THE ALQAEDAH MESSAGE

THE AL-QAEDAH MESSAGE   By Is-haq Akintola   The article below was published in my weekly column in the Nigerian Compass newspaper of 12th February 2010.   The press was agog Tuesday with the report of a message from Al-Qaedah in the Maghrib (AQIM) in which the latter solidarised with Nigerian Muslims and also promised to train and arm them. Of course no serious person will dismiss any message from Al-Qaedah with a wave of the hand.   I am not going to contest the veracity or otherwise of the message. What interests me are the facts staring us in the face. First and foremost, it proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Al-Qaedah does not exist in this country up till this moment otherwise the Maghrib group will not speak up for Muslims in the country. Earlier claims and unnecessary grandstanding by the Nigerian police concerning terror plans by Al-Qaedah were bogus, unfounded and unsubstantiated.   Whereas we have been hearing of Al-Qaedah in Iraq, Yemen and Somalia, we have not, up till this moment, heard of such a thing in Nigeria. The group does not exist here yet. Islamic organizations in Nigeria are mainly peace-loving, except in isolated case like the Maitatsine and the Boko Haram. It must be noted that the two groups were roundly condemned by mainstream Islamic organizations and Muslim leaders as non-representative of Nigerian Muslims. To date, there has been no single act of terror with an Islamic undertone.   Neither should we underestimate the ability of Al-Qaedah to establish itself here. What we should be talking about in Nigeria at present is how to prevent it from happening. Yes, AQIM can find willing partners in the country. Muslims who fell victims of Islamophobia, those whose families were exterminated in the last and previous massacres in Jos, etc. So how do we prevent this from happening?   Putting up a bold face is not enough. In fact, it may be deceptive. The Nigerian police reacted this way to the offer made by AQIM early this week. The police claimed they were up to the task. But this was the same police that admitted helplessness last week concerning the Jos crisis and that was why the army was invited. My thesis, therefore, is that threats and counter-threats will not stop Al-Qaedah from getting a foothold on Nigerian soil. The police used the same approach in the Niger Delta question. They could not contain it. The army was brought in and we all are living witnesses of the anarchy which ensued. It criminalized the whole region and threatened even Abuja. Lagos had a taste of the senseless hullabaloo. There was no peace in the region until President Yar'adua offered a general amnesty.   What did the amnesty do? It addressed the core issues, the raison d'etre of Niger Delta militancy: the need for rapid development for the region, education, health, employment, etc. Those who genuinely desire peace for this country, those who wish to permanently keep Al-Qaedah outside Nigerian shores have just one thing to do. Let us listen to the Muslims. What are they saying? What do the Muslims want?   Remember that AQIM's message from far-away Maghrib came as a reaction to claims of systematic genocide against Muslims in Plateau State. There are claims that those who massacred Muslims employed state machineries. There are claims by Muslims that the police in the state was involved in the cruel and barbaric killings of whole Muslim families, most of whom were women and children. There are demands for independent international investigation into the allegations. Muslims are signing an online petition against the state governor, Jonah Jang, demanding that the governor should be tried at the Hagues for the massacre of innocent and harmless Muslims.   Muslims in Nigeria feel alienated, marginalized. Worst still, we are  stigmatized as fundamentalists, fanatics, terrorists, etc each time we seek integration into the Nigerian project. Of course Al-Qaedah will seize the opportunity to express solidarity and win the sympathy of the oppressed Muslims of Nigeria in such a situation.   Look at the National Identity Card scheme of 2003 for instance. Muslim women were psychologically debased by officials in charge of the exercise. They were not allowed to use their hijab while taking the photograph for the identity card. Our oppressors are tactical, cunning and mischievous. They knew what they were doing and it was simply to rob Nigerian Muslim women of their Islamic identities. Part of the objective was demographic. They intended to portray Muslims in Nigeria as numerically low and Christians as belonging to the majority group. Not only that. It was also designed to cause Muslim women psychological trauma by making them feel inferior and disgraced. It is part of the cut-throat rivalry in which our Christian neighbours engage. They believe Nigeria must go to Christ by hook or by crook! It will take a very strong Muslim woman to resist offers of conversion to Christianity after the demoralizing experience. At least they know that their self-dignity is guarantied once they join the only religion in which they cannot be embarrassed. I take this with a pinch of salt. Why must our neighbours experience no qualms using foul methods?   In spite of a petition quickly drafted and submitted by the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) after hundreds of Muslim women had come to our office to report the issue, the officials in charge refused to shift ground until, three days to the end of the exercise, MURIC was left with no other choice than to organize a peaceful protest. I recall that Shaykh Abdul Rahman Ahmad, current Chief Missioner of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society partook in the protest along with other notable Muslim leaders and hundreds of Muslim elders and youths. The leader of the government agency in charge of the identity cards (a woman), who had received our petition a week earlier but ignored it, came out to address us at Alausa, Ikeja. She obliged immediately. The records are there in the newspaper publications of the time.   This is our problem in this country. Why did she have to wait until we took to the streets? Now permit me to ask: why did the Federal Government wait until the Niger Delta militants took to the jungle? Now a follow-up question, I am just being curious: why must we wait until a group like the dreaded Al-Qaedah showed interest in the plight of Nigerian Muslims. Why don't we engage Muslims in dialogue? What do the Muslims want?   Don't ask me please. Nigerian Muslims have vehemently and repeatedly demanded Shari'ah. Do I need to ask you how they were treated when they demanded Shari'ah? They have demanded parity in public schools in the South-West where Muslim children are stinted of teachers of Islamic Religious Knowledge but instead they see only teachers of Bible Knowledge. Perhaps most of us do not know the implications of denying Muslim children of their Allah-given birthright to Islamic education. Muslims who are violent and seen as misguided today were denied access to good Islamic education. Those who have the right knowledge of their faith know that Islam does not support violence and aggression.     Liberating Nigerian Muslims from the forces discussed above does not necessarily have to come through force. That is where we defer from Al-Qaedah. Too many deaths have been caused already. I don't want to agree that I have to kill my Christian neighbour over religious rivalry. Nonetheless, the danger lies in Al-Qaedah being seen as a liberating force by oppressed Nigerian Muslims. Therefore I say to those behind the aggressive Christianisation of Nigeria, "Let the Muslims go". Is-haq Akintola (Ph.D), Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Lagos State University, P.O. Box 10211, LASU Post Office, HO 102 101, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria. Tel. 234-803-346-4974   I remain oppressed untill the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the sick healed and the homeless sheltered