El-Zakzaky, Religion And The Nigerian State
....So much has been
said about the December 12 confrontation between the Nigerian Army and
members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria led by Sheik Ibraheem
El-Zakzaky, the leader of the Shia in Nigeria. I guess the point has
been well-made that there are faults on both sides.
There
seems to be a consensus, however, that the followers of Ali, better
known as Shiites or the Shia, seem to enjoy confrontations with the
state and seem determined to disregard dominant authority- Islamic and
secular.
By the same
token, the Nigerian security establishment has since the 1980s showed an
equal determination to put el Zakzaky in his place. But in no way does
this justify the extra-judicial killing of members of the Islamic
Movement, or the use of the word, “Prisoners of War” (POW) to describe
its detained members. The Nigerian Government since the 80s has set up a
series of panels of inquiry and produced tomes on the subject of
forging peaceful relations between the state and religion, and yet
religion remains a key threat to amalgamation and the sanctity of the
Nigerian state.
What we are
dealing with is something deeper- it is the outflow of a deep schism
within the Islamic faith on the questions of authenticity and
legitimacy, in terms of what constitutes rules, doctrines,
interpretations and values. This old battle for doctrinal supremacy is
what has been responsible for the divisions within the faith since the First Fitna. It
is the drama being played out in the Middle East. It is the story and
politics of ISIS and ISIL. This is why it will be wrong to describe the
Islamic Movement in Nigeria’s constant conflict with the Nigerian state
as a confrontation between Nigerian Muslims and the state, to the extent
that ISIS or ISIL does not speak for all Muslims just as the ISMIN does
not speak for all Nigerian Muslims.
There are many
Muslims in the North and across Nigeria who do not agree with El
Zakzaky’s preaching and his mode of organization. Sectarian differences
between Shiites and the Sunnis, who lay claim to a more authentic
version of Islam, are often transported onto the platform of the open
society. A Nigerian Sunni in uniform who is wielding a gun, confronted
by a Shiite insisting on lack of regard for the state, will willingly
open fire on that promoter of a branch of the religion, which he
considers unacceptable. The state gets blamed, but the battle is in the
hearts of the men on both sides: an ideological as well as
indoctrination battle. This connection between the hearts of men, their
beliefs, and the circumstances of power relations in which they find
themselves significantly defines the outcomes in cases such as this. It
explains the loud silences from critical quarters, including
government.
For example, in a
famous 2014 letter from Sheik Ahmad Gumi, a Nigerian Sunni Islamic
leader, the former accused El-Zakzaky of bringing “a lot of bad
innovations among Nigerian Muslims that rather than unite the Muslims
are further entrenching the divide without any added value to the
worldly development nor the hereafter...” These innovations include the
blocking of roads, disregard for state authority and the rights of other
Nigerians, incitement, resort to abuse and the deployment of hate
speech. Gumi complained about “the delinquency of your followers and
the disturbance of public peace.” He identified the root of the crisis
when he said: “How can you be the good servants of Allah when you call
other human beings beside him?” He refers to this as “path to
perdition.”
The response by El
Zakzaky signed by one Ibrahim Usman simply accused Dr. Gumi of hatred
and of ordering the shooting of Shias by the Nigerian government. This
argument between a Sunni Sheik and a Shia Sheik, would still have been
just as emotional and ideological if it had been between either of them
and a leader of the Sufi brotherhood: the Tijaniya, the Quadiriyya or
the Ahmaddiya. This battle is fought at many levels within the Nigerian
space, oftentimes with state apparatus as cover. The saving grace is
that no one has said that the man who ordered the shooting or those who
pulled the trigger against the Shiites in Zaria on December 12, are
Christians.
The bigger
responsibility of the state may well lie in preventing the spread of the
radicalism that turns the likes of Sheik El-Zakzaky into such powerful
figures that they command millions of radical men and women who do not
recognize the state or are prepared to use every possible means to
affirm the supremacy of their doctrine. El-Zakzaky practically grew into
an institution before the very eyes of the Nigerian state. While
freedom of religion and worship is in order, there must be stronger
structures for promoting inter and intra-religious understanding. The
existing platforms for such dialogue on peaceful co-existence are weak
and almost ineffectual, and the political elite, seeking power, often
compromises itself by promoting those whose doctrines pose a threat to
peace and unity.
El-Zakzaky’s
ding-dong battle with the Nigerian state, for example, has been on since
the 80s. He has spent a total of nine years in nine prisons across the
country. The polyglottal First Class Graduate of Economics from Ahmadu
Bello University has in 35 years built a movement that started with just
a few hundreds of youths, looking for answers to matters of faith, into
a nationwide network that boasts of two million members or more. That
is more than the population of many countries. “If we want a million people out on the streets on any issue, we can do that”, he once told the BBC.
This
pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, pro-Iran, pro-Iraq fiercely ideological
religious leader emerged as the commander of an army of youths and
adults who have bought into a branch of Islamic preaching that considers
itself superior even within the faith. Each time in the past that
el-Zakzaky was taken to court for the excesses of his members, he always
came out of it even far more defiant than he had been. After a two-year
trial in 1998, he not only walked free, the state acted as if it had
indeed been defeated. El-Zakzaky became more powerful thereafter as the
population of his followers grew.
He is not the
first of his type. Before him, there was Mohammed Marwa, popularly known
as Maitatsine whose confrontations with the Nigerian state resulted in
bloodbath, of a scale similar to that of present-day Boko Haram.
Maitatsine also questioned the authority of the state and caused
divisions among Nigerian Muslims with his controversial interpretations
of the Quoran. He rejected the Hadith and the Sunnah, and expressed lack
of belief in Prophet Mohammed (SAW). He was opposed to Western
modernization and the use of cars, wristwatches and bicycles. His young
followers attacked other religious leaders and engaged the police in
many battles. Between 1980 and 2004, more than 10, 000 lives were lost
to Maitatsine riots, which spread across the North. Marwa himself was
killed in 1980, but the radical Islamic Movement which he led known as Yan Tantsine, outlived him and survived for more than 20 years later under the leadership of Musa Makaniki, who succeeded him.
Ustaz Muhammad
Yusuf is another re-incarnation of the radical wing of Islam: an
offshoot of the Maitatsine. He is remembered as the leader and founder
of Boko Haram, the Islamic sect whose members claim they are committed
to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad. (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lida’awati wal Jihad).
Boko Haram was founded in 2002 and it took on the task of confronting
government and the progressive world. In 2009, the police killed Yusuf;
their excuse was that he was trying to escape from custody but Nigeria
has not known peace since then. What began as an objection to Western
education and Darwinism has turned into a protracted full-scale war
against Nigeria, an attempt to carve an Islamic state out of the country
and the conversion of parts of Nigeria into extensions of the sphere of
global terror. Today, Nigeria is regarded as a leading theatre of
terror, with more than 10, 000 lives lost in the last six months alone.
Religious
conflict, sectarianism and the growth of radical religious movements and
their problematic cult leaders have always posed a threat to Nigeria’s
sovereignty and the capacity of the Nigerian state to maintain peace and
security. The principal victims are ordinary Nigerians who get cut in
the crossfire and who suffer the consequences of living in a state of
fear. What makes it more frightening is the internationalization of the
crisis. In the present case, the Shia Government of Iran has declared
open support for El-Zakzaky. The Iranian Military also reportedly posted
a statement referring to the Nigerian Government as a “puppet regime.”
There was a street protest in Tehran on Friday, Dec. 18.
As if to balance
these responses, the Government of Saudi Arabia has intervened in
support of the Nigerian Government. This Middle Eastern extension of the
matter should alert the Federal Government to the need to take every
step to ensure that the ideological battles being fought in that region
do not open new flanks on our shores as a proxy platform. We cannot
afford a sectarian war, in addition to Boko Haram. In the meantime, the
Federal Government must object very strongly to the insolence of the
Iranian military. We don’t have a puppet regime in Nigeria. We have a
duly elected government.
Radical religious
leaders often seek martyrdom. The death of Muhammed Marwa and Muhammed
Yusuf turned them into martyrs, and worsened the Nigerian condition.
Wherever El-Zakzaky is being held, the Federal Government must ensure
that nothing happens to him. A man who boasts of millions of followers
across the country could become the catalyst for something worse than
Boko Haram. He and many of his followers, like the Boko Haram leader,
Yusuf, are university graduates. It is a pity that our education system
has become a breeding ground for cultists, fanatics and anti-state
elements. Whatever is responsible for this: social or economic needs to
be addressed.
It should also
be noted that radical religious movements from the Izala to the
Maitatsine, to El-Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement to Boko Haram draw their
membership from the ranks of young Nigerians, male and female, who find
heroes and answers in wrong places and circumstances and who become
victims of the Lucifer effect- that condition whereby people who should
be or are otherwise good become evil. Young Nigerians need to be
rescued and turned into good citizens in an open and happy society.
Education? Economic empowerment?, Re-orientation? Family values?
Distancing religion from politics? Yes… It won’t happen overnight, but
we must begin to realize that our response so far is behind the curve in
dealing with challenges of impunity and ideological extremism.
By
Reuben Abati
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