₦airaland Forum

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2023: Yoruba Muslims will not vote for [Yoruba] Christian presidential candidates

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has stated its preference for a presidential candidate from the Yoruba Muslim stock.

The group warned that any party that picks a Yoruba Christian as its 2023 candidate should forget [Yoruba] Muslim votes.

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MURIC TO MUSLIMS: AVOID CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITIES

An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has advised Nigerian Muslim students and their parents to avoid applying for admission into private universities owned by Christians pending the time the National Universities Commission (NUC) would sanitise them.

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Osinbajo: Any Muslim Who Supports RCCG Member Traitor to Islam – MURIC Warns

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has sent a serious warning to the Redeemed Church of Christ Group (RCCG) concerning the 2023 presidential election.
The group warned that any political party that picks any member of the Redeemed Church of Christ Group (RCCG) should forget Aso Rock.

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A woman has accused her neighbour, Waiz Mohammed, and his relatives of kidnapping her 19-year-old daughter and forcibly converting her religion.

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The woman, in a complaint to the police, alleged that her daughter was so shocked that she lost her mental balance after the incident and even tried to commit suicide.

Police said that an FIR under Section 366 of the IPC (inducing woman to compel her for marriage) and under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, has been lodged.

SHO, Haidergarh, Ajay Tripathi, said that first a complaint related to a 19-year-old girl going missing was lodged in November.

The police recovered the girl on Saturday from the Lucknow-Barabanki border and handed her over to the family.

The mother of the girl, Suman Pathak has alleged that she was lured by her neighbour Waiz and his parents for a job. Later, she was forced to change her religion.

“Suman also claimed that her daughter was subjected to such a brutal torture that it has had an impact on her mental health,” said the SHO.

Tripathi added that the statements of the girl recovered are yet to be recorded in front of a magistrate.

“We will also ask her who abducted her and where she stayed from November to February,” said the SHO.

Police said that Suman used to eke out a living by washing dishes in the neighbourhood.

Arif Gill said he lost hope of finding his 15-year-old daughter – abducted by a 60-year-old Muslim who forcibly married her and converted her to Islam – until police in Pakistan finally registered a case after nearly two months.

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Sitara Arif, also known as Saira, was kidnapped on Dec. 15 by Rana Tayyab in the Yousafabad area of Faisalabad, Gill said. Tayyab is the husband of Naila Ambreen, a Muslim government school principal for whom Saira worked as domestic help.

“I went to the police station to report my daughter’s kidnapping, but they refused to accept my complaint and forced me out of the building,” said Gill, a physically handicapped Catholic.

He said he made repeated attempts to register a case against Tayyab, with police ignoring his pleas.

“Madam Naila is a government employee, and both she and her husband have considerable influence on the police, which is why they outright rejected my application,” Gill told Morning Star News. “After repeated humiliation and intimidation to stop pursuing the matter, I surrendered to my fate thinking that I won’t be able to see my daughter again. It’s been nearly two months since my wife and I haven’t seen our daughter or heard anything regarding her safety and well-being. Only God knows our pain and suffering since the day she was taken from us.”

Gill said poverty forced the family to send their daughter to work in a Muslim household.

“I’m unable to earn a livelihood, so my wife and daughter work as domestic helps to provide for the family,” he said. “We have always been very protective about our daughter, and it never occurred to us that she would be targeted by a man five times her age.”

Sitara is the oldest of Gill’s children.

Gill’s lawyer and chairman of the Minorities Alliance Pakistan, attorney Akmal Bhatti, said he learned of Gill’s ordeal on Feb. 3 and immediately arranged for the family to meet with Faisalabad’s regional police chief. Protesting police indifference, they demanded immediate registration of a First Information Report (FIR).

An FIR was registered against Tayyab on Feb. 4 at the Madina Town Police Station on the orders of the regional police chief, and officers have begun raids for his arrest and the recovery of Sitara, Bhatti said.

The case was registered under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code relating to kidnapping, abducting or forcible marriage.

Bhatti said that when the police raided Tayyab’s house in Yousafabad, his wife Naila Ambreen handed the officials the Islamic marriage certificate between him and Sitara.

“This is the modus operandi in all cases involving forced marriages of underage minority girls,” Bhatti said. “The accused first rapes the victim and then uses the cover of an Islamic Nikah [marriage certificate] to escape punishment for this heinous crime.”

Though police are now acting, it is unfortunate that the family is deprived of justice because they are poor and Christian, Bhatti said.

“If the police had acted when the crime was first reported, the child could have been recovered sooner, but the prolonged delay has given the accused ample time to change his locations,” he said. “Some sources have told us that the accused has taken Sitara to Islamabad, and we are now pressing the police to find them there.”

Police took two of Tayyab’s relatives into custody for questioning, and later they were released.

“We are continuing to build pressure on the officials nonetheless, so that they don’t slack in their responsibility,” he said.

Bhatti said only young girls from minority groups are targeted for forcible marriage and conversion because their families are generally poor, with little resources to put up a fight in court.

“The country’s legal system is currently operating under a dual system of state and shariah [Islamic] laws, creating a conflict in the minimum age for marriage,” he said. “State law should prevail in cases of forced conversion and underage marriage of minority girls.”

The minimum age for marriage of girls is 16 in Punjab Province, where Faisalabad is located, and 18 in Sindh Province. Bhatti called for the federal government to set the minimum marriageable age to 18 across Pakistan.

Under Islamic law there is no specific minimum age for marriage, leading to instances where minority girls are forced into marriage with much older men after Islamic conversion. This leads to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Bhatti also criticized the National Commission on the Rights of Child and Punjab’s Child Protection & Welfare Bureau for their inaction amid a rise in cases violating the basic rights of the girl child.

“It is time for the state to take responsibility and protect our children from being exploited under the guise of religious conversion,” he said.

Emotional Wounds
Forced conversions and underage marriages are a long-standing issue in Pakistan.

At least 1,000 women from religious minorities, including Christians and Hindus, are forcibly converted and married annually in the country,
Forbes magazine reported in February 2021, quoting human rights organizations.

Although Pakistan dismissed the report as “rubbish and baseless,” Forbes reported that the actual numbers could be much higher as many cases go unreported.

More than 60 cases of questionable conversions were reported in 2021-22, according to the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice. The victims included 30 Christians and 30 Hindus, with 70 percent of these victims less than 18 years old.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, up from eighth the previous year.

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Throwback: Islam has no age barrier for marriage — MURIC Director, Akintola

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Is child marriage permitted in Islam, looking beyond the case of Ese Oruru?

Islam is a complete way of life. As a religion, non-Muslims will have to take Muslims as they are, not as they want them to be. Neither Muslims nor their religion should be judged according to other standards. There will never be any inter-religious understanding so long as non-Muslims continue to measure Muslims and their way of life by Christian, Buddhist or Confucianist yardsticks. The simple truth is: Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this, particularly since 99.99 per cent of such marriages are conducted among Muslims themselves. If the man is a Muslim and the girl is also a Muslim and the girl’s parents give their approval, what is the business of any non-Muslim in that? It is sheer interference in the affair of Muslims and an attempt to exert undue influence on them. More often than not, those who interfere in this manner have ulterior motives. It is either for the purpose of smearing the image of Islam or to gain a comparative advantage and score a religious point (for their own faith of course).
We are not unaware of all these antics, yet we patiently endure them. Non-Muslims should therefore keep off Muslims’ affairs. Who are non-Muslims to be the judge of Muslims when every religious group has its own failings? This interference often causes unnecessary strain on Christian-Muslim relationship. Despite the fact that our Christian neighbours sing the hymn ‘I want to be like Jesus…’ repeatedly, they are not behaving like Jesus (peace be upon him). Neither are they following his teachings. There will be peace if they do. But they don’t. Jesus taught Christians to mind their own business and to resist the temptation to judge others. He said, ‘Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure that you give will be the measure you get.’

That means your organisation, Muslim Right Concern, supports child marriage?

I am a Muslim and I support all truly Muslim practices. Our organisation, MURIC, is an Islamic human rights outfit. So naturally we should support all principles of Islam. It promotes Allah-given fundamental human rights as well as Allah-given fundamental rights of all creatures, animals – mammals, invertebrates, birds in the sky, the environment and all natural entities. Everything created by Allah has a right. We promote their rights. MURIC believes in all Shariah-compliant marriages, regardless of the age of the girl. The sensationalisation of intra-Muslim marriages to the so-called minors is uncalled for and, more often than not, done with hidden malice. For your information, we don’t have what you call ‘child marriage’. We have nikah (Islamic marriage). I affirm clearly, emphatically and unequivocally, that what happens among Muslims is strictly a Muslim affair and should remain so as long as it is Shariah-compliant. Non-Muslims have no right to poke their noses into any religious action taken by Muslims for Muslims. Nikah is a marriage of the Muslims conducted by the Muslims for the Muslims. How the Muslims do it is nobody’s business. Do we come into the church to criticise the way marriages are conducted? Have Muslims said anything about gay marriages inside churches? That is the Christian way of life and they should stop attempts to impose their lifestyle on Muslims. We will never allow that. It is an attempt to subject Muslims to public ridicule.

You cannot hold us in contempt and talk about love. It is sheer deceit. It is hypocrisy. Even Jesus (peace be upon him) called those who ignore their own faults to interfere in other people’s matters, hypocrites. He said, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” So, instead of paying attention to marriages conducted among Muslims, Christians should do something about gay marriages inside churches.

What is your view on the abduction, forceful marriage and conversion to Islam of Ese Oruru by Yunusa Dahiru?

MURIC issued a statement on this ugly episode immediately it broke out. Let me pick the highlights. It was a kind of Romeo and Juliet affair. We demanded that Yunusa Dahiru, the ‘boyfriend’ with whom the girl eloped, should be arrested and prosecuted because the girl is a minor and a Christian. Attempting to marry off the girl without her parent’s permission is not only a breach of common law but also a violation of the Shariah provision on the need for the parents’ approval before nikah can be deemed valid. La nikah bila waliyyin is a basic condition before marriage can be conducted in Islam and Qur’an 4:25 lays emphasis on this same condition. Now, we cannot talk of forceful marriage in this case because both parents of Yunusa, the Shari’ah Council in Kano and even the Emir himself, His Eminence Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, refused to conduct the marriage on the basis that the girl is a Christian; she is underage and her parents had not given consent. So there was no marriage.
Where is the forceful marriage they keep talking about? But we in MURIC are displeased with the conduct of our Romeo (Yunusa) for two major reasons: One, he did not listen to his father who warned him not to bring the girl to Kano. Islam frowns heavily on disobedience to parents –Qur’an 17:23; 31:14. Two, contrary to the provisions of Qur’an 17:32 which forbids fornication and adultery, he may have had carnal knowledge of the girl because it is now being rumoured that Juliet (Ese) is five months pregnant. MURIC is not going to say Yunusa is innocent just because he is a Muslim. Islam teaches justice and fairness. The religion or tribe of the parties involved does not matter. The Qur’an commands Muslims to ‘…Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses of Allah, even if the case is against yourselves, or your parents, or your family, and whether it is against a rich or poor man…’ That is why we called for Yunusa the Romeo’s arrest.

Ijaw youths are not looking at it from an objective angle. They are spoiling for war. All they see is a northerner that abducted their daughter. But is it abduction or elopement? Can we prevent a young boy and a young girl from falling in love with each other? Even Ese’s father has his own faults despite his attempt to blame the Emir of Kano. But the truth is, Ese’s father has a big portion of the blame; same with the mother. How did they train their daughter?
But is the forceful conversion right?
Regarding Ese’s conversion, it is not acceptable to us yet, until the girl is 18. At least, that is what the Nigerian law says and we have to comply since we are Nigerians. The condition for accepting conversion as valid in Islam is different, however. It is buluug, which is maturity that matters. Buluug is measured by the time the girl starts menstruating, which may vary according to her physiological condition.

Besides your organisation, many feel the Muslim community is not bothered about the unfolding event that has Islam at its core. Would you say major Islamic groups, authorities and individuals are complacent about human rights?

That is not true. Where do you think MURIC gets this deluge of information it uses very often. We network but don’t let us talk about how we do that.
Sometimes, other Islamic organisations also rise to the occasion. Exempli gratia , the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs has tackled several issues in the past. Take also the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria; look at the way they handled the issue of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board’s discrimination against candidates who wore hijab in the ongoing JAMB examinations. The National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations and The Companion have equally taken up issues at different periods. But MURIC may be seen as different just because we specialise in human rights, while others handle all aspects of Islamic orientation (evangelisation, education, prayers, enlightenment, etc).

People expect groups like NASFAT, MSSN, NSCIA and others to be involved in this issue. Does it mean they don’t see anything wrong in Yunusa’s actions?

What is MURIC? Who provides it with information from time to time? Is it not the organisations you mentioned above? MURIC will be nowhere at all if all those organisations withhold information from it.

Particularly NSCIA; that is our umbrella organisation and MURIC is tied to its umbilical cord. You will agree with me that the present NSCIA is quite different from what we had before. With the current dynamic and highly mobile, visionary and exemplary leadership, NSCIA is doing quite well and I can tell you that they are involved in this Ese Oruru saga.

The fact is that MURIC consults widely on these issues. Sometimes, the organisation is called upon to handle some affairs. So, you must stop imagining that it is MURIC or that it is MURIC alone. MURIC is just an errand organisation and if you send your children to the market and they bring home what you need, you don’t have to embark on the journey to the market by yourself. I hope I have made myself very clear.

Religious crises are not uncommon in the country. Is there a potential for this situation to degenerate into a religious and tribal upheaval?

Yes, it is quite dicey. There are extremists, terrorists and fanatics on both sides of the divide. We need to step up enlightenment about the need for religious tolerance. But above all, we need to leave the Muslims alone. Let the Muslims go. Nigerian Christians should stop measuring Muslims by Christian yardsticks. We have different norms and values. Let us respect one another’s freedom of religion.

Yunusa is seen by many as the culprit in Ese’s predicament. Do you think he acted alone?

What else are we looking for? We have seen Juliet. We have seen Romeo. Are we still looking for the whole feuding Montague and Capulet families?

Would you prefer Yunusa being tried under Sharia to being tried under the penal or criminal law, having allegedly committed crimes across two states?

Oh yes, I would love that (to be tried under Sharia law)!

The Emir of Kano has been criticised for his alleged role in the Ese-Yunusa case. Do you think he deserves the criticisms?

Those who criticise the Emir of Kano on this case are ethnic bigots. They are blinded by their hatred for northerners. What do you want this man to do? He referred the case to the Shariah Council. The latter examined it and decided the girl was too young and she lacked parental support and approval.

Pronto, the Emir ordered that the girl be returned to her parents in Bayelsa. What has he done wrong? What many Nigerians don’t know about His Eminence, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is that he is wearing two crowns: He is an Emir and a versatile Islamic scholar. This was something I also did not know when he was still serving as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. I came to know later that he speaks Arabic fluently. He is a great asset, a pearl among his peers. You can only hate him out of envy.

Following Ese’s case is a growing number of allegations of other minors being abducted, forced into marriage and converted to Islam. Isn’t this worrisome?

Which cases? Do you have the proof? Why is the press more interested in investigating Muslims and anti-Muslim whistleblowers? That is my worry. Why is the press silent about hundreds of Muslim children taken to Christian camps from Edo State? Why isn’t the press interested in that? People are free to beat about the bush anyway. They have to justify their pay. The Henry Townsend spirit has to be there too, you know.

What is the Muslim community going to do about these alleged abductions (like the one in Sokoto)?

There you go again! Baseless, clueless, unfounded and untenable allegations; rumours, rumours and rumours! Where you have cases, bring them forward. You cannot turn us into suspects overnight. You know where abduction is rampant. I won’t mention states. Why is the Nigerian press so keen on causing distractions? A whole region has turned abduction into family and tribal business. The Nigerian press looks the other way and starts prying into issues that have nothing to do with abduction.

Abductions of female children for sex slavery and forced marriage have become a trend in the country. What’s the way out?

That’s not true. You are making a mountain out of a molehill and I am not under any obligation to answer that kind of question. It is prejudicial. I respect the press and I will continue to cooperate with them but I will not be an accomplice to untruth. Better still, if you must have an answer, the security agencies are the ones who would provide an answer to your question.

An evangelist in western Sudan has gone into a hiding following attempted attacks by Muslim extremists, he said.

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Ahmad Adam Mohamad, 49, of North Darfur state went into a hiding after his Muslim uncles accused him of apostasy earlier this month. He disciples about 25 Christians of Muslim upbringing, which has angered his relatives, he said.

Family members on Thursday (Feb. 9) sent a group of Muslim extremists aboard a vehicle to search for him, but he was not at home, he said.

“Again on Saturday, Feb. 11, another group was sent to my house with a mission to arrest and kidnap me,” he said, adding that he narrowly escaped.

Relatives had come to his house on Feb. 6 and threatened him, saying he must renounce Christianity and return to Islam, he said.

Mohamad, who put his faith in Christ 10 years ago, said relatives have been monitoring his house.

“The situation is extremely difficult – I am not safe at all,” he said. “I urge all the brothers to pray and help me get out from this area to a safer place.”

He has been moving from house to house to avoid being arrested or kidnapped by Muslim extremists.
The church leader said he has missed meals because he was unable to go to the local market to work.

“I have not eaten for almost two days now,” he told Morning Star News on Monday (Feb. 13).

Christians in Sudan, and Darfur in particular, are increasingly experiencing persecution from Muslims extremists. Similar cases have occurred over the past months in the region.

In Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 10, up from No. 13 the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally.

Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List. The U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report states that conditions have improved somewhat with the decriminalization of apostasy and a halt to demolition of churches, but that conservative Islam still dominates society; Christians face discrimination, including problems in obtaining licenses for constructing church buildings.

The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. The State Department removed Sudan from the Special Watch List in December 2020.

Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021.

After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government had managed to undo some sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.

With the Oct. 25, 2021 coup, Christians in Sudan fear the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law. Abdalla Hamdok, who had led a transitional government as prime minister starting in September 2019, was detained under house arrest for nearly a month before he was released and reinstated in a tenuous power-sharing agreement in November 2021.

Hamdock had been faced with rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist “deep state” from Bashir’s regime – the same deep state that is suspected of rooting out the transitional government in the Oct. 25, 2021 coup.

Persecution of Christians by non-state actors continued before and after the coup.

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million.