Maulud: A message of unity (II)
I told him that as a founding member of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN we believe in promoting the unity of Muslims. We made it a FOMWAN tradition not to create divisions by identifying our members with their Tariqa, Izala or Shia leanings. As a journalist, I attend all Islamic events […]
I told him that as a founding member of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN we believe in promoting the unity of Muslims. We made it a FOMWAN tradition not to create divisions by identifying our members with their Tariqa, Izala or Shia leanings. As a journalist, I attend all Islamic events where I can advance the frontiers of knowledge. I was invited to the Maulud celebration organised by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria Zaria on January 17 2014 to present a paper on Jewish Conspiracy to Sabotage Islam. My paper stressed that Maulud celebration was a time for reflection for the Muslims worldwide, an appropriate time to discuss problems affecting Muslims in general. The paper discussed two issues, secularism and insecurity. It explained that the enemies of Islam who introduced secularism- separating religion and state, in the Muslim world did it to divert Muslims from the course of Islam. Sharia is the opposite of secularism as it has laws governing all aspects of human endeavour. People are called fundamentalists when they reject secularism or want to implement Sharia in their daily life.
Due to massive media propaganda, Islam and Muslims are demonised and labelled as terrorists and intolerant of other faith. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The paper cited a WikiLeaks report which said, Boko Haram is a Western creation which blossomed after infiltrating and later hijacking a group from a people who called themselves Jama’atil Ahlus Sunnah Wad da’wah. Wikileaks revealed that this was done to counter Nigeria’s impressive peace keeping role and influence in West Africa.
The WikiLeaks report which was circulated by a group of Concerned Nigerians on the internet network of the Oracle group provided detailed explanation of how Boko Haram was hijacked and the name used to perpetuate all sorts of atrocities and how the perpetrators got their weapons.
The paper stressed that knowledge and scientific discovery is the heritage of Islam which were taken from the advanced libraries of Muslim civilisation during the wars imposed on the Islamic community in Andalusia (Spain). At that time, Islam had made great strides in science and technology, Europe was still living in the pre industrial, medieval civilisation and burning scientists and scholars at the stake. The paper called on all to seek knowledge so that Muslims can write their own books and promote technological advancement of their people.
The paper cited a Concerned Muslim Group’s report which explained that wars and crises are created by the global elites to manipulate the world adding that the creation of Al-Qaida by the CIA was aimed at combating communism in Afghanistan but the fighters later turned against their funders after expelling the communists. The CIA had to create an excuse to fight them which was Al-Qaida just like the conspiracy about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which did not exist.
The paper called on Muslims to rise up in the defence of Islam by exposing all evil deeds adding that the current attack on Christians and churches in Nigeria was nothing but a plan to cause crises between Muslims and Christians and to give Muslims a bad name. The paper called on Muslims and Christians to join hand together in unity for peace and progress.
In his closing remarks, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, said the creation of Nigeria by the colonial masters over 100 years ago was for their own interest, to divide and rule the people. The border between countries was arbitrarily drawn to separate people from the same communities. Muslims in Nigeria were separated from their relations in the neighbouring Niger, Cameroon, and Chad Republics. He noted that the old Borno Empire extended to vast areas in Cameroun, Chad and parts of Niger Republic.
He said ‘the current problems facing us are created to destabilise people and instil fear and insecurity in their minds so that the looting of our country’s vast resources can continue with ease while theft of resources from extractive industries can become the order of the day. The agenda is to keep the people poor and powerless while their cronies dominate positions of power and take decisions that will continue to favour them’.
The Sheikh disclosed that ‘in the name of providing security, millions of dollars are given away to Israel and USA who deploy security personnel to Nigeria. In the process more chaos is created even by those hired to protect us. They go around creating havoc, they are free to use all kind of uniforms- either Military, Police or Mobile Police uniforms.’
‘It has now very clear and everyone knows those who are behind Boko Haram. Only a fool would say he does not know them. The Sheikh lamented that ‘the most unfortunate aspect of it is the fact that they are misusing the religion of Islam to achieve their aim and thereby giving the religion a bad name.’
The Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky called on the audience to look inwards for solution to their problems and steer away from relying on the current crop of so called leaders. ‘They cannot offer solutions to problems facing the people because they are the oppressors. They are installed by their foreign collaborators and their masters within the country. They have a sadist agenda of entrenching bad governance and denying good people access to power. Instead they search for the dregs and moral outcasts of the society; people of doubtful parentage who are baked and dyed in immorality and entrust them with power. How can we expect anything good from these oppressors who call themselves our leaders?’ Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky called on Muslims ‘to return to the path of truth and realize that the solution to our problem can be found in the life story Seerah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). His people nicknamed him Al-Amin (the trustworthy). He was called the trustworthy because everyone in the society testified to his honesty and upright conduct. The same is true of our country today. Those who can bring about the much needed change are not the dregs and scum of the people but the upright and good ones among them. The religion of Islam is the solution and even the so called leaders are aware its reforming spirit and the progress it brings wherever it is established. They are bent on sabotaging it but the promise of Allah will be fulfilled in spite of their antics.’