ATTEMPTING A POLITICAL VISION FOR THE NIGERIAN
MUSLIM COMMUNITY - 3

[ Abstract & Preamble ]    [Our Responsibility]   [ Our Record ]    [Attempting A Vision ]   [ The Process & Conclusion ]  Our Dismal Records Before embarking on our attempt at a vision, it might help to hook at our records in upholding or discharging our responsibilities as Muslims, specifically in the areas mentioned above. Ignorance - Since the creation of the Nigerian federation, another tradition of learning, the Western system of education, has been introduced. While the initial Muslim aversion for this system of education is fairly understandable, the degeneration of Islamic educational system itself is not. The level of literacy, which is the beginning of all learning processes, had been dwindling. A recent survey of Binji LGA, in Sokoto state, which served as the cradle of the jihad which established the Sokoto Caliphate, revealed that the literacy level is only 12%. This contrasts with an LGA in Akwa-Ibom state which has over 90% literacy The literacy survey, many may find difficult to believe included both Latin and Arabic script. But even if it were only in Latin script, where does that leave us as a community in contemporary Nigeria at the eve of the century? Other statistics are already showing that the total percentage of Muslims from the Northern states entering Nigerian universities is under 3%, unbelievable but unfortunately true. Injustice - When it comes to the promotion of the cause of justice our records are hardly better than our literacy. In the last one and half decades this country went through one of the most unjust regimes eversince independence. The worry was not that these regimes were led by Muslims, for it is easy to show that they were neither representing Islam nor doing what they did on behalf of the Muslims. The worry was that while non-Muslims were raising their voices against these injustices, especially the Christian clergy, the Muslim voice was hardly audible. Worse, Muslims scholars were seen coming and going in and out of the presidency, praising these atrocities and praying for the perpetrators God’s protection and longevity of their regimes. The Sarakuna were also coming and going in and out of the presidency, taking home cars and only God knows what, and making insensitive statements. This culminated in the most humiliating experience: a Sultan and one of the remaining Islamic symbols, whatever one may think of him, was deposed and detained without due process of law and it took the Pope to come from the Vatican to publicly call for his release. Yes, it may have all been arranged by Islam’s smart adversaries, but what stops the Muslims from being smart? Muslims may wish it away but they have established a record for insensitivity to injustice and the complicity of their leaders and scholars in massive corruption and injustice. Dictatorship - Muslim posture regarding democracy and good governance has been, to say the least, negative. For a start the symbol of Islam today is a monarch, certainly a wrong and false start, for Islam cannot condone monarchy, much less allow it to represent it. While it could be sheer coincidence that most of the dictators we have had since independence were Muslims, it cannot be a coincidence that Muslim scholars have for the most part provided support not only by their silence but also by their participation not only in prayers in their favour but also in providing selfish interpretations of Islamic texts to legitimize oppression. Some scholars, it must be added, have gone out of their way to create the impression that democracy is un-Islamic, a design of some Jews somewhere to subvert Islam as if all Islam has to offer is Monarchy and dictatorship. Admittedly, in their readings, some of these scholars have never gone beyond some of the propaganda materials written in Arabic, emanating from the Middle East, where monarchs and dictators have been having a field day for more than a millenium. It must be appreciated that a great majority of the Islamic literature written by some well known Muslim fuqaha, was done under the aegis and supervision of monarchs and military dictators who where keen to justify their regimes. Appreciating this context necessitate the separation the chaff from the grain, rather than accepting them on their face value. It is true the Muslim community has long host its intellectual prowess and with it its critical mind and has thus come to accept many things as given. But it is also true that this meekness and laziness is the very symptom of decadence and must not therefore be encouraged or condoned, if only because we have an obligation to state the truth.