Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, says Ibrahim Maqari, Imam of
the national mosque, should be sacked from his position over his comments on
“redlines” of Islam.
On May 12, Deborah, a female student of Shehu Shagari
College of Education, Sokoto state, was killed by a mob over alleged blasphemy.
Amid this development, Maqari through his Twitter handle
insinuated that Deborah deserved her death.
He tweeted: “It should be known to everyone that we the
Muslims have some red lines beyond which MUST NOT be crossed. The dignity of
the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the red lines. If our grievances are
not properly addressed, then you should not be criticized for addressing them
ourselves,” said a statement posted on the imam’s Twitter account.”
Speaking on Saturday during the launch of the late Ibrahim
Attahiru’s biography in Abuja, Soyinka accused Maqari of directing his
followers to take laws into their own hands.
He called for an end to such acts in the name of religion
and demanded that the Islamic cleric be removed from office.
“To anyone who cares to listen, Maqari has implicitly
directed his followers to take the law into their own hands in the name of
religion, and in a nation beset on all sides by wars of ultra-nationalism and
religious fanaticism,” Soyinka said.
“That is the message of a supposedly holy man to youths, to
us, his message to a nation embroiled in a madness of multiple insurgencies.
“The young woman, Deborah, he declared, deserved her death.
This mullah, allegedly a man of learning, since his name is professorially
captioned, says that there is a line, a red line that none of us must cross, no
matter who we are, what we think, profess or value.
“So there we are, arbitrary lines crisscrossing, drawn by
individuals and constituencies of beliefs and non-beliefs, of power and
aspirants of power. Nowhere do the belligerents profess the common
constitutional line and the boundaries of legitimate conduct that supposedly
define the imperatives of cohabitation and respect for a human commonality
known as – life.
“It is time for all group interests to draw their lines, to
decide where they intersect with others, where they run parallel, and where
they diverge and/or snarl into a chaotic maze. If Professor Grand Imam Maqari
can draw a line in blood, the rest of the community of equal rights must
proceed to draw their own, but they will do so in less primitive, bloodthirsty
mode, in full respect of human dignity.
“That apostate of the creed of humanity, Professor Maqari,
must be removed from office. It is no longer sufficient for all to declaim that
Islam is this and that, that the Sharia is thus and thus, that Prophet Mohammed
set this or that example and made this or that humanistic pronouncement.”
He added that Nigerians should desist from extending their
religious predispositions beyond constitutional legitimacy.
In response, Aisha el-Rufai, the wife of Nasir el-Rufai,
Kaduna governor, said the people behind the death of Deborah do not have the
backing of Islam.
She described the people who kill in the name of religion as
“crazy people” who use religion as a reason to back “their crazy actions”.
”Permit me to say that these people are people we should
talk about just like another person who robs and kills the other person, just
like a pervert Muslim who rapes a three-month-old baby, just like a crazy
Christian who rapes a six-year old girl,” she said.
”These people are not doing this with the backing of any
religion. Whatever reason they might give their choice is to use religion, they
are not for Prophet Mohammed.
”Islam does not preach what they do and the Prophet if alive
would not have allowed such a madness done to anyone. I feel it is necessary to
defend him and the religion which these crazy people smear with their crazy
actions.”
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