Religious tolerance is a necessary component for coexistence and social progress. This is key in a multi-religious setting like Nigeria, where the dominant religions are acclaimed to be equal in number of faithfuls. The surge in the advocacy of Religious tolerance is a recent development which is less than 3 decades old, it is however not a new term to those who are honest and are not blind to facts which are as clear as summer sunshine.
The increase in terrorism especially in guise of religion has propelled the debate of Religious intolerance into public domain, Islam being the main target of those attacks. While it is indisputable that most terror attacks are carried out in the name of Islam, it is incorrect to label Islam as an intolerant religion. Historical facts are there for those who care to verify.
The need to defend Islam has led to a term which is novel to Islam and to the world at large, called “Moderate Islam”. This is commonly used to describe Muslims who are willing to downplay the principles, symbols and laws of Islam in order to present Islam as a tolerant religion which is dynamic enough to accommodate modern thoughts even if it goes against the very nature of Islam itself. These sets of “moderate Muslims”, sometimes referred to as liberal Muslims, can go as far as redefining Islam or sometimes denying its core values in order to please others. A recent example is that of a British Muslim of Arab decent who denies the existence of Islamophobia, he claims that what we have is anti Muslim sentiments which Muslims have brought upon themselves by not holding the deviant Muslims responsible for their actions. This makes me wonder which planet he came from. Even the blind can feel the hatred and attacks that Muslims have come to face in recent times just for sticking to their beliefs and refusing to dilute their Islam. Only the deaf will say the Muslims have not made efforts to distance themselves from the senseless attacks on innocents citizens of the world in the name of Islam. One cannot be too surprised by such comments mainly because he is just one of the thousands of Muslims who think being tagged a moderate Muslim in itself is an accolade.
Contrary to the perception of many, before a group can be tagged as intolerant, it must be clear that they have not been provoked. There usually exists an understanding between groups of people who share a space and have decided to coexist peacefully. Red lines must be known so that they will not be crossed. It is when those are established and no provocation is made, that we can have the legitimate right to label a group as intolerant. We cannot expect someone who has been cheated and abused to be quiet. This is not tolerance, this is foolishness. It is important to note that a mockery of the symbols of Islam is a red line, so how can we then misrepresent the symbols of Islam and then expect Muslims to be quiet. Equity bequests that we take an individual for who he is. It is injustice to claim that I am intolerant solely because what you find acceptable to you is found to be an insult to me. If an American chooses to call his father by his first name, will it be justice to accuse a Yoruba father of being intolerant solely because he refuses to accept the same from his son? This is why I find it insane and malicious for someone to accuse a Muslim of intolerance simply because his religion does not permit its symbols to be misrepresented even for satirical purposes. How then do we place the “This is Nigeria” music video that displays Hijab wearing females to be dancing in an unacceptable manner for the Muslims. It is not known to be the attitude of Muslim women who wear the hijab to dance in such manner and to such tunes especially in public. This is insulting and is a misrepresentation of a symbol of Islam. If the Christians do not feel insulted by the way pastors were represented in the music videos, should Muslims be maligned for opposing the misrepresentation of a symbol of their faith? This is injustice and it is in itself an act of intolerance by the musician himself. Not accepting that our action can have an effect on the emotions of others is an intolerant behavior. Therefore Muslims have every right to express their grievances as displayed by a statement made public earlier in the week by a popular Muslim organisation. It is therefore an abnormality to find another “Muslim group” coming out to shame themselves by antagonizing the earlier public statement. This is not new, as we have seen several before who take the slightest opportunity to be tagged as Moderate Muslims.
It is imperative for the society and the world at large to understand that the only way to achieve religious tolerance is for people to know religious red lines for what they are. No one accuses a Hindi of Religious intolerance for killing a Muslim in possession of beef, why should Muslims be criticized for refusing to see their prophet depicted in a cartoon? Only when we respect boundaries can we achieve peaceful coexistence.