In defence of the ‘Nigerian-Palestinian’
Today I feel privileged to host Ustaz Muhammad Mahmud, a Kano-based intellectual, to refute some misconceptions raised by Gimba Kakanda who condemns what he considers an unwarranted show of sympathy with the Palestinians by the average Nigerian Muslim, who, according to him, doesn’t do enough to tackle Boko Haram crisis, hence he (i.e. Kakanda) sarcastically […]
Today I feel privileged to host Ustaz Muhammad Mahmud, a Kano-based intellectual, to refute some misconceptions raised by Gimba Kakanda who condemns what he considers an unwarranted show of sympathy with the Palestinians by the average Nigerian Muslim, who, according to him, doesn’t do enough to tackle Boko Haram crisis, hence he (i.e. Kakanda) sarcastically refers to him as a “Nigerian-Palestinian”. This is the response to his claims.
You need to be educated that, to me, Palestine is my home, as a Muslim. My mind has never been distracted away from that third most sacred place in my religion, which was forcefully occupied by Jews, who subjected my brothers down there to unprecedented humiliation. It is my duty, as a Muslim, to do whatever I can, no matter how little, to reverse the situation in Palestine. Notwithstanding this, it is utterly unimaginable that at this time of globalization, some supposedly enlightened people still think that we are living in isolation and should ignore happenings elsewhere, even as the world recently stood up for us when the insurgents abducted school girls in Chibok.
In any case, it is not true that the Nigerian situation is similar to that of Palestine. This misconception or deliberate misconstruing of realities informed your bad judgment about the whole thing.
While the Palestinian situation is simply a full religious and territorial war between Jews and Muslims, the Nigerian situation is so complicated that it is ever changing, shaping and reshaping, as such needing diverse and relevant actions at different times depending on the prevailing situation.
While the Palesti-nians are under heavy bombings from their occupiers, the Nigerian Muslims are bombarded and slaughtered daily by their own brothers. Their mosques and markets are destroyed and their scholars killed by their own brothers. Also, while the Palestinians are united in fighting the occupiers, there is so much distrust and suspicion among Nigerians to the extent that Muslims in Nigeria, who are more at the receiving end as testified by the president, are regarded as members of Boko Haram, particularly the northerners.
Your insistence that only (citizens of) countries with less problems are protesting the genocide is shattered into pieces when you claimed that Malala was here not as a Pakistani, an admittance that Pakistan is a bereaved country. Because, as you might probably not have been told, by the western media that back the occupiers, like BBC and CNN, the Pakistanis are among the millions of people that are participating in the campaign against the genocide. They and countries like South Africa and Afghanistan have even organised mass protests against it, while such protests have not been made here in Nigeria. By the way, the Shiites’ demonstration is an annual event that only coincided with the current Zionist’s attacks on Gaza.
You claimed that I internationalized my empathy to show that all is well in my home. This is not true. Truth is, you are so annoyed that I refuse to be parochial to cage myself in an extreme individualism garbed in a feigned patriotism that seeks to limit all my attention to where westerners expected of me, so as to fit as “modern” Muslim.
Contrary to your claim, I inform the world more about my problem at home than the Gaza hashtag. I and many others have posted comments more on our domestic problems than the Gaza issue that only escalated a few weeks ago. We have written articles, debated, posted pictures, critiqued, condemned and commended on issues that directly affected us here at home. Are you not aware that we often pray for the return of normalcy in our country? (I am aware that you don’t give much importance to prayers). Are you not aware how many of us risked their lives by publicly calling for the halt to the bloodshed? Are you not aware how many paid with their lives for this? Are you not aware that the civilian JTF are out there with sticks facing well trained insurgents? Are you not aware that many successful operations by Nigerian troops were on tips from our people who risked paying with their lives?
Perhaps, you will only agree that we are passionate if we and our wives troop to Abuja and wailed at your waiting camera. Perhaps you expect us to be so passionate to the extent that we publicly insult our religion and disassociate ourselves from it because some people did what we believe is wrong and flagitious.
Your holier-than-thou posture was betrayed by the following from you: “…all the killed and abducted Dantatas and Asma’us and Johns and Naomis of Yobe and Borno are seen as mere statistics, unworthy of collective advo-cacy by you”. I can’t believe this. So all the accusations you have been throwing are just for me to only advocate while my people are killed by the insurgents? We not only advocate but we actually engage the problem both from ideological point of view and physical confrontation. We have lost many people, none of whom you ever deemed fit to even recognize. So many Islamic scholars paid the ultimate price just like so many youth members of the civilian JTF. It is a surprise that all you expect from us is to resort to “advocacy”.
I understand that you are angry with me for unflinchingly supporting Palestinians, on what you call “brotherhood of faith” ground. You are obviously not happy for that. Had my support for them been on “humanitarian” ground, you might be happy. But that marks the breaking point between us, because as a Muslim, I do everything as commanded by my religion, and I pay no attention to whose ox is gored for that.
The Almighty Allah bonded all Muslims together as he declared that “Believers are indeed brothers (and sisters).” His Messenger also said “A Muslim is a brother to a Muslim.” “He who does not pay attention or care about the affairs of Muslims is not among them.” “Muslims, in their love and affection towards each other, are like one single body. If a part of him is sick, the rest of the body would be in pain or fever.”
This last Hadith is an answer to you. It might give you an insight as to why a Palestinian issue and pain, as my “brother in faith”, are mine.