Presentation to Confab delegates

God is not a religious bigot:As people representing faith in God from an Islamic perspective, we believe that God will protect a community that stands by justice even if they are not Muslims; and God will not protect an unjust community even if they call themselves Muslims. God is not a religious bigot. He is […]

God is not a religious bigot:
As people representing faith in God from an Islamic perspective, we believe that God will protect a community that stands by justice even if they are not Muslims; and God will not protect an unjust community even if they call themselves Muslims.
God is not a religious bigot. He is not a racist ornepotic ethnocentric tribalist. He is not a male chauvinist, and He is not the oppressor of anyone. God is with the just, the compassionate, the forgiving and the loving. God is with the peace-makers!
There is a tendency among some of us with religious inclinations to slide into the belief that we are better and a bit more human than others. We develop a form of spiritual arrogance where we tend to over-estimate our own virtues and under-estimate the good in others; when others are just people like us, with their own fears, doubts, uncertainties and weaknesses. Had God so willed, anyone of us could have been born into a family bearing the religious or ethnic identity that we look down upon.
Who do we serve? Our divided loyalties:
As we proceed with this conference, we need to be careful how we handle the dilemma of our divided loyalties. While claiming to serve God, there is the real tendency for us to become more loyal to our religious groups and communities, than to the teachings of our religions; to be more loyal to serving our ethnic or religious ties, affiliation and identity, than to serving the values and ideals of our faiths and ethnic groups which are the universal values of justice, compassion, godliness, truth, service and the common good of all. We sometimes unwittingly end up submitting to the will of our angry and bitter constituencies and religious groups instead of submitting to the will of our compassionate God while guiding our constituencies.
We often delude ourselves into believing that God is our own dedicated fan, and the leader of our supporters’ club. If God says anything good in scripture about people, we are ever so ready to conclude that He is talking about us – His chosen ones! And if He says anything bad about people, He must definitely be talking about the others! As if we know better than Him who His sincere servants really are, we are quick to judge others with our prejudices.
If being religious means affiliating better with the prejudiced and angry will of our people and constituencies, then let us not be religious.Let us instead be good, godly and righteous. We should stand for justice even if it is against ourselves and our followership; and we should not let our own hatred of others make us deviate or swerve from justice. Justice is closest to godliness and God’s right over us takes precedence over any other!
We condemn all murder and murderers:
It is in this vein, and as a delegate of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs that we condemn the murder and murderers of all Christians; just as we condemn the murder and murderers of all Muslims. Not because they are Christians or Muslims, but because they are innocent human beings and creatures of God. We condemn all injustice!
The Right to Self-determination:
There is no compulsion in religion. All people have a right to self-determination as citizens of Nigeria. We are a multi-religious and pluralistic society. People should live and let live, give and take; and respect the rights of others to live by their own laws and the dictates of their respective faiths. The Nigerian constitution is our negotiated treaty and pact for a more peaceful and progressive co-existence.Weare here altogether to try and negotiate better win-win arrangements for everyone. This we believe will make Nigeria a better home for every peace-loving person, and one that is worthy of our unreserved love and patriotism.
To this conference, we as Muslims and delegates of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs come in peace, as friends, to solve our common challenges. We do not come as adversaries, viewing the other as the problem. We remind ourselves as we remind each other, that we should try our best to love for others what we would love for ourselves, and to hate for others what we would hate for ourselves. This is the Golden Rule we all believe in as part of the universal ideals of our respective faiths.
Our Diversity, Minorities and the Rule of Law:
Many other countries and societies live with an even greater ethnic, racial, regional and religious diversity than we do. They also have differences between indigenes and settlers or migrants, between the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, minorities and majorities, and between political parties. Yet they live in relative peace and well-being. The critical difference however between us and them is in the respect given to the Rule of Law and in particular, the rights of minorities.
The devil or Lucifer lives and thrives where there are cracks in the Rule of Law. Where there is sufficient respect for the Rule of Law it becomes easy to ensure that religious bigotry or ethnic nepotism and any other unfair discrimination is corrected and neutralised as soon as it lifts its ugly head.
Majorities are minorities somewhere:
We are all beneficiaries of justice, fairness and equity. Every group is an oppressed minority somewhere! Every majority is a religious and ethnic minority somewhere! Every indigene is settler somewhere! In fact, everyone is a settler or migrant wherever they may be. Most of us just can’t remember where we originally came from, when we arrived and who we might have displaced when we first came! In reality none of us owns this planet or any part of it. Ultimately each one of us is just a temporary settler before we go back to answer to our Creator regarding our behavior towards eachother. From God we come, and to Him we must return!
As representatives of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and as Muslim delegates to this National Conference, wecome here to stand against the exploitation of religion and the religious sentiments of people; against the stereotyping, stigmatizing and dehumanizing of any group of Nigerians; and against the use of religion as a political decoy and distraction from the real issues that bedevil our society.
Thank you very much for your attention and patience. God bless you all, and God bless Nigeria. Thank you!