Jungle justice in the name of Islam

The recent spate of killings by mobs in the name of Islam in northern Nigeria is very alarming and calls for serious campaign within the Muslim community on the illegality of jungle justice in Islam. A judicial system devoid of sanity, decorum, a judge, defendant, witnesses, and other judicial apparatus is far from being an […]

The recent spate of killings by mobs in the name of Islam in northern Nigeria is very alarming and calls for serious campaign within the Muslim community on the illegality of jungle justice in Islam. A judicial system devoid of sanity, decorum, a judge, defendant, witnesses, and other judicial apparatus is far from being an Islamic one.
Islamic judicial system is built on the basis of fairness for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It’s a judicial system with measures put in place to protect the dignity of the accused and assumes him innocent until proven guilty. A system where a plaintiff can be punish for not producing witnesses against an accused, a system that frowns against nepotism and advocates fairness even if it’s against one’s parents and close relatives.
Loving a religion is very important because it’s hypocritical to claim a religion and not love it. But it’s also hyper hypocritical to only love a religion and not learn it teachings. Misconstruing love for knowledge makes some Muslims act on emotions in the name of Islamic knowledge. Making them act overzealous and fanatic in their zoo of ignorance and claiming to love the Prophet but not clinching to his commands.
For a religion that forbids openly brandishing dangerous weapons, the prohibition against taking laws into one hands is far from being an ambiguous one as Islamic scholars have unanimously agree on that.  As for the hooliganism displayed by such overzealous Muslims in the name of Islam, it leave every sane and right thinking Muslim asking if they really have humane hearts or are their hearts hardened to a point that it can happily hack a human to death on mere allegations? Have the masterminds forgotten that the Holy Qur’an forbids killing a single innocent human being? Do they really know that unjustly killing a single human being whether Muslim or not is tantamount to killing the whole of humanity? The Holy Qur’an enjoins believers to verify stories before acting on them least they harm a people out of ignorance and become regretful over what they have done. Do those miscreants know that the Holy Qur’an says no soul is responsible for the sins of another? What of the Islamic rulings on the prohibition of humans administering punishment with fire?
In all honesty, the Nigerian police need to do more in bringing the perpetrators of such acts to justice. The Islamic scholars and community leaders ought to buckle up on enlightening the populace on the illegality of such acts in Islam. The perpetrators should understand that loving Islam alone without knowing it is not enough an ingredient to heaven because ignorance is not an excuse.
Yahaya Idris, Abuja.