC) organized the Nigerian Youth Summit on Interreligious Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence, in Minna for 250 youth (125 Muslim and 125 Christian youth) almost all the participants were overwhelmed by the knowledge they received about the religions of their counterparts. This should continue. It will go a long way in instilling mutual understanding and tolerance and therefore foster peace and harmonious coexistence; important ingredients of development which we now lack in Nigeria.

When I participated in a 3-day workshop at Arewa House Kaduna, which was organized by the Center for Regional Integration and Development, where we developed a curriculum on peace education for young Muslims (from Primary 1 to JSS III) the hope we left the venue of the programme with was that the Nigeria of the next one-two-three decades would, insha Allah, be a tolerant, peaceful, accommodating and dialogue oriented Nigeria. I left the venue with the impression that the Nigerian Muslim intelligentsia was, to the disappointment of my earlier perception, loaded with scholars, both “old” and especially emerging, who have gone far in their belief in, commitment to, sacrifice towards, and readiness to fully partake in peace promotion and interfaith activities. I was particularly “possessed” by the penetrating Qur’anic-Sunnatic analysis by my multi-disciplinary mentor, Dr Salisu Shehu, when he, as usual of him, excellently and professorially expounded a framework for peace building which, I, like all those present, believe that is going to be useful for those of us who are worried about the bloodshed going on in our country in the name of religious conflict and are looking for avenues to explore the interfaith potentials of our teaming youth.

A recent experience, precisely in February, which gave me the opportunity to spend 12 consecutive days in a group of 24 religious leaders (11 Muslims and 13 Christians, young and “old”) discussing interfaith issues, and exchanging views on matters of peaceful coexistence and conflict prevention in Nigeria, raised my hopes the more that Nigeria is a fertile land for the planting of the seeds of interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence. The remnant of prejudice that black-painted all non-Muslims as completely anti-dialogue was put to a real test, to say the least. I came to understand in more practical manner that when the Qur’an commanded the Prophet (SAW) to call the “people of the book, ( i.e. Christians and Jews) to dialogue, the Qur’an was not commanding the impossible; it was indeed guiding Muslims to do what is necessarily needed for peace to have a confortable accommodation in the house of man.

An important thing that is needed for interfaith orientation to be instilled in the minds of the upcoming generations of Nigerians, and indeed to the present generation of Nigerians, is that subjects related to peace, tolerance and interfaith dialogue, should be accepted as part and parcel of the curriculums of our education institutions, including tertiary schools. The media should also be seen as providing platform for healthy discussions on peace building and harmonious interfaith relations. .