- Guardian Newspaper, Friday, 06 February 2015 00:00
- Written by Dauda Ayanda
•Continued from yesterday
SO, where does Islam fit into the
picture? Does the jihadist perpetrators’ claim to represent Islam authenticate
that claim without reservation? If so, then can one presume automatically that
Anders Behring Breivik was a Christian terrorist because he claimed he was
motivated to preserve and safeguard Christianity and largely Christian nations
from multi-culturalism and ‘Islamisation’? Does the same go for former U.S.
President George W. Bush’s claim that ‘God told him to end the tyranny in
Iraq,’ after which the ensuing war and occupation resulted in countless
innocent deaths, torture and detention without charge, etc.?
Again, if Adolf Hitler
that killed six million Jews in an attempt to wipe out the Jewish race cannot
be attributed to Christianity and no one would call what he did Christian, why
did Dr. Cole attribute what extremists, fanatics and radicals do to Islam? And
why the need to ask the rhetorical question about what Islam wants when Dr.
Cole has read the Quran for more than seven times? The seasoned diplomat’s
articles were filled with contradictions and anomalies. It raises more
questions than answers that the diplomat seems strangely indisposed to delve
into.
Furthermore, the
Central African Republic (CAR) faced deadly unrest in late 2013 when Christian
armed groups launched coordinated attacks against the mostly Muslim Seleka
group that toppled the government in March 2013. According to AFP report, Adama
Dieng, a senior UN advisor on the prevention of genocide warned that the
country was being emptied of its Muslim population. He said “unless those who
are perpetrating these serious crimes are made to account for those crimes, it
is unlikely that we will not reach…genocide.” Dieng was among the first to warn
of the escalating sectarian violence in the African country, saying the country
was at risk of genocide. He said: “People are fleeing because they know that
they are being targeted on the grounds of their religion”.
Antonio Guterres, UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, said most of the Muslims were driven out of the
CAR’s western half. Guterres told a meeting of the UN Security Council on the
crisis in the impoverished African country, that “Since early December we have
effectively witnessed a ‘cleansing’ of the majority of the Muslim population in
the western CAR.” Some 2,000 French troops, supported by a 6,000-strong African
Union force known as MISCA, were deployed to CAR. Yet, Dieng noted that the
foreign forces have so far failed to curb the violence. “Despite the presence
of these troops…we are still now extremely worried,” Dieng said, stressing the
need to protect the remaining Muslims.
In a country where the
state cannot guarantee the security of humanity from assault by the elemental
forces of nature through the institution of law and order, religion is often the
likeliest agency people turn to for interpreting the vagaries of their
existence. Boko Haram’s actions cast some light on our institutional failings
and underline the logic behind Cole’s narratives of Boko Haram conundrum. If
not for ignorance, how can we see Muslims as Boko Haram members or
sympathisers? Or is that not the same attitude we condemn as ignorance, when
non-Nigerians glibly catalogue Nigerians as fraudsters?
Surely we must
appreciate the voluntary contribution of civilians as member of Joint Task
Force in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria and the dogged local hunters who
deemed it fit to support the state in repelling Boko Haram which closely
resembles Maitatsine – the violent extremist cult that inaugurated the bloody
era of religious terrorism in northern Nigeria in the early 1980s. This
pragmatic approach is in addition to global condemnation by both Muslims and
non-Muslims who are genuinely concerned about the well being of the country.
For instance, South Africa Muslim Network would have this to say about Boko
Haram: “This is totally un-Islamic act. It is contrary to the Sharia and what
is in the Koran. There is no place for this in Islam no matter who does it,
regardless of whatever cause they try and perceive it to be.” Dr. Cole can
avail himself with global reaction denouncing Boko Haram at Nigerian Supreme
Council for Islamic Affairs site under the caption “United against Terrorism”
via http://nscia.com.ng/index.php/16-info-portal/article-releases-and-publications/93-united-against-terrorism.
While Dr. Cole seems
to be an advocate of secular society as against religious state which exists in
most Middle East, the argument about Vatican country of Italy and Middle East
as Christian, Islamic and Jewish states requires serious scrutiny. The
constitution as I was made to believe recognizes Nigeria as a multi-religious
state and the country inherits her system of law from Britain. British Common
Law gave birth to Nigerian law as a result of colonialism. In considering the
secular nature of Britain, one needs to ask the fundamental question as to the
origin of British Common Law.
Common Law originated
in the Middle Ages in England and adopted in countries that trace their legal
heritage to England as former colonies of the British Empire, including
Nigeria, Ghana, USA, which Dr. Cole claimed to be secular societies. How true
is this assertion of secularity? Exempli gratia, in the case of Bowman
versus Secular Society Limited (1916-17), Lord Summers declared: “Ours is, and
has always been, a Christian State. The English family is built on Christian
ideals and if the national religion is not Christianity, there is none. English
law may well be called Christian law.” While commenting in the same case, Lord
Finlay, the then Lord Chancellor, declared, “There is abundant authority for
saying that Christianity is part and parcel of the law of the land”. In the
same vein, Sir Mathew Hale (1609 – 1676) was quoted in the Historia Placitorum
Coronae (1736) as saying, “Christianity is part of the common law of
England”.
Anyone familiar with
Sir William Blackstone’s (1723 – 1780) Commentaries on the Laws of England will
never entertain second thoughts on the origin of common law as the incisive
work finds common law tied to the umbilical cord of Christianity.It is also on record that
Lloyd Kenyon (1732–1802) declared, “The Christian religion is part of the law
of the land.” Here in Nigeria, the celebrated Justice Karibi Whyte (retired
justice of Supreme Court of Nigeria) is known to have declared that the Holy
Bible contains the fundamental basis of common law. Obviously, Common Law is
British law and British law draws heavily from Christian culture and tradition.
Where lies then the secularity theory that Dr. Cole is advocating for?
If the claim that 26
out of 28 wars in the world today concern Islam has been the other way round
with Cole’s chosen religion, he would have formulated a new theory linking
terrorism with signs of end time. Nevertheless, the optimistic solution in
achieving global political harmony and peaceful state lies in the philosophical
thought of the legendary scholar and reformer, Uthman Dan Fodio that: “A nation
can endure with disbelief but no nation can endure with injustice.” Injustice
is the mother of oppression and oppression begets nothing but terrorism!
• Concluded
• Engr. Ayanda (MNSE), wrote from Ibadan.
No comments:
Post a Comment