In an effort to strengthen
inter-religious harmony amongst Nigerians, members of Islamic Movement in
Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shiites on Wednesday attended a Christmas Church
service at Church of the Advent, Samaru, Zaria.
Speaking in Zaria shortly after
the service, the leader of the team, Prof. Isa Hassan-Mshelgaru said the
essence of attending the service was to promote love, tolerance and
understanding among Nigerians.
The leader said: “We came to
celebrate the Christmas event with fellow Christians here because we consider
them as our brothers and we don’t have anything to give them than to come and
celebrate this day with them.
“As they consider this day very
important, we also consider it very important, we feel that we should come and
visit them so that to clear some of the unnecessary imaginary boundaries that
have been created.
“There are some imaginary
boundaries that could not be seen that kept us far away from each other, so, we
want to breach this gap, so that we come together as brothers and sisters
living in the same country and same locality.”
Hassan-Mshelgaru appealed to
other Nigerians, whether Muslims, Christians or traditionalists to shun all
forms of hatred, saying that religion was not all about hate but a means of
bonding people together.
“You can be a Muslim, a Christian
or a Traditionalist, always bear in mind that religion should be a platform for
bringing people together not separating them.
“So, my appeal is that Nigerians
should come together under the same umbrella as we live in the same country to
ensure a united and formidable country envy of other nations,” he pleaded.
On his part, the Vica of the
Church, Rev. Isuwa Sa’idu expressed appreciation for the visit and urged the
visitors to sustain the tempo for the good of the nation.
He said: “In fact, I am so
excited that they can think of a thing like this to come and visit us on
Christmas Day celebration like this.
“When we first got the news of
their coming, I was just so overwhelmed and I said I can’t wait for that day to
come, here am behold the day has come, the visit had really gladden our
hearts.”
According to him, the visit shows
that Nigerians are looking for peace and they are actually pursuing it and not
just pursuing it with words but with action.
“So, their action of rising to
come to visit us has shown that truly we have found that peace.
“Because Jesus Christ is the
Prince of peace and if everybody will behave like our friends and brothers, the
Muslim Brothers, I don’t think we will have problems in this country.
“Is just share of
misunderstanding of what we are and who we are and where we represent that we
lack peace today, we can never stay part from each other, we must and under
must live together.
“Here I am in Samaru, I come from
Southern Kaduna, some of our friends come from the East and some of you who are
Northerners are also living in other parts of Nigeria, if there is no peace how
do we live like that?,” he asked.
He observed that the occasion had
opened a door for people to know that Nigerians have brighter opportunity to
live peace with one another.
Sa’idu argued that attending
Church service by Muslims was not an unusual thing in other countries he
visited, assuring that in other countries Muslims, Christians and other
religions do their celebrations together.
“I pray this has broken the jinx
that we can begin to live together, Muslims attend Christian functions,
Christians attend Muslims functions like that we will be happy.
“My message to Nigerians is that
let’s copy what these brothers and sisters have done and truly this visit has
encouraged me that I have a friend in you, in this man and all of you.
“This implies that I can go to
this person, I can go to that person and I will tell my problems and you can
attend to me, if we learn to do this, I tell you in the next 10, 20 years,
there will be no religious fight.
“Those who ignite crisis for
their selfish aims and they leave us to kill and destroy one another but now
that we are here for peace we all love one another,” he said.
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