(Sharing this piece with my African brothers in Nigeria). Walwal is my name, I'm Muslim who lives in Kenya. Moses is my Jewish Australian friend). We speak on the phone regularly about religion and politics.


Part XIV Mr Walwal the Somali and Moses the Australian

(Moses) Hello, this is Moses is that my friend Walwal?
(Walwal) Good to hear from you after so long!
(Moses) You haven't called me for so long.
(Walwal) I know. I decided to keep quiet to recharge my mind and spirit. At times you can learn through silent observation and reflection. Isn't that what we do best in school, sitting the whole day watching our talkative teachers speak?
(Moses) And pay fees for doing that!
(Walwal) Yes, at times what the teacher said on Monday only makes sense on Wednesday. Time is a great teacher in itself. Ideas and thought also need time to bake before they are served.
(Moses) That probably explains why Moses was kept away for 40 days and why prisoners write books.
(Walwal) In the Qur'an, he is mentioned in 168 verses by name and yet we seem not to learn a thing from him!
(Moses) What is your point?
(Walwal) One day, Moses found two men fighting one from his people and the other from his foes. He intervened to help and stuck the second man with his fist.
(Moses) What happened?
(Walwal) Unfortunately, the man died. He had to ask God to forgive him and promised not to assist those who sin. Moses action is described in the Qur'an as the "work of the devil". Assisting aggressors is a grave sin.
(Moses) I'm familiar with the story. The same man was involved in another fight the second day and when he sees Moses he says "do you want to kill me as you killed another man yesterday?" Moses then had to flee Egypt for his dear life. Are Muslims obliged to follow Moses in the Quran?
(Walwal) Yes. Musa or Moses is a prophet of God and his stories are meant to guide Muslims. Besides, the Quran describes itself as "a book which is guidance for God fearing people".
(Moses) Results speak louder than motives. He tried to spank the Egyptian but ended killing him. What was Pharaoh feeding him? I think NATO nations can learn from this story!
(Walwal) There is a town in northeastern Nigeria that makes my heart bleed all the time. It's called Maiduguri. Its markets have become the graves of so many, thanks to a so-called Muslim group. Whenever, I see the images of the dead women and children I remember an incident in the life of Prophet Muhammad. He came across a crowd milling around the corpse of a dead woman during war and asked who had killed her. He was told a general called Khalid did it. He ordered someone to go and tell Khalid. It's not permissible to kill women, children and slaves during war.
(Moses) Can you really say these Muslims are followers of Muhammad?
(Walwal) They are mocking our prophet. Their deeds are worse than those who drew the caricature of the holy prophet. Muhammad's last sermon was centered on the impermissibility of shedding innocent blood. In the town of Baga, armed thugs on motorbikes pursued terrified women and children who had escaped and massacred them. At times, I fear the wrath of God can come and hit us all because we are doing nothing to stop this! Crimes are being committed in his name!
(Moses) Doesn't that explain why angels were initially opposed to Adam coming to this world? They said man will shed blood? But how did they know man will shed blood?
(Walwal) I believe there was a pre-Adamic creatures before Adam and Eve were sent here! The angels are alluding to creatures similar to man that had low intelligence that walked this earth.
(Moses) These might be the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons. They fought for over 1,000 years using rocks!
(Walwal) God knows best. The angels were happy when they realized humans were endowed with intelligence and could be peaceful inhabitants of this world. But what is the use of an unthinking human being on this earth?
(Moses) Can one blame the devil for man's evil actions?
(Walwal) Yes, but man is still responsible for his actions. Children are exempted because they cannot decipher between right and wrong. An unthinking mind is the source of all evils. The mind is the steering process. Moral laws are just sign posts on the road which directs the driver. So if the steering is flawed, sign posts on the road will not safely navigate the car on their own.
(Moses) Then that explains the violence. It's like young children being exposed to an action movie meant for adults. Religion in this case is the movie!
(Walwal) Religion assumes you are old enough and have deployed your mind and intellect before you engage it. That is why children are not obliged to worship. It’s like the BIOS programme needed to start a PC or a smartphone.
(Moses) It tells the processor wake up! Look for the operating system in the hard disk! check sector one!
(Walwal) The tragedy is some of us have refused to run our BIOS. We end up running applications without an operating system. That explains why adults would end shooting children in Baga by following the religious order of a crazy man.
(Moses) In the US, violence is blamed on lack of gun control. In some Muslim states, I think lack of bomb control is to blame!
(Walwal) These are lame excuses. Mindlessness or the refusal to deploy our brains is to blame.