It is true that truth is a burden. This is why i found something to agree with when i read the article " The Burdens of Islam " as written by Anthony A. Kila.
In the said article, the author identified two " burdens of Islam " and at the end of the article you get an idea of what the whole talk was about: 'if you must be a Muslim, then let me be the one to define Islam' and indeed Anthony is not alone in this attempt to gag Muslims and redefine Islam.
When he spoke of the first " burden " of having to be sensitive when you speak of Islam so as to prevent Muslim reaction he did not speak of the burden placed on the Muslims so that when they speak of their religion, they too have to be " sensitive " because there is an army of non-Muslims always ready to assign derogatory titles to whoever from among the Muslims say the Islamic position on things without compromise. A Muslim cannot say he wants sharia without being accused of supporting violence: just in case you are looking for the correlation, that makes two of us. A Muslim cannot say our Government killed innocent Muslims in Maiduguri in 2009 without being called Boko Haram or boko haram sympathizer and a Muslim in our time cannot even ask the Lagos State Government to allow our women wear hijab without being called extremist, fundamentalist, bigot and all these popular mumbo jumbo. Simply put; a Muslim either acts like a Christian or he is called “extremist”
This explains why people accuse us of being " too serious " and they are also intolerant to appreciate the fact that, while they may find nothing wrong joking with their faith, to the average Muslim Islam is serious business. Hence do not expect to find a Gordons among us to " crack your ribs " by making mockery of his Creator and the faith he claims to profess. This concept of tolerance that says since the Christians are making jokes with Jesus Muslims must do the same with Muhammad is in itself massive bigotry. Even more crass is the attitude of a lot of Christians who think since Muslims won't joke with their religion, they will help them do it so that we now have " Holy Mallam ," " Aboki for Jesus " as well as a newspaper reporter who helped the Muslims joke about who Prophet Muhammad would have married during the Miss World saga and at the end of the day the same people nag about " Muslim reaction " . The question is. Why is it so difficult to leave us alone and make fun of your own stuff?
Now to the Second, and perhaps most ridiculous, a burden as suggested by Mr. Anthony. This burden is the burden of " do not generalize ." The gentleman speaks about how people are told not to blame the activities of a few Muslims on the general population of Muslims as there are good Muslims who will not do such. And then he asked a question in that tone of someone who suffers the self impressed impression that he is speaking intelligent.
" how come out of those millions or so Orisa worshippers in the world, that Christians and Muslims scornfully call pagans, we do not have cases of just a few Orisa terrorists? "
To answer the question we should simply inform the fellow that there is no Orisha land similar to Palestine, which has been under occupation and slavery for 66 years. There is no Orisha land similar to that of Afghanistan, which was operating peacefully before they were invaded to uproot their religion and sister of Government. There is no Orisha little girl called Abeer Qassim Aljannabi, who was raped at the age of 14 by a US soldier who afterwards killed her, her, five years-old sister and the rest of her family and said, " I did not consider them to be humans ." There is no Orisha land like Pakistan which Obama sends 2 bombs into every single week killing innocent women and children and there is definitely no Orisha land like Iraq, which was invaded for absolutely no reason leaving over 600,000 dead. Look at everywhere you find what you call Muslim terrorist, and you will always find they have been invaded by one force or the other while being hitherto peaceful, you will always find dead bodies of women and children killed by drones and you will always find that these deaths from these invasions and heavy bombardment is not an issue to the world because of the real burden: the burden of being called " terrorist " and " extremist " whenever you draw the attention of the world to this mess and the burden of being accused of being in support of extreme reactions to these evils whenever you mention the evil themselves.
Omatse " cult " of Niger state would have made the same claim that none of them is a " terrorist " some months ago, but they presently have the blood of 95 police officers on their hands because they tasted something less than a pinch of what it meant to be invaded and persecuted. In our case, we are murdered too and guess what, when those who murder us are discussed it is world-renowned psychologists we see on CNN trying to " understand " why they did what they did but when a single Muslim kills a soldier on the street of London, in a country where such exact kind of crime is recorded 350 times daily, the guests are different; terrorism experts; no post traumatic stress disorder excuse, everyone falls on each other to use the toughest world against the " terrorist " . Even the Muslim leaders do too, and this turns them against these youths who think they kept mute when the Muslims were at the reaching end and at the end of the day, there is an Oritsajafor screaming " call your people to order " , which people? The same people the man is alienated from by your arm-twisting-induced condemnations?
What we need is not to redefine Islam or find some modern interpretations as the author suggested. What is needed is honesty. The honesty that will make us remind ourselves that 37 MILLION people were slaughtered in the First World War, and Muslims were not involved. The second world war put an end to the lives of 2.5% of the then world population; almost 60 million people and Muslims were not responsible for these deaths. If not for want of space I would have gone through the wars of the last 150 years and wish Mr. Anthony goodluck finding just 5, which relates to Islam and Muslims, out of the 101 wars I am aware of. Some of these wars took millions of lives, and the Muslims were not mentioned in the whole narrative. Do we really want to generalize this list? I don't think so.
Today if I go to Maiduguri and with a broad smile on my face and face the JTF and shout " Allahu Akbar " i will be shot dead. If that is not enough generalization already what is?
Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri
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thank you for this article, i never thought NE can publish this kind of article, all the same that means people knows the truth.
ReplyDeleteNice article and am almost tempted to agree with you but for the fact that I lived amongst your people for 4 years , very innocent and unbiased but after witnessing 3 religious riot in Kano and saw how people were slaughtered over issues that meant little or nothing , the hatred you folks have for people of other religions and tribes ,no way ... brada , I cannot agree with you . American intervened in Afghanistan , yes , but what what was happening there before the intervention . As far as I am concerned Islam is its own captive and to come off this status will have to take a very long time .
ReplyDeleteAl Faruq. What a nice piece? Ur name define ur article. I pray Allah shall protect and continue 2 guide u. May He showers more blessing upon u. Jazakal llahu khar. Sulaiman kurami.
ReplyDeleteCrap!!!! Pure unadulterated rubbish. Pls when next you try to be academic, state all the premise by which you Generalise. And before there was any occupation of the said countries you mentioned, what preceeded the action? Pls stop your sanctimonous posturing, it is nauseating. There is really is no justification for taking human life, be you a christian, muslim, juju worshiper and what so ever religion you profess period. Hate begets hate. You cannot justify your position by also attacking the said publication.
ReplyDeleteI write this to directly respond to this article written by "Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri". As i read through your piece, i cannot but just wonder why sometimes people choose to abardon reality all in the name of religion and sentiments. The truth is, what is good is simply good and what is bad is bad wherever in this whole world.
ReplyDeleteFirstly and to summarise how i perceive your response; any unbiased person reading your rebuttal can easily see your sentiments. And personally i could say it seems you do not see anything wrong in muslims reacting back in the name of terrorism since in your writeup: "They have been opperessed". But let me say: No two wrongs ever make a right.
Secondly, reading through the article of "Kila" i could see that one of the things he was advocating for is for Muslims to stand up and continuously condem the wrong ideology of those that kills in the name of Islam. And he even went ahead to commend 2 Muslims leaders that is already doing so.
But i was amazed to see what you put forward for the justification of Terrorism act. The examples you gave in your paragraph 7 is simply ludicrous. So is it the killing in Afganistan or the invasion of Iraq that called for the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria or the Somalian Al-Shabaab? In my own opinion, i can see clearly the same sentiment that a percentage of muslims share with terrorist in your article. You are obviously supporting violence all because a brother muslim was killed or a sister muslim was raped.
I have friends that are muslims and they are very good people. Infact i learn from them, yet when we enter into conversation like this, i always make them realize the importance of Muslims standing up to speak against Terrorism and Terror act. I advise them this should be at the forefront of their Preaching in any Jumat service. Their Immams should vehemently speak against it. To me i think if this is being done, at least it will help save the face of Islam which most non-muslisms are already seeing as a violent religion. Silence can mean also that other muslims sympatize with the terrorist and this i believe is part of what is making terrorism grow.
Thirdly, the fact that Christians or any other religion does not kill and burn down houses when their God is being joked with does not mean they do not take their religion as "SERIOUS BUSINESS" as you put it. Fighting back because someone joked with Allah is not a sign of seriouness but rather mediocrity. To me, it simply says that person doesn't even know the God he professed he is fighting for.
Fourthly, it appears you do not understand the difference between Terrorism and a violent act that emanate as a result of the Omatse arrest. You should not compare terrorism and the killing of the Police officers by a cult. They are just incomparable. And maybe i should advise you to do more research on what terrorism is and the cost, pains and fear it has inflicted on the world today.
In summary, i will say your rebuttal do not really address what "Kila" was trying to addres but rather went ahead to show how dogmatic and sentimental someone can be in the name of religion. Even in the face of killing and oppression, you see nothing wrong simply because another muslim has been opperessed in other part of the world.
Adeyinka Fadehan
Mr Fadehan, on d contrary, u r d one being very subjective. If only u ll read d article wwit an open mind, u will DEFINITELY see reason. Bt, d simple fact that d article was written by a muslim, it has become "thrash". I bet u checked d author of d article to see whether or not he's a muslim before reading it. Any right thinking man would know that these arab muslims were doing their own thing when d western world attacked them ab initio. U r the one that needs to go back just 60 yrs ago when d musliims were regarded as fools n cowards for allowing the west maltreat them. But now, muslims ve bn pushed to d wall n retaliated. All of a sudden we r tagged every derogatory name in d book. Pls go back n read ur middle east history. Bt 1st, remove bias from ur mind. It will help u understand better.
DeleteI can swear dt most pple posting comments here 1st checked d author to c whether or not he's a muslim before reading d article; or sm were in agreement with d author till they reached the end of d article n realised he's a musllim. Then, all of a sudden, he's a "supporter of terrorism". When Kila wrote his article, it did nt generate comment cos he's "anthony kila". Now, "Alfarouk" writes on same topic, he's "every derogatory name" in d book.
DeleteYour Islamic appologist analysis still does not justify the gory activities of muslims. The world wars and most of the wars in the past were not a religious wars but a secterian war politically and economically motivated. This was so peculiar to most wars in the past.Islamic fundamentalism took a dangerous turn by causing large scale mayhem in modern society.how do you explain the inter sect wars among muslims ie suni vs shite; Was it caused by christians? Hw do you explain the arab spring? Its a pity that you approve of the dangerous regime of Talibans in Afganistans.you were so ignorant to understand that christianity is not America nor Europe. Christianity came from isreal. Christianity teaches love, it tells you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling; not self righteousness; it tells you not to judge others God is the great judge, it tells you that vegence belong to God. Our warfare is not physical against fellow man but against satan.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that " indeed Anthony is not alone in this attempt to gag Muslims and redefine Islam" because that's exactly what you are doing! You are trying to re-define islam, and redefine history as well. Honestly, I really considered whether this article was worth replying to, but it seems that your poorly written essay is actually convincing some people, so here's my reply.
ReplyDeleteYou said you do not see the correlation between sharia and violence. I'm not sure if this was meant to be a joke, because it's either you are joking, you are gravely misinformed or you are just being deceptive. Answer me this; according to the sharia, what's the punishment for apostacy? What is the punishment for someone who 'makes mischief in the land'? What is the punishment for being a Christian or Jew in a muslim land? What is the punishment for drawing Muhammed? You know, just answering these questions has already convinced me that you were joking when you made that statement.
From your fourth paragraph, essentially, what I understand from what you wrote is "You cannot blame the Muslim for acting violently when someone makes fun of islam". Every religion gets made fun of, get used to it! I feel you guys are only insulting your god more everytime you try to defend him. When an artist put a figurine of Jesus on a cross in a jar full of his own urine, christians did not riot or kill anybody, do you know why? Because the christian realises that his God is big enough to defend himself and is certainly bigger than one man's urine; however, muslims always feel the need to defend their god, it makes the rest of us feel that your god is so weak that he cannot defend himself!
From your fifth and sixth paragraphs, what exactly does a strife in the fictitious land of 'palestine' or a war in Iraq have to do with the actions of Boko haram or the miss world rioters? I fail to grasp to connection. And again yet another muslim comes up with these bogus statistics that no one knows where they came from. It only takes a person with half a brain to realize how stupid 'statistical' claims like that are. Imagine, if 350 violent deaths happened in the UK every single day, that means 127400 people die every year from this type of death alone! If we now add the number of people who die naturally and who die of diseases like cancer every year, by the end of 10 years, the UK would be a ghost country. Such a ridiculous statistic!! I'm tired of the muslim always pretending like they are the victims. It's really getting old!
In the end, surprisingly I agree with you once again that what is needed is honesty. No one has ever claimed that all wars were caused by muslims. I don't even know the point you were trying to make in that last paragraph. Those wars you mentioned were not even religiously based. Because you know if you were to mention wars that were religiously based, islam is the biggest killer of all. It didn't even take 25 years after the so called 'prophet' of islam had died before there were wars in the name of the islam with 100,000 dead.
You then went on to say that the JTF should not shoot a person on sight who comes up to them and yells 'allahu akbar'. It's like you are trying to deny all of history with this one. Every suicide bomber motivated by islam screams allahu akbar right before detonating. Should the JTF just stand there and wait to see if they will be killed before and then say 'oh, i guess we should have shot him after all...'? How exactly is that going to work anyway? Let's be honest with ourselves here, the doctrine of islam is very violent and seriously flawed. Something needs to be done about it.
9ja guy.... Take am jeje oooo... As it seems 100,000 and millions seem the same to u. There r xtians in Muslim lands, Forget kano... Dis argument is beyond ordinary.. Let's b mindful of wat we say..
DeleteI ve observed dt 9ja guy is waiting with his tiny claws out to c any article "for" islam. He writes without knowing facts. Among other things u said, u mentioned shari'ah law. What do u care abt its contents? U turn a blind eye on d fact dt its this same sharia dt
DeleteA: allows women d right to inheritance, which in ur village is forbidden.
B: women don't go through any evil rites like drinking d water used in bathing her husbands dead body, like its done in ur village
C: women ve d sole custody of kids in case of divorce
D: women can still bear their paternal name after marriage cos d man doesn't "own" them, unlike in ur village where a man lords over a woman
E: irrespective of what d woman owns, d man must foot ALL her bills, unlike ur village where women labour in farms n markets
F: a woman has d right to seek divorce, unlike urs, where its d mans sole right
G: paying bride px on a woman is a must n it belongs to d woman hetself, nt her parent, unlike ur village where d woman is seen as an object for sale.
H: raising ur hand againsr a wiman is as big as causing a war.Yes! Unlike in ur village where ur father beats ur mother blue black n he's praised for bn a "man".
I: ur mother desreves more respect than ur father simply cos she's a woman, unlike ur village where even a boy child can beat his mother n its ok.Subhanallah!
These r just a few of d shariah u "refuse" to resaerch, instead u r particular abt criminal justice. She-Nigerian.
Am just getting to know or hear on this platform that in Muslim sharia law there is a punishment for being a Christian or Jew in Muslim land? Please someone should tell me this ant true!
ReplyDeleteThank u anon,11:55 AM. That's to show u 9ja guy is a fraud! Really, had it bn true, we wld ve heard it a long time ago. Muslim men r allowed to marry xtian women n d women can "remain" in their religion if dy so wish, cos in islam, there is no compulsion! So, if d same shariah cld allow us to marry xtian faithfuls, then y. Bn punished?! Mr 9ja guy, go n do ur research properly. Thetrs nothinng wrong with making wnquiries from d muslim scholars. Ill advice u meet 3 or 4 from ur area for clarification. She-Nigerian.
DeletePls don't b decieved by naija guy... There is no punishment watsoeva foe being a xtian in a muslinand. Google it.. Naija guy isn't informed... Over 400 people killed from Jan - this month alone to cases of violence in d US.. Yet he says d facts r wrong..
Deleteprofessor ONOGU of university of bauchi that died recently is a staunch muslim with a long bears. His wife is a xtain till now. Buhari's personal driver since then till now is a xtain. this is for anony 11;55 am.
ReplyDelete@anonymous 11:36, you haven't the slightest clue where my village is :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, muslim men are allowed to marry christian women because by the sharia, their children are muslim, however a muslim woman cannot marry a christian man. The quran says to fight those who do not believe in allah including christians and jews until they pay the jizyah and find themselved humiliated! The hadith also say that muhammed said that he would expel the jews and christians from the arabian peninsula and leave none but muslims. Again the quran says fight those of the unbelivers who are near to you. The punishment for being christian or jew in muslim lands is either dhimmy status (persecution), expulsion or death!
Well, someone should answer the other questions I asked.
@anonymous 8:47, I understand what you are saying, however I believe that it is time to tell the truth. They shall know the truth and the truth shall set them free.
All you Muslims defending the acts of terrorists here should please help with answers to the following: 1. Why should innocent Christians be killed in kano because someone, who is possibly not a Christian, draw the cartoon of muhammad in Denmark?
ReplyDelete2. Why declare sharia law in a state like maiduguri, bauchi, gombe, adamawa etc where a good proportion of the population are Christian indegenes?
3. Why kill an innocent school teacher for preventing her students from cheating in an Islamic studies exams with the Koran under the guise that she has defiled the Koran?
This is just a very few of the very many questions bothering me about your religion.
Pls can someone tell me why muslims always feel victimized nd insure?am yet to truly understand wat dat religion is all bout...violence?killing unbelievers?is dat all u preach?I jst wonder wat will make someone take anoda's life simply cos he doesn't believe in wat he believes,evn though d person isn't a threat to him..and d funny tin bout dis is dat aLl off them seem not to see anytin wrong in it..they hav all been brainwashed into tinking that they are d ones to fight for dia god..why is dia §º̩̩̩̩̥ much complexity in d analysis of ur koran dat makes u pple try to justify terrible tins boldly stated in it,making me to believe that most of u don't evn have a clear understanding of ur religion,except wat u r fed..I will advice those of u that want to speak to speak for urselves nd not d whole muslim family cos most of ur brothers nd sisters are blood suckers,killing pple to help fit in as real muslims...d whole world is now making fun of u,evn among urselves dia is utmost confusion..how can u convince us to believe otherwise,wen ur pple kill in d name of allah...its really nd truly sad
ReplyDeleteall the muslims here defending islam, are not yet muslims...were u are a baptized and true muslim, you are taught that your number one enemy is never the devil, but non muslims...especially christians. if this is a lie, how many times did the muslim fighters bomb a shrine, have u heard it before? but instead, na church... you said christians make jokes with Jesus, and we keep calm... first christianity is not a religion, but the true way of life. secondly, our God said vegeance is His... thirdly, man can not help God... Come to think of it, please with all the respect, who is Allah, to the muslims? and if He is the creator of the universe and human beings, so why kill humans for Him, His own master piece? then you said oppressed...that the muslim and the northerners have been oppressed. by who?... since the creation of Nigeria as a state, 9 out of the eleven heads of state, that north has produced 9.... so how come the poverty... muslims, i advice we face facts...
ReplyDeleteI LIKE YORUBA LANGUAGE...IT SAYS 'IMOLE' 'FORCEFUL KNOWLEDGE'.... 'HARD KNOWLEDGE'....
ReplyDeletemost of u guys talk ignorantly, I pray may Almighty God open your eyes to the truth someday. No matter the persecution of Islam, it remains the fastest growing religion in the world
ReplyDelete