Top Nigerian Islamic scholars have condemned as un-Islamic and barbaric the massacre of hundreds of people, mostly women and children, in attacks on three Christian villages south of Jos metropolis, urging authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"The massacre is no doubt a condemnable and abominable act which is totally rejected by the Muslim community," Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), told IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, March 9.
Some 500 people, mostly Christian women and children, are believed to have been killed in attacks by machete-wielding gangs on three villages on the fringes of Jos, capital of Plateau state.
"We condemn in very strong terms the alleged raping and killings, especially of women and children," said Adegbite.
"Islam offers excellent example in how women and children should be treated and I do not want to believe any Muslim would commit such weighty sins by killing the minors and the weak."
Abdullahi Shuaib, coordinator of the Conference of Islamic Organizations (CIO), agreed. He branded the killings as unacceptable and called for holistic probe into the pogrom that has left the hitherto beautiful state a shadow of its old self.
Professor Lakin Akintola, prominent Islamic televangelist and lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), said the Muslim community condemns these wanton killings.
"We cannot make meaningful progress if Nigerians live like cats and mice everyday of their lives," he told IOL.
"There is urgent need for the military to be deployed to every nook and cranny of Plateau State until peace is fully restored."
"The citizenry needs the protection of the government of the day to be able to go about their works without any fear of molestation."
Ethnic, Not Religious
Prof Akintola urged adherents of all religions, especially Muslims, to preach forgiveness and patience.
"We call on Muslim leaders and scholars in Plateau State to imbibe the teachings of forgiveness, tolerance and patience," he said.
"The Qur’an says, ‘Evil and goodness are incompatible’. Therefore, pay evil back with goodness. If you do this, even your enemies will soon become your best friends."
Adegbite, the NSCIA secretary general, refuted claims that the bloodletting in and around Jos, the capital of the Nigerian crisis-ravaged north-central Plateau state, is religious.
"Muslims and Christians are not fighting to get conversion; they are not struggling over place of worship. So it is not religious," he explained.
"What is happening in Jos is a strong ethnic rivalry between the Berom and the Hausa Fulani, and this has denigrated into what I call ethnic hatred and ethnic extremism.
"It is purely ethnic, and is political power struggle and economic power struggle and they are through such fighting giving bad name to both Islam and Christianity."
Bias
Adegbite urged the Christian-dominated state government to avoid inflammatory statements which could further pit Nigerians against one another.
"The state government is biased. And we’ve to be careful."
The Muslim leader urged the authorities to address the root causes of the violence.
"What the government should do is to outlaw ethic discrimination in all forms, so if the law is not strong enough they should strengthen it to deal with the hostility," said Adegbite.
"They should make it a crime and punish anybody involved."
Shuaib, the CIO coordinator, shares the same concern about the state government.
"If government is seen to be partisan that will escalate the crisis. The government at all time must be seen as father to all and sundry, which is the essence of good governance."
He warned the state government and security agencies against jumping to conclusions about the attacks before investigating the carnage.
"If the state government is already making such a conclusion that it was a reprisal then there is need for restraint because that can further incite other people to want to seek revenge. It is this same unguarded statement that has worsened the crisis over the years."
He urged the government to get to the root of this barbaric action and the crisis as a whole.
"We suggest that government should really talk with the community leaders, and not the assumed leaders who don’t live in these communities, to get to the roots of the matter."
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