Aisha, the faith and the law

Simply put is that former Miss Charity and by extension any person can cross carpet to any religion of their liking and back if they develop re-think symptoms and seamlessly so based on the same general principles supposedly without any dire backlash or untoward consequences.This is a major victory for religious pluralism.The main lesson here […]

Simply put is that former Miss Charity and by extension any person can cross carpet to any religion of their liking and back if they develop re-think symptoms and seamlessly so based on the same general principles supposedly without any dire backlash or untoward consequences.This is a major victory for religious pluralism.
The main lesson here is that under an enabling environment of religious pluralism no religion is more equal than the other irrespective of the fact that perhaps only Jews and Hindus are born while others must be converted or re-converted (as the case may be) since the personal and sometimes conflicting exercise of faith might change like shifting shadows for a select few that still deserve the protection under the rule of law.
What perhaps is playing out in this particular case is the continuation of religious turf wars by proxy or a continued media bashing on the Bida emirate council and its conspicuous role as amply suggested by Mohammed Haruna’s Wednesday Column (Daily Trust, 7 August 2013)or even a “home problem” blown out of proportion by the anxiety complex of Pastor Uzoechina that has unnecessarily gone viral as enunciated by Eugene Enahoro’s offering (Daily Trust, 6 August 2013). Whatever it is, there is need to understand a brief background on religious conversion particularly in the north. For centuries across the wide grassland savannah there has been multiplicity of conversions from various forms of animism to different waves of Islam marginally through the influence of the Trans-Saharan trade and mainly emanating from the Fulani jihad and subsequent reformation in the early 19th century as a result of citizenship being redefined (even till date) as religious “without any discriminatory regard for descent, tribe or race” as specified by Shehu Usman Dan Fodio’s BaganWujub al Hijra. However,on the other side of the religious aisle in 1894, less than a century of the existence of the Sokoto Caliphate, according to the chronicles of the CMS Nigeria Mission entitled Romance of the Black River as compiled by F. Deaville Walker and published in 1930, that Rev. Charles H. Robinson reached Kano via the Benue and Keffi with a missionary purpose in view after a prior establishment of a Hausa Association to prepare a dictionary (Kamus) and commence the translation of the Holy Bible. Unfortunately from both scenarios the boundaries of identity in today’s north has been pushed into the uncharted territory of inter communal suspicion and mutual distrust.
Another lesson at the intersection between faith and the law is the issue of further legislation. While it is inconveniently true, according to Barrister Bitrus Gwada in an opinion piece under the title Of Faith, Conversion and Repercussions (Weekly Trust, Saturday, 03 August 2013),that it is “a spiritual matter not a legal matter” and that “You cannot fight faith with the court, the police, the CAN, the army or with any human institution. You can only fight faith with faith. And the fight is a spiritual struggle, not by the use of arms or rhetoric”, there is also need to strengthen the legal system particularly to checkmate those that are habituated to use extra-judicial impunity to adjudicate by mob action and other forms of personal arbitrariness on matters of religious sensibilities more so considering the current security challenges afflicting our body politic. It is important to adapt into our laws a Nigerian version of the United Kingdom’s Racial & Religious Hatred Act of 2007 that specifically states in Section 29 (B) 1: “Any person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is abusive and insulting, is guilty of an offence if he/she intends to stir up religious hatred”.
Perhaps the prime lesson on tolerance at the junction of faith and the law that should be poignant for us all resides in South Africa and radiatesfrom the rare personality of Nelson Mandela. Here is a country that by the various tiers of equality as guaranteed with unambiguous legislation rallied round inwidely diverse and rigorous religious observances with outpouring of unrestrained emotions for its beloved and ailing first democratically elected page former president who has been a lifelong atheist.

Yahaya-Joe wrote from France Road, Kano