Dear muslims,
Salaam,

We are all Nigerians, whether muslim or christian or pagan. We are all one irrespective of tribe or religion. However, I write this letter with anger and disappointment. I am disappointed and angry at the ease at which extremists have found a stronghold within the religion of islam and have used it to cause terror and mayhem to people in the north. This issue of islamic extremism is really dividing Nigeria into different parts faster than tribalism or the greed for oil have ever done to Nigeria. Concurrently, I am going to use the christian response to El Rufai's tweet concerning Jesus to highlight a possible solution to this case of religious extremism. I believe that muslims can learn from our christian brethren's reactions to the tweet.

First of all, we have to establish three facts. The first fact is that I am not a christian or a believer in God, and so, I am not trying to preach a religion or promote christianity in this letter. The second fact is that christianity and many other religions are not totally innocent when it comes to extremism as well. The third fact, which is the most important, is that islamic extremism does not top at Boko Haram; there are islamic youths and clerics who engage in dangerous activities that are destructive to the fabric of our society.

Now, that we have established these facts, we can now dive into the issue at hand; what muslims can learn from the christian handling of the El Rufai tweet. El Rufai made an expensive joke on twitter that had the punchline of Jesus sleeping with Mary Madgalene even though the point of the joke was to ridicule the staunch defenders of the current Nigerian president. There was a christian backlash on twitter and on the internet because of the perceived blasphemy emanating from the tweet. I want to clearly stress it out that there were no violent riots on the streets of Lagos or Port Harcourt in reaction the perceived blasphemy towards the revered figure of Jesus Christ. This is in direct contrast to reactions to anti-islamic messages where riots claimed the lives of innocent people(for example; the riots against the 2002 Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeri and against the Danish cartoons in 2006 that claimed the livesof innocent Nigerians). I will advance the argument that Muslims can learn from this difference in reaction which stems from a reformed view in christianity and other modern religions towards a more humanistic approach in faith.


Muslims should have meetings with their youths and clerics to preach a more peaceful and humanistic version of islam. It should be reiterated 5 times a day from clerics and imams that killing for a religion is wrong and that one should reply words with words not violence. You wouldn't find a christian preacher or pastor in Nigeria condoning the killing of a blasphemer or an unbeliever or calling for violence. Infact, Christian leaders have reacted and called for an apology from El Rufai without threats or violence. The reason for this different approach from Nigerian christian goes beyond the roots of christianity in Nigeria. The reason is a simple reformation in religion towards a more enlightened and less barbaric way of spreading and experiencing faith.

Before christianity was properly spread in Nigeria by the British in the 19th century, there were numerous wars which almost destroyed Europe in the preceding centuries and christianity almost "out-crusaded" itself. There was also a growing age of enlightenment from the 17th century. The experience of the wars and enlightenment forced christianity to take religion a little less fantaically as more humanistic ideals were followed. Principles of personal liberty and fredom of expression were gaining popularity in the 18th century. With time, some progressive ideals became associated with christianity in the 19th century.

The point of the historical trip back to some centuries ago is to advice muslims to understand that faith can only succeed if it becomes progressive. I am not saying that the fundamentals of islam should be changed. I am saying that Nigerian muslims should practice their religion in a more peaceful way with the times . I have mentioned that more work has to be done with youths and cleric to keep promoting non-violent approaches to those who insult islam- either simple worded replies/complaints to the blasphemer/heretic or mediation between both parties. The simple way to do this is for the most popular imams or clerics to be given directives by the leaders in the society or government to preach tolerance to non-muslims and different sects of muslims 5 times a day.

There are other solutions which I want to offer;
-Making and sharing pamphlets to the youth on how to relate to non-muslims peacefully and how to peacefully react to anti-islamic issues.
-Creating activities and jobs at mosques for the youth so that idle ones wont have a chance to be recruited by terrorist/extremist groups
-Spreading the message that non-muslims in the north are still you Nigerian brethren and should be treated with respect.
-Creating television/radio programs to address the issues above in order to reach millions.


I hope my words have given some muslims a reason to think about how their religion is practiced in Nigeria. I choose to believe that there are good muslims who want a change. However, work has to be done to make that change happen. I will end this letter with a quote from Muhammad

"A perfect Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands mankind is safe."


Cheers,
Logicboy

I hope MacLa2Ban doesn't hide this....

Logicboy03:

"A perfect Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands mankind is safe."


Cheers,
Logicboy

Mankind is safe? Euphemism!

Good morning Logicboy,

You deserve commendation for this well constructed letter and I do hope it meets its intended purpose.

Though you don't believe in God but I say may the good Lord bless and reward you for this.

PS: Moderators front page pls!

Thank you!

musKeeto: I hope MacLa2Ban doesn't hide this....

Good morning muskeeto,

Where was this post created? I believe it's in the 'general religion' section and not the 'Islam for moslems' section.

If it was moved from the 'Islam for moslem' section then it is indeed a poor showing and it definitely sends out the wrong message.

Goodmorning,

Usually, threads addressed to the muslim community are moved to McLa2Ban's mini-island where free speech is limited to pro-Islam comments...

Unfortunately, that's the way it is.

To the matter at hand, let's learn to live in peace with one another and let God fight his battles and kill those who blashpheme.

musKeeto: Goodmorning,

Usually, threads addressed to the muslim community are moved to McLa2Ban's mini-island where free speech is limited to pro-Islam comments...

Muskeeto didn't know you could be this funny. I actually laughed when I read the quote above...***Mr. Tunji I mean no disrespect here***

But I noticed that Mr. Tunji is only against criticisms that are not well constructed but again I have not seen every post he has hidden so I limit my assessment to those I have seen.

PS: Sorry logicboy for derailing...

musKeeto: To the matter at hand, let's learn to live in peace with one another and let God fight his battles and kill those who blashpheme.

I agree with you totally on the above. We should learn to live in peace and allow God fight his battles. We don't need to kill in God's name to show that he is mighty in battle.

But again, I am of the opinion that if we must criticize any religion or those who do not practice religion, it should be done constructively and not 'recklessly'. This however is not an excuse for one to kill in God's name.


Thank you!

Nice one jhor... Wish dem imams/oda muslims(d 1s hu bliv anytin an imam says without reasoning) go try reason am.

Only one reading the koran with the eyes of faith could seriously disregard that the book on almost every page instructs observant muslims to despise non believers. On almost every page, it prepares the ground for religious conflict.

musKeeto: Goodmorning,

To the matter at hand, let's learn to live in peace with one another and let God fight his battles and kill those who blashpheme.

I really wonder why people go about killing and fighting people who blaspheme against their supposedly all powerful god that is said to be able to do all things. . .Leave god to fight his battles alone, he doesn't need your help. . . .

Logicboy you fall my hand seriously with this letter. When have you become a better-religious-society advocate? I was expecting you to be preaching a way to eradicate islam from the earth's surface and here you are urging them to become more attractive.

To your letter,
-if islam changes its non violent ways, it will no longer be islam but another docile religion.
-are mosques now to become employment offices? what do we have government for?

Please Logicboy, continue spreading atheism and leave "religious tolerance" (oxymoron) to hypocrites.

Wow, this is essentially illogical rants:

1. El Rufia tweets got to how many? Compared to the thisday publication?at least nairaland which has a greater reach than el rufia tweet followers, yet no muslim have ever engage in riot what so ever, because of the numerous blasphemy our ever so "tolerant" op engages in. The op indeed is an epic fail in this regard

2. Riots in the Northern part of the country is the hand work of street urchins who use it as a pretext to loot the property of non muslims.

3. Whenever Government is willing to do something about the poverty situation in the north, riots will definately be a thing of the past!

4. Most Northern elite prefer to do nothing about poverty in the north! Mazaje claims to be Hausa man who has 1 miilion dols in his account yet the money is preferably left in a bank account than helping the poor, sadly this is how most so called northern muslim elite have preferred the status quo to be maintained, poverty in the north is the $ajor fuel for conflict that is why you rarely hear of such in places like Saudi, Qater, the UAE etc!

5. The op lies when he assumes nothing is being done by muslims especially in this regards towards fighting extremism (imagine the ignoramus calling BH fundamentalism when clearly it is extremism) of course the OP has never attended any mosque in the north to know any of what is being done.

6. Strong government, until the government deal with the criminals who go about killing non muslims, the isssue will keep repeating itself, government has sowed impunity by not metting out punishment to this criminal elements. Of course our "tolerant" op really does not know what he is talking about!

advocate666: Logicboy you fall my hand seriously with this letter. When have you become a better-religious-society advocate? I was expecting you to be preaching a way to eradicate islam from the earth's surface and here you are urging them to become more attractive.

To your letter,
-if islam changes its non violent ways, it will no longer be islam but another docile religion.
-are mosques now to become employment offices? what do we have government for?

Please Logicboy, continue spreading atheism and leave "religious tolerance" (oxymoron) to hypocrites.

Oga advocate you don fall my hand and leg join! Lol!!!

But seriously, what is more important to you? Seeing the death of religion or ensuring that a wrong is corrected?

The fact that logicboy decided to come out with this letter portrays him as one who is trully concerned about the terrible situation in Nigeria as regards religious extremism.

If you are concerned that this will have a negative effect on your perceived goals of eliminating religion, I will say your fears are unfounded cause this has the tendency of making those who "sit on the fence" listen more to logicboy when he speaks against religion.

I do hope we come to realise that religion is "bad" because people are bad. The sooner we get people to be good the sooner we can boast of the goodness of religion.


Thank you!

As-salamu Alaykum vedaxcool,

Sorry to say but your reponse is definitely not helping the cause of Islam.


Salam!

vedaxcool: Wow, this is essentially illogical rants:

1. El Rufia tweets got to how many? Compared to the thisday publication?at least nairaland which has a greater reach than el rufia tweet followers, yet no muslim have ever engage in riot what so ever, because of the numerous blasphemy our ever so "tolerant" op engages in. The op indeed is an epic fail in this regard

2. Riots in the Northern part of the country is the hand work of street urchins who use it as a pretext to loot the property of non muslims.

3. Whenever Government is willing to do something about the poverty situation in the north, riots will definately be a thing of the past!

4. Most Northern elite prefer to do nothing about poverty in the north! Mazaje claims to be Hausa man who has 1 miilion dols in his account yet the money is preferably left in a bank account than helping the poor, sadly this is how most so called northern muslim elite have preferred the status quo to be maintained, poverty in the north is the $ajor fuel for conflict that is why you rarely hear of such in places like Saudi, Qater, the UAE etc!

5. The op lies when he assumes nothing is being done by muslims especially in this regards towards fighting extremism (imagine the ignoramus calling BH fundamentalism when clearly it is extremism) of course the OP has never attended any mosque in the north to know any of what is being done.

6. Strong government, until the government deal with the criminals who go about killing non muslims, the isssue will keep repeating itself, government has sowed impunity by not metting out punishment to this criminal elements. Of course our "tolerant" op really does not know what he is talking about!

The only sense u made(no offense) is number 4.. Asides that, ur weeded up!! *sure of it

vedaxcool: Wow, this is essentially illogical rants:

1. El Rufia tweets got to how many? Compared to the thisday publication?at least nairaland which has a greater reach than el rufia tweet followers, yet no muslim have ever engage in riot what so ever, because of the numerous blasphemy our ever so "tolerant" op engages in. The op indeed is an epic fail in this regard

2. Riots in the Northern part of the country is the hand work of street urchins who use it as a pretext to loot the property of non muslims.

3. Whenever Government is willing to do something about the poverty situation in the north, riots will definately be a thing of the past!

4. Most Northern elite prefer to do nothing about poverty in the north! Mazaje claims to be Hausa man who has 1 miilion dols in his account yet the money is preferably left in a bank account than helping the poor, sadly this is how most so called northern muslim elite have preferred the status quo to be maintained, poverty in the north is the $ajor fuel for conflict that is why you rarely hear of such in places like Saudi, Qater, the UAE etc!

5. The op lies when he assumes nothing is being done by muslims especially in this regards towards fighting extremism (imagine the ignoramus calling BH fundamentalism when clearly it is extremism) of course the OP has never attended any mosque in the north to know any of what is being done.

6. Strong government, until the government deal with the criminals who go about killing non muslims, the isssue will keep repeating itself, government has sowed impunity by not metting out punishment to this criminal elements. Of course our "tolerant" op really does not know what he is talking about!

The only sense u made(no offense) is number 4.. Asides that, ur weeded up!! *sure of it

I love this thread!

I hope this turns out to be another epic battle. Hihu!B-)

Thats why christianity is on a diferent level with others and the only true way of life.

striktlymi: Good morning Logicboy,

You deserve commendation for this well constructed letter and I do hope it meets its intended purpose.

Though you don't believe in God but I say may the good Lord bless and reward you for this.

PS: Moderators front page pls!

Thank you!

I concur a 100%! Our Logicboy is quite an intelligent youngman.

Moderators, front page o!!!

vedaxcool:
Wow, this is essentially illogical rants:

Great introduction... now we know what to expect..

vedaxcool:
El Rufia tweets got to how many? Compared to the thisday publication?at least nairaland which has a greater reach than el rufia tweet followers, yet no muslim have ever engage in riot what so ever, because of the numerous blasphemy our ever so "tolerant" op engages in. The op indeed is an epic fail in this regard

Makes a lot of sense, considering that logicboy is more popular in Nigeria than el-rufai...

vedaxcool:
Riots in the Northern part of the country is the hand work of street urchins who use it as a pretext to loot the property of non muslims.

Lol, following from your illogical rant intro, this maintains the pace.... So they attack 'non-muslims', I sincerely hope you're brilliant enough (IQ just below 40) to realise you just shot yourself in the foot..

vedaxcool:
Whenever Government is willing to do something about the poverty situation in the north, riots will definately be a thing of the past!

And this poverty is only limited to the North? The rest of Nigeria is land of milk and honey, abi? Or poverty should be used as an excuse to keep killing non-muslims?

vedaxcool:
Most Northern elite prefer to do nothing about poverty in the north! Mazaje claims to be Hausa man who has 1 miilion dols in his account yet the money is preferably left in a bank account than helping the poor, sadly this is how most so called northern muslim elite have preferred the status quo to be maintained, poverty in the north is the $ajor fuel for conflict that is why you rarely hear of such in places like Saudi, Qater, the UAE etc!

But this leads them to kill Non-Muslims... Are their leaders not Muslims? Why take out your anger on Non-Muslims? This makes no sense whatsoever, but considering your intro, I'm not disappointed.

vedaxcool:
The op lies when he assumes nothing is being done by muslims especially in this regards towards fighting extremism (imagine the ignoramus calling BH fundamentalism when clearly it is extremism) of course the OP has never attended any mosque in the north to know any of what is being done.

Please tell us what's being done, and if it has been effective so far... please get back to us before the next BH bomb goes off...

vedaxcool:
Strong government, until the government deal with the criminals who go about killing non muslims, the isssue will keep repeating itself, government has sowed impunity by not metting out punishment to this criminal elements. Of course our "tolerant" op really does not know what he is talking about!

Here's how I see it : you woke up this morning, performed your ablutions hopefully, logged into NL and saw LOGICBOY and ISLAM... commonsense dropped and your hatred (the exact same hatred BH has for everything progressive) consumed you. One has to suspect that if you ever meet lb in person, you'd kill him.

My advise: call up tbaba and ask him to read the OP and explain it to you. He's one of the few guys in there who has any sense left...

jammyng: Thats why christianity is on a diferent level with others and the only true way of life.

Sharrap!!!!

una turn go soon reach again..

striktlymi:

Oga advocate you don fall my hand and leg join! Lol!!!

But seriously, what is more important to you? Seeing the death of religion or ensuring that a wrong is corrected?

The fact that logicboy decided to come out with this letter portrays him as one who is trully concerned about the terrible situation in Nigeria as regards religious extremism.

If you are concerned that this will have a negative effect on your perceived goals of eliminating religion, I will say your fears are unfounded cause this has the tendency of making those who "sit on the fence" listen more to logicboy when he speaks against religion.

I do hope we come to realise that religion is "bad" because people are bad. The sooner we get people to be good the sooner we can boast of the goodness of religion.


Thank you!

Mr striklumi, ya head dey dia. Abeg chop knuckle!!

striktlymi:

Oga advocate you don fall my hand and leg join! Lol!!!

But seriously, what is more important to you? Seeing the death of religion or ensuring that a wrong is corrected?

The fact that logicboy decided to come out with this letter portrays him as one who is trully concerned about the terrible situation in Nigeria as regards religious extremism.

If you are concerned that this will have a negative effect on your perceived goals of eliminating religion, I will say your fears are unfounded cause this has the tendency of making those who "sit on the fence" listen more to logicboy when he speaks against religion.

I do hope we come to realise that religion is "bad" because people are bad. The sooner we get people to be good the sooner we can boast of the goodness of religion.


Thank you!

The best thing to do a virus is eliminate it. You don't make friends with it. You don't abandon your responsibilities to it. You certainly don't try to make it change to become more tolerant.

Reforming islamism will only be a prolongation of the inevitable: total destruction.

When a cancer becomes threatening, a radical situation is required. Treating it softly softly will only result in the death of the patience. The blackman's only chance of advancement and survival remains the elimination ALL religions.

advocate666:
The black man's only chance of advancement and survival remains the elimination ALL religions.

Including Satanism abi? Abi dat one too na way of life?

musKeeto:
Including Satanism abi? Abi dat one too na way of life?

I was going to add except Satanism, but I knew I would be misunderstood. You just proved it.

advocate666:

I was going to add except Satanism, but I knew I would be misunderstood. You just proved it.

vedaxcool: Wow, this is essentially illogical rants:

1. El Rufia tweets got to how many? Compared to the thisday publication?at least nairaland which has a greater reach than el rufia tweet followers, yet no muslim have ever engage in riot what so ever, because of the numerous blasphemy our ever so "tolerant" op engages in. The op indeed is an epic fail in this regard

It doesn't matter, what matters is that the word of his blasphemy got out, it made news, yet no christian went about killing muslims because of what he said. . .How many muslims read the Danish cartoon publications in far away denmark before they went on rampage killing others, how many actually read the thisday news paper?. . .Sometime you need to read the nonsense you type before posting. . .

2. Riots in the Northern part of the country is the hand work of street urchins who use it as a pretext to loot the property of non muslims.

It is tacitly and actively supported my the religious leaders and some of the politicians. . .Celebrated imams like shiek Gumi and others promote hate and violence againt non muslims. . .I am a Hausa man from Kano and I KNOW very well what I am takling about, most religious riots occur on fridays, when muslims go to the mosque and are encouraged by their imams to take up arms and run wild because injustice has been done to islam or muslims. . .Back in the days(2002/2003) and still today, in some parts of the north you will see soldiers escorting muslims out of their placees of worship on fridays when there is tension because they know that they usually begin their madness after assembling and listening to their imams that love preaching hate. The average muslim in the north refers to any body that is a non muslim as an "Arne" which is a derogatory word for an unbeliever. I am a Hausa man and you can NEVER tell me what I know because I am one of them. . .

3. Whenever Government is willing to do something about the poverty situation in the north, riots will definately be a thing of the past!

Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Mali, Afghanistan, etc where muslims are fighting in the name of islam and because of islam, nko?. . .Was Osama Bin Laden a poor man?. . .What about Mutallab?. . .You clearly do NOT know what you are talking about. . .Nigerians on average are poor, but why are the poor igbo people not fighting in the name of their religion?. . .They engage in all sorts of crime, from fraud to robbery and kidnapping because of the high rates of poverty there. . .I was very shocked the first time I went to Bayelsa state. . .The poor people there are NO different from the ordinary northern muslim, their plights are the same, but you can never see a poor christian man or woman taking up arma and killing people because some one insulted Jesus. . . .It is a muslim thing, you can bury your head in the sand all you can but you can't take the fact away. . .Where ever a person insults Islam violence must occur, a pastor threatened to burn the koran in the USA and some muslims went on rampage trying to kill people in the name of Islam. . .

4. Most Northern elite prefer to do nothing about poverty in the north! Mazaje claims to be Hausa man who has 1 miilion dols in his account yet the money is preferably left in a bank account than helping the poor, sadly this is how most so called northern muslim elite have preferred the status quo to be maintained, poverty in the north is the $ajor fuel for conflict that is why you rarely hear of such in places like Saudi, Qater, the UAE etc!

Another nonsense talk. . .Was it not the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia that said that all churches in the Arabian Peninsula must be destroyed. The Grand Mufti, who is the highest official of religious law in Saudi Arabia, as well as the head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Scholars, cited the Prophet Mohammed, who said the Arabian Peninsula is to exist under only one religion.

http://rt.com/news/peninsula-saudi-grand-mufti-701/

Even the grand mufti(the highest official of religious law in Saudi Arabia, as well as the head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Scholars of Saudi Arabia) which is the seat of islam knows very well that islam is intolerant and clearly said it. . .Keep lying to yourself and try to obfuscate the very obvious. .Islam is intolerant of others that do not subscribe to its way, that is the FACT and that is evident the world over, its always muslims vs hindu, muslims vs buddist, muslims vs jews, muslims vs christians the world over. . .When was the last time you read about hindus and jews fighting in any part of the world or christians and buddist fighting religious wars?. . .

5. The op lies when he assumes nothing is being done by muslims especially in this regards towards fighting extremism (imagine the ignoramus calling BH fundamentalism when clearly it is extremism) of course the OP has never attended any mosque in the north to know any of what is being done.

We have joint statements from islamic bodies condemning the resignation of top muslim military officers by the GEJ administration but we are yet to see their statement strongly and unequivocally denouncing sheik Shekau and his BH boys. Imams in the north are all over the place cursing GEJ but I have never heard any one of them curse sheik Shekau and his BH boys. . .

6. Strong government, until the government deal with the criminals who go about killing non muslims, the isssue will keep repeating itself, government has sowed impunity by not metting out punishment to this criminal elements. Of course our "tolerant" op really does not know what he is talking about!

I repeat, only one reading the koran with the eyes of faith could seriously disregard that the book on almost every page instructs observant muslims to despise non believers. On almost every page, it prepares the ground for religious conflict. The results are all out for every body to see. . .

advocate666:

The best thing to do a virus is eliminate it. You don't make friends with it. You don't abandon your responsibilities to it. You certainly don't try to make it change to become more tolerant.

Hmmmm...the above makes a whole lot of sense and I quite agree with you on this but don't you think that there are some "friendly" viruses around? Atleast I know for a fact that not every seemingly "negative" thing is necessarily bad.

Even if you refer to the negative don't you think that the comparison is a bit harsh and rather unfair? The virus I believe you speak of is out for destruction but can same be said of religion?

advocate666:
Reforming islamism will only be a prolongation of the inevitable: total destruction.

Well advocate I don't think logicboy was trying to reform Islam. I believe he is trying to tap from some of the arguments of guys like tbaba as regards the view of Islam on some sensitive issues.

The logic I believe is: If tbaba is right in his assessment of Islam then why not use that to foster peace and unity?

advocate666:
When a cancer becomes threatening, a radical situation is required. Treating it softly softly will only result in the death of the patience. The blackman's only chance of advancement and survival remains the elimination ALL religions.

Advocate I agree that anything cancerous should be rooted out. Hatred is cancerous and has no place in humanity. A hatred for religion is really not the way to go.

We should be "radical" in fighting against injustice and other vices but to direct our aggregation against religion would be futile cause then we would not be addressing the problems we face as a nation.

However, advancement and development is not dependent on whether there is religion or not! Developed countries did not get to where they are cause of the absence of religion. They defined their problems and faced them head on.


Thank you!

advocate666:

I was going to add except Satanism, but I knew I would be misunderstood. You just proved it.

So satanism isn't a religion?