MASSIVE DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF MUSLIMS

VOTERS REGISTRATION IN NIGERIA: MUSLIMS MASSIVELY DISENFRANCHISED   I often hear people describing Southern Muslims as liberal and tolerant. They ascribe this tolerance to the exposure of Southern Muslims to Western education. They also refer to the fact that families in the South (particularly in the South-West) are interwoven. It is common to find Muslims and Christians as members of the same family or in the same household living peacefully together.   While I accept this as a good development for peaceful coexistence, I nurse serious doubts about the sustenance of this good relationship. My fear is based on the treatment meted out to Muslims in this geopolitical zone. For whereas Muslims in the North enjoy freedom of religion, their Southern counterparts are often denied their Allah-given and fundamental human rights.   There are many instances of this with abundant evidence. But the on-going voters registration exercise is another major landmark in the violation of the rights of Muslims in the region. I have reports of the overzealousness of officials handling the current voters registration from all parts of this area. Contrary to official INEC instructions, these officials single out Muslims for discrimination.    Muslim women who wear hijab, those in purdah (with faces veiled) and Muslim males who wear ordinary caps are being denied registration. This is capable of discouraging Muslims from participating in the voters registration exercise. It is also tantamount to mass disenfranchisement of Muslims and a criminal denial of the Allah-given and fundamental human rights of tax-paying and law abiding citizens.   Islamic organizations in the South-West persuaded Muslims to avoid violent reaction. They issued appeals to INEC on radio, television and newspapers but the persecution continues. Yet Muslims in the North are not being treated this way. This may give room for negative speculations, fears and lack of confidence in INEC. Worse still, this discrimination is creating tension, excitement and agitation.   We need peace to conduct a successful voters registration exercise and the April 2011 polls. While I have confidence in the leadership of INEC, the ad hoc staff in the field have failed to appreciate the need for religious tolerance. A registration officer called Muslims on the queue 'the terrorist group'. Can you beat that!   Muslims are being embarrassed, intimidated and dehumanized. This is not acceptable. It is the height of religious intolerance and a manifestation of man's inhumanity to man. It is barbaric and Bohemian. Democracy is a sham if it is not participatory. I suspect a deliberate attempt to massively disenfranchise Muslims in the South for a hidden agenda, but it is only agents provocateur who can pursue such agenda.   As tax-payers and law abiding citizens, Muslims have the right to register. They must not be subjected to religious apartheid. We appreciate the efforts of INEC but wish to state that any exercise that does not take care of the needs of the various groups in the country is not objective enough. The peculiarities of the different religious groups must be properly taken care of. Those who refuse to recognize Muslims and give them their rights are promoting religious fanaticism. In fact they are fanatics of the worst order.   It is high time we recognize the role of provocation in religious crisis. The agent provocateur fires the first shot. That is the real fire. What follows is mere smoke and the natural follow-up. We have been told that there is no smoke without fire. But what the elites in Nigeria want us to believe is that the smoke should come first! They push it down our throats: "The smoke should be blamed, not the fire! Leave the fire alone! What has the poor innocent fire done?"   This is why we have not found the solution to religious upheavals in this country. That solution will come the day the elites face the truth and treat fire as fire should be treated. Only a bad fire-fighter will face the smoke and leave the fire to continue burning. Many of those officials in charge of registration of voters were out to set fire on the South-West. It would have been terrible if Muslims had reacted.   Even INEC officials berated the excesses of its officers in the field. On Sunday, 30th January, 2011, INEC Commissioner for Ogun State lamented the excesses of its field officers. Mr. Soliu Luqman, the Chairman of Ogun State chapter of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had asked him in a phone-in radio program if he was behind the ill-treatment of Muslims in the state and the refusal of officials to register Muslim women in hijab. The deacon gentleman (Deacon Martins) quickly disowned his field officers.   At Jolasco Bus Stop, Lambe Junction after Akute last bus stop, a registration officer simply identified as Ayo, played God with the destiny of Muslims in the area. She ordered all women in hijab to remove it or risk non-registration. All Muslim males wearing caps were ordered to remove their caps. The Imam who wore a turban was told to remove it or he would not be registered.   I was contacted from that spot and I spoke with the woman on phone reminding her that what she was doing was contrary to INEC instructions and therefore it was illegal. She rejected my entreaties. She continued her tyranny from Thursday 27th January up till the time of writing this report.   Readers can imagine the scenario this woman has created. Imagine if one of the aggrieved Muslims had grown tired of waiting for her to change her mind. Imagine that a Muslim woman who had been on queue since 6 am was asked to remove her hijab by 3.30 pm when she got to the registration table. Imagine that she knows her rights and refuses to do so. The officer orders her to step out of the queue.   Realising what this means since she has been on queue for so long and that she may not have another opportunity that day, imagine that she refuses to step out and insists on getting her rights. The officer asks the next person to come forward.   Imagine that the Muslim woman refuses to give way. People behind her start complaining. They ask her to give way. She is pushed. She pushes back. A slap! Another slap! A blow! Another blow! Muslims who have been treated the same way emerge from where they have been waiting to join the woman. How long do you think it will take for a religious crisis to start? By extension, if Muslims in the South continue to experience this type of treatment, how long do you think we have to wait before religious crisis starts?   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