30th December 2015,
PRESS RELEASE:
REACTION TO
PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA CHAT:
BANNING HIJAB IS ESCAPIST, SCAPEGOATISM
President Muhammadu Buhari this evening
hosted media executives to a presidential media chat. The president hinted on
the possibility of imposing a ban on hijab in the near future if the bombings
continue.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
rejects any idea of imposing a ban on hijab. It is escapist. It is
scapegoatism. It will open the floodgates of anarchy. Instead of solving
Nigeria’s security problems, it is most likely to compound it.
If army and police uniforms are not banned
although they are often used by bandits, why should we ban hijab? Security
agents know how they often fish out hoodlums who use police and soldiers’
uniforms to commit atrocities. The same method should be used to prevent the
use of hijab for bombing.
What crime have Nigerian Muslim women
committed that they should be derobed in public? Without their hijab, Muslim women feel as if
they are naked.
Users of hijab are in all walks of life. They are civil servants, business
women, teachers, etc. Most importantly, they are tax payers and voters. They
voted Buhari into power. Is Buhari’s government warming up to encroach on
Allah-given fundamental rights of Muslim women? Is this an appropriate pay-back?
Another dimension in the idea of
banning hijab is the geographical area likely to be involved in the ban? Will it be limited to the three troubled
states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe? Will it extend to the whole North East or
will the ban cover the whole of Nigeria?
The question also arises, Mr. President,
if you ban hijab, what is the time frame? When will you deban it?
Are we not
likely to experience more religious upheavals after the ban as some religious
zealots will want to capitalize on the ban by maltreating Muslim women? Will
these religious fanatics who use the period of the ban to oppress Muslim women
stop their repression even after hijab has been de-proscribed?
Has President Buhari pondered over the impact
of the imposition of a state of emergency on those three states by the past
administration? Did it stop insurgency? We posit that Boko Haram handlers will
simply shift to other methods to conduct their nefarious activities. Already
they have introduced suicide bombing by children. Is Buhari going to ban
children from going out to the streets?
MURIC appreciates Mr. President’s
dilemma. We understand that Boko Haram must be defeated. But Muslim women must
not be the scape goats. Nigerian Muslims will not succumb to a policy that dehumanizes their
mothers, wives, daughters and sisters. Banning hijab tantamounts to institutionalizing
the stereotyping of Muslim women. This is unacceptable.
Hijab is more than a covering for
female Muslims. It is a unique identity for Muslim women. It is a mark of
dignity and a symbol of piety. Hijab is an integral part of Islam, a microcosm
in a macro. Whoever bans hijab has fired a shot at the religion of Islam. We
therefore advise Mr. President to tread softly.
Hijab also represents chastity and innocence. By
banning hijab, Nigeria will be pronouncing its hypocrisy to the international
community as a country which claims to be fighting HIV and AIDS yet it has
failed to protect chastity and innocence. Whoever bans hijab has given unbridled
licence to indecent dressing among women, its attendant sexual licenciousness and
the exposure of society to its aftereffects.
Buhari and his security chiefs must therefore
find other means of stopping the bombings. They should leave Muslim women alone. Nigeria’s security agencies
must sit up and device other means. There must be new initiatives and fresh
ideas. Armchair crime-fighting is an anachronism. They must not use Muslim
women as scapegoats. They must step up their intelligence gathering gimmicks.
On a final note, we opine that banning
hijab will be a mark of victory for Boko Haram. The insurgents will celebrate
their success in causing so much confusion and such wide division between the
government and its Muslim citizenry.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714
MASHALLAH, well said indeed. May Allah SWT continue to preserve His religion as always, AMIN.
ReplyDeleteThe president should look at these issues critically. you can not fear satan to disobey ALLAH. The holy prophet said that when you derobe or remove the hijab of a woman you have removed her islam.The president should not let our present predicaments derail us to jahiliyah. we are praying day in day out for Allah's intervention so that peace return to our beloved country . Terrorism is not in islam and we, all muslims abhore and condem it we should not be pressurized to kufr....a worse condition than what we are in now. May Allah guide the presidency towards the right decision.
ReplyDeletejazakallahu bin khair
ReplyDeleteMay Almighty Allah reward you abundantly sir.
ReplyDeleteProf thanks for this writeup, I pray Mr President get to read this and find possible solutions to insurgency instead of banning hijab. I can't just imagine myself without my hijab.
ReplyDeleteApt and pertinent questions that must be answered by proponent of the ban of Hijab, in our case the president, Muhammadu Buhari. Jazakallahu Khair for this your sincere Nasiha.
ReplyDeleteThis is are personal comments of an ordjnary Nigerian muslim.
ReplyDelete*That Mr president would not draw up a ban on the use of hijab in Nigeria.
*That Mr President as a muslim knows that the use of hijab is an integral of the ultimate of the article of islamic faith- "laa ilaaha illa llaah". This is because the use of hijab is a commandment by Allah upon Muhammad and every muslim. Ref.Q. 24:31 and Q. 33:59
*That Mr President is not oblivious that even his counterpart, President Obama of the United states (the most terrorism conscious country) attacked France when that country in 2004 stopped hijab in schools. Obama stated that Western countries should stop dictating "what clothes a muslim woman should wear".
In Obama’s Muslim speeches, he makes it clear than any ban on hijab in civilised world is unreasonable and punishable.
Obama believes that it’s a very good thing for women to cover up. (I have clean photos where Obama asked Michelle, his wife to cover up, using hijab and wearing straight long skirt covering up to her ankle, and her jacket covering up to her wrist).
In his Cairo speech, Obama made that point, not once, not twice, but three times. He said:
"Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That’s why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it", Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009.
*That Mr President is not oblivious of the political backlash such ban would invite.
*That Mr President is not oblivious that it would be hypocritical that such ban, (if at all) is targetted at Muslim women alone , leaving out women of other faith that use veils.
That Mr. President knows that Allah categorically commands Muslim women to use hijab and any pronouncements against that is a clear infringements on their faith.
ALLAH SAYS:
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear therof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, or their brothers' sons or their sisters' sons, or their women or the servants whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex, and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers, turn you all together towards Allah, that you may attain Bliss.” (Quran 24:31).
“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (Quran 33:59).