THE declaration of November 15 a public holiday to mark the commencement of the Islamic year in Osun State has set off major alarm bells that cannot be ignored. The Governor of the State, Rauf Aregbesola, rather took his dalliance with religion a step further when he claimed that Hejira marks the beginning of the lunar calendar “that Muslim faithful use for their programmes and should be accorded its due respect like the first day of January.” The decision was odd and totally uncalled for.

http://www.punchng.com/editorial/aregbesolas-strange-holiday-in-osun/

Re: "Aregbesola's Strange Holiday in Osun"
- A Vicious Editorial of The PUNCH

The National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) views with serious concern the malicious subjectivity and vicious deception inherent in The PUNCH editorial of Tuesday, November 20, 2012 (p.18).

This misguided editorial, provocatively titled "Aregbesola's strange holiday in Osun", was primed to incite religious hatred and create an orgy of violence which the newspaper would have used to justify its habitual characterisation of Muslims as fundamentalists.

We will therefore urge Muslims to remain calm, despite the provocation, as The PUNCH cannot claim to be acting for, and on behalf of, our Christian brothers and sisters, nor indeed people of other beliefs. If anything, our grievances on this editorial should be directly at the newspaper in an enlightened manner.

To do otherwise is to assist this biased newspaper achieve its sinister motive at the expense of a blossoming inter-faith brotherhood being jointly promoted by Muslim and Christian leaders in the country. And for this, we will give credits to the Sultan, His Eminence, Alhaji (Dr) Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar and, not the arrogant pro-establishment and ethno-centric cleric but, the respected former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN), His Eminence, Dr. John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja.

To start with, we were not surprised that The PUNCH dismissed as "odd and totally uncalled for" the declaration of November 15 as public holiday in Osun State to mark the commencement of Islamic lunar calendar year (1434 Hijrah). The newspaper's argument had proceeded from a perverted logic that "many predominantly Muslim states do not even have public holidays for hejira" (sic). This blatant falsehood against Muslim countries cited by the newspaper is a non-sequitur fallacy, which is akin to saying that a good action is bad because not many people are doing it; or that a bad action is good because many people are doing it.

It is rather curious that the same morbid disinformation, that was peddled in the ridiculous editorial, was echoed by one Niyi Akinnaso in his "thinking with you" back page column in The PUNCH edition of November 27, 2012.

For the avoidance of doubt, Hijrah is remarkably significant to Islam both in form and content, and it represents for Muslims an epoch-making phenomenon that culminated in the rapid expansion of Islam from Madinah. The Hijrah which gave rise to the exemplary egalitarian community in Madinah actually laid the foundation for mutual understanding and peaceful co-habitation of Muslims with the people of other beliefs, especially the Christians and Jews.

Hence, as Islam frowns at wantonly ostentatious celebrations it does not forbids that a remarkable event as the Hijrah be marked in a solemn way, as enviably demonstrated this year by Osun State under Governor AbduRauf Aregbesola.

We make bold to say that the first of Muharram can as well be regarded as the universal human rights day; for it is the day of emigration of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) from Makkah to Madina. The Hijrah symbolizes for Muslims, the movement from dehumanizing oppression to liberty, the escape from danger to security, the transformation from ignorance to knowledge, the abandonment of corruption for adoption of accountability, the eradication of infantile mortality for promotion of child health care, the disentanglement of women from the bestiality of Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic era) to their adornment with divine rights, and the general transmutation of humanity from all manifestations of evil to the light of Islam. This is why, and where, The PUNCH got it wrong.

But having failed to convince itself, and confuse the public, that the Hijrah holiday was undeserved, the newspaper resorted to the logic of vicarious penalty. Yes, it may have been said that "Nigeria is known for too many holidays", and it may also be right to argue, as the newspaper did, that "excessive public holidays cause productivity slow down and set the economy back", but then The PUNCH was merely being dishonest and only playing the ostrich.

If the newspaper were sincere, it would have listed all the public holidays being observed in Nigeria, including Saturdays and Sundays, in order to identify the ones that are truly none faith-based and then set the agenda for national discourse on the number of faith-based public holidays to be observed.

If we all agree, Nigeria can then follow the footsteps of Portugal which, according to The PUNCH, "cancelled four public holidays from its national calendar". The radical implication of this is that, aside the three holidays that are truly national - the independence day, labour day and, lately, democracy day - Nigeria may adopt only one official work free day in a week and a total of four or six faith-based annual public holidays, justly shared.

As it were, the unjust imposition of Saturday and Sunday as work free days can no longer be sustained because the two days are certainly faith-based holidays, and we do not need any nobel laureate to pontificate on this. The dictionary.com, "the largest and most authoritative online dictionary", says Saturday is regarded as Sabbath which is "the seventh day of the week, following Friday"; and it is also "the day of rest and religious observance among Jews and some Christians". For effect, the dictionary.com says "Friday is the Muslim sabbath"! And with regards to Sunday, it says "it is the first day of the week, observed as the Sabbath by most Christian sects".

Given the above fact, it should be noted that Muslims in Nigeria have merely tolerated the unfair status quo of the current national calendar of public holidays. We have not accepted it, and we will not hesitate to challenge it, if need be, notwithstanding the unethical conducts of The PUNCH.

For a publication that prides itself, nay misguidedly, as "the most widely read newspaper", and even publishes the professional code of ethics as a daily ritual, it is rather amazing that The PUNCH is not striving to be the most factual, credible and balanced. Instead, it continues to wallow in a parochial campaign of hate against Islam without regards to the very ethical principles of "factual, balanced and fair reporting" and, especially, in this case, fair "commentaries".

Nonetheless, we were encouraged by the prompt reactions of people of other beliefs who have rightly dismissed The PUNCH editorial as utterly irresponsible and have even berated the newspaper for exhibiting this level of hatred towards Islam and Muslims. Already the CAN Chairman in Osun State, Superior Evangelist Abraham Aladeseye has declared that Christians were not against the Hijrah public holiday.

This reaction, in itself, shows that The PUNCH has failed woefully in its disguised attempt to instigate religious war in an otherwise peaceful state, more so, as the issue of public holidays is one on which Muslims and Christian have developed mutual respect. If, with all its arrogance, The PUNCH can exhibit such a crass ignorance of simple issue as Hijrah celebration, who again will ever trust its news reports/judgements and editorial commentaries when the integrity crisis that shrouded the recent exit of its top editors is still fresh in the court of public opinion.

NACOMYO will continue to monitor The PUNCH and all its cohorts across the nation who are in the guardian and vanguard of anti-Islam crusade. The newspaper must be refrain from surreptitious actions that may threaten the peaceful co-existence of all citizens, as brothers and sisters, in a just and united Nigeria.

Alhaji Mustapha B. Balogun
Chairman, Southern Zone & National Vice President II, NACOMYO