Monday 21 December 2015

Shiite-Army Clash: Can Muslims Really Stand a Pluralist State



Shiite-Army Clash: Can Muslims Really Stand a Pluralist State
Last weekend was another sad day in our national life. The army clashed with Shiites in Zaria and the outcome was catastrophic and gruesome. To this moment, the number of dead is yet to be precisely declared: while it has been reported that about ninety corpses have been deposited at the ABU Teaching Hospital morgue, the Shiite sect is claiming that well over a thousand of its members have been killed. They have found a mouthpiece in the Iranian state medium, Press TV.
No doubt, human rights groups are already blaring from rooftops over what is clearly heavy-handedness by the army in response to the impudence to the Nigerian state and the flagrant disregard for the right of space of fellow Nigerians as exhibited by the Shiites to the nation’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen Tukur Buratai, who was on official assignment in Zaria on that fateful Saturday. Given the level casualty, both human and property, inflicted on the group, one finds it hard to reason that it was impossible for the army to have responded in the proportion they did.
Clearly, what the Shiites did was an act of provocation, and one dares to say, against the Nigerian state. This was not the first time. They did the same thing to the former governor of Kaduna State, Dr Ramallan Yero earlier this year: maybe because it was electioneering period, he thought it wiser not to assert his executive might and, therefore, chaos was averted. They did it last year to a Commander of one of the army formations in Zaria, when they came out to demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinians that July, and it ended it the death of a few of their members including three children of their leader in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.
The fact is that anyone that has lived in Zaria in the last thirty-five or so odd years knows that the sect has constituted itself into a state unto itself, with El-Zakzaky as its leader. Whenever they want to do anything, it never matters if any other Nigerian citizen is there or not, they pretty much go ahead and do it without recourse to the Nigerian state and the laid down procedure of doing such things. They will never seek any pass from the police to embark on a rally or a procession. They will never even require police protection for such event – the presence of which would have resolved this initial impasse with the COAS – because they have their own policing and military systems. At such times, any area they will be using or passing through will literally be under fierce, if not vicious, lockdown to other citizens by their security arm.
To non-Muslims, as a result of exasperation with such state of affairs, it would appear that Muslims cannot just be comfortable in a plural and secular society without agitating to have it only their way, the Shariah way. For non-Muslims, the fact that such agitations arise from a sect of Islam, usually fringe, ceases to matter, especially when sects of different Islamic persuasions have at one time or the other agitated for similar conditions, one way or the other.
The first religious group to run a parallel state in Nigeria since independence was the Maitatsine sect, which operated from the 1960s until the early 1980s when it was subdued and routed finally – hopefully – by the Shagari regime. It was a bloody experience. Maitatsine was from a Sunni background and he was out to establish an Islamic state of his vision.
The second group was the Shiites – now on the front-burner – under the name Islamic Movement of Nigeria and the leadership of El-Zakzaky, since the 1980s. One remembers one’s earliest encounters with them in skirmishes spilling into neighbourhoods from the Kaduna Polytechnic.
The third group to defy the Nigerian state and establish a parallel government is of course the Jama’atul Ahlus Sunna Lidda’awati wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, since the turn of the millennium. They are of the Sunni background, with the same vision of establishing a state based on Shariah. Nigeria is still at war with this group which has proven very determined and never relenting in their means.
Aside from these occurrences, non-Muslims bear in mind the agitation for Shariah by Muslims at the beginning of the fourth republic which resulted in bloodletting across northern Nigeria and has put in jeopardy the prospects of forging a veritable nation-state that is plural and happy. Add to all that, events outside Nigeria by sects of different persuasions in Islam in same directions, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and so on, contribute to foster such suspicious thoughts among non-Muslims, regardless of what anyone may offer as root causes.
Muslims have risen very strongly against what they consider Islamophobia, but events such as we have seen in Nigeria, and elsewhere, executed in the name of Islam with “Allahu Akbar” on the lips have not helped Muslims and Islam.
Other Nigerians cannot be blamed for wondering if Muslims can live with them in a plural society as citizens and equals.
 

BLUEPRINT Newspaper; Thur Dec. 17, 2015

2 comments:

  1. Well thought up. Pure TRUTH.

    I googled sharia and on Wikipedia, I think, found this: If this is sharia, then, muslims have no reason to blame non-muslims for any conception-including islamaphobic-tendencies/realities.

    What You Need To Know About Sharia Law
    34 Things About Sharia Law That You Need To Know
    Sharia For Dummies. There may be some of you out there reading this article who have heard the term "sharia" but don't really know what it is. So we present to you 34 actual points of Sharia law to give you an idea what it would be live to live under it. Then you can decide for yourself if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

    Sharia For Dummies. There may be some of you out there reading this article who have heard the term "sharia" but don't really know what it is. So we present to you 34 actual points of Sharia law to give you an idea what it would be live to live under it. Then you can decide for yourself if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

    This is the true face of Islam in the UK, which many say will soon make it's way to the United States.
    1- Jihad, defined as "to war against non-Muslims to establish the religion," is the duty of every Muslim and Muslim head of state (Caliph). Muslim Caliphs who refuse jihad are in violation of Sharia and unfit to rule.
    2- A Caliph can hold office through seizure of power meaning through force.
    3- A Caliph is exempt from being charged with serious crimes such as murder, adultery, robbery, theft, drinking and in some cases of rape.
    4- A percentage of Zakat (charity money) must go towards jihad.
    5- It is obligatory to obey the commands of the Caliph, even if he is unjust.

    A Muslim woman receiving Sharia justice. She is about to be stoned to death.

    6- A caliph must be a Muslim, a non-slave and a male.
    7- The Muslim public must remove the Caliph if he rejects Islam.

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  2. Continued....


    8- A Muslim who leaves Islam must be killed immediately.
    9- A Muslim will be forgiven for murder of: 1) an apostate 2) an adulterer 3) a highway robber. Vigilante street justice and honor killing is acceptable.
    10- A Muslim will not get the death penalty if he kills a non-Muslim, but will get it for killing a Muslim.
    11- Sharia never abolished slavery, sexual slavery and highly regulates it. A master will not be punished for killing his slave.
    12- Sharia dictates death by stoning, beheading, amputation of limbs, flogging even for crimes of sin such as adultery.
    13- Non-Muslims are not equal to Muslims under the law. They must comply to Islamic law if they are to remain safe. They are forbidden to marry Muslim women, publicly display wine or pork, recite their scriptures or openly celebrate their religious holidays or funerals. They are forbidden from building new churches or building them higher than mosques. They may not enter a mosque without permission. A non-Muslim is no longer protected if he leads a Muslim away from Islam.
    14- It is a crime for a non-Muslim to sell weapons to someone who will use them against Muslims. Non-Muslims cannot curse a Muslim, say anything derogatory about Allah, the Prophet, or Islam, or expose the weak points of Muslims. But Muslims can curse non-Muslims.
    15- A non-Muslim cannot inherit from a Muslim.
    16- Banks must be Sharia compliant and interest is not allowed.
    17- No testimony in court is acceptable from people of low-level jobs, such as street sweepers or bathhouse attendants. Women in low level jobs such as professional funeral mourners cannot keep custody of their children in case of divorce.
    18- A non-Muslim cannot rule -- even over a non-Muslim minority.
    19- Homosexuality is punishable by death.
    20- There is no age limit for marriage of girls. The marriage contract can take place anytime after birth and can be consummated at age 8 or 9.
    21- Rebelliousness on the part of the wife nullifies the husband's obligation to support her, gives him permission to beat her and keep her from leaving the home.

    Women who live under Sharia law are not much more than a possession, bound and hidden behind a head to toe mask.
    22- Divorce is only in the hands of the husband and is as easy as saying: "I divorce you" and becomes effective even if the husband did not intend it.
    23- There is no community property between husband and wife and the husband's property does not automatically go to the wife after his death.
    24- A woman inherits half what a man inherits.
    25- A man has the right to have up to 4 wives and none of them have a right to divorce him -- even if he is polygamous.
    26- The dowry is given in exchange for the woman's sexual organs.
    27- A man is allowed to have sex with slave women and women captured in battle, and if the enslaved woman is married her marriage is annulled.
    28- The testimony of a woman in court is half the value of a man.
    29- A woman loses custody if she remarries.
    30- To prove rape, a woman must have 4 male witnesses.
    Islam is not looking for acceptance, they are looking for dominance.
    31- A rapist may only be required to pay the bride-money (dowry) without marrying the rape victim.
    32- A Muslim woman must cover every inch of her body, which is considered "Awrah," a sexual organ. Not all Sharia schools allow the face of a woman exposed.
    33- A Muslim man is forgiven if he kills his wife at the time he caught her in the act of adultery. However, the opposite is not true for women, since the man "could be married to the woman he was caught with."
    34-It is obligatory for a Muslim to lie if the purpose is obligatory. That means that for the sake of abiding with Islam's commandments, such as jihad, a Muslim is obliged to lie and should not have any feelings of guilt or shame associated with this kind of lying. source - WND - Nonie Darwish

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