Deja vu, The feeling you have when a particularly remarkable event occurs and it seems as if you have been through it all. And so, when the lovely city of Jos was yet again set ablaze, you could almost chart its course, relieving the events of 200I, 2004, 2008 and twice earlier in 2010. As usual, burnt homes and blighted lives; raped dreams and broken limbs, followed by the usual tragicomedy of finger pointing.
The Plateau State Governor and its supposed Chief Security Officer promptly took on his cheap, well worn garb of self-absolution, claiming that he had informed the security agencies of "rumours" of impending attacks, and wondered why they didn't do anything thereafter. In the face of such sickening admission of leadership failure, the best that most public figures will offer are the usual sanctimonious exhortations to peaceful co-existence, religious harmony, etc, etc. And if past experience is anything to go by, you can expect the usual Commission(s) of Enquiry to be set up, to again go through the usual motions, after which, well... , most likely, nothing would come out of it! We will not join the spineless and speculative blame-gaming which appears to be the strongest reaction of officialdom on this sad issue.
After all, the state governor has again put responsibility at the doorsteps of the usual faceless "mastermind" and "special people" seeking to scuttle the "ongoing electioneering activities" in the state. Also, the President has again vowed to bring the culprits to book. However, the victims of Jos (counting every Nigerian other than the perpetrators) will continue to wonder if it is not naive to expect conclusive action from government at this time, when the "mastermind(s)" of previous crises have gone unidentified and unpunished, and particularly in view of the celebrated lack of capacity of the men currently thrust into the highest positions in the leadership of the Nigerian State.
The proliferation of evil men is not as dangerous to national stability as an overwhelmed leadership who will sooner appease evil than confront it. When people feel they can literally get away with murder, they will attempt genocides. The intermittent eruption of violence in Jos, the bombings during the Independence Day celebrations and subsequently at the Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja, the bloodletting in Ibadan over the headship of the Motor park union (agberos), the reign of serious crime across the nation, and other such assaults which are daily becoming "normal" in Nigeria are wrought by impunity. Clearly, the yet unknown perpetrators are merely exploiting a vacuum in authority.
Even the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has, in unusually strong terms (as far as this particular government is concerned) called on the Federal Government to "urgently demonstrate to the nation that they have a government by taking decisive action" .in this matter. We can only pray that those who have put themselves forward as our leaders will develop the spine to provide the impartial, determined and courageous leadership that the nation deserves in these troubling times, even as we fear that we are expecting too much of them. But there is a fresh dimension to the latest eruption in Jos which confronts us directly as Muslims and which portends very serious danger if not adroitly addressed by the Muslim community and its leadership.
The fresh crises were allegedly ignited by apparently co-ordinated multiple bombing of churches in Jos township and attacks on others in Maiduguri on the 24th of December. The media (relying on figures provided by Daniel Gambo, deputy director of operations of the National Emergency Management Authority/NEMA), reported that over 80 people were killed by the bombs.
As was to be expected, reports of the huge death toll (since rebutted by the Police) fuelled existing ethno-political grouses, and led to reprisal attacks on Muslims in Jos and elsewhere. When the security agencies claimed in their usual manner to have apprehended some individuals attempting to plant bombs in other locations, one immediately hoped that whatever disclosures the suspects made about their identities, motivations, aims, objectives, and sponsors would assist the security forces in apprehending the real culprits.
However another dimension was introduced into the saga when a "Muslim group" was reported to have claimed responsibility for the bombings. Reading through the groups initial statement and transcripts of its internet video post (as provided in the media), the group claimed in one breath to have carried out the bombings because "our Creator has ordered us to wage war on everyone who does not embrace the religion of Islam after preaching to them", but also "because of the way we are being killed in this country. Through evil machinations, plans are orchestrated to achieve desired goals (against us) and we are continuously being killed".
So, is their "Jihaad" being fought to forcefully "convert" people to Islaam or to avenge the killing of their brethren in different locations across Nigeria? (Some of the instances cited in the statements Zango Kataf, Lagos, Ibadan, etc, date back to the 80s). We will leave the scholars to address the fundamental doctrinal questions raised by the statements. For instance, we will need to be told whether any band of individuals can simply declare a "jihad" in this manner, -whatever their motivations.
Indeed, are there no conditions precedent to the declaration of a Jihaad? On what basis can a Jihaad be launched, and by whom? The scholars will also tell us whether the Quraanic injunction that there is no compulsion in religion no longer applies, and whether the bombing of innocent women and children has a place in the Islamic Shariah, whatever the motivations.
Undoubtedly, the answers to these questions should be clear 'NO' to any serious Muslim upon correct guidance. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that we need reminding every now and then. We are then left with the inescapable conclusion that there is something fundamentally amiss about the scenario we are now confronted with, particularly in view of the clear contradictions in the statement, the very weak articulation of well known positions of the Shariah, the nature of the threats contained in the statements and their other serious incongruence.
Some have argued that the claim of responsibility by the "group" is a mere red herring, something planted by the States political enemies to deflect attention away from the real culprits and thereby lead it on a wild goose chase which would force it to take precipitate action guaranteed to alienate it from the vote-rich northern, Muslim community. Note that ,Nigeria is in an electioneering season, and in the do-or-die- world of their politics, anything goes. It is therefore argued that political enemies who have threatened to make the country "ungovernable" surely have a hand in all this.
On the other end of the spectrum, others speculate that the statement might well be part of an ingenious plot designed to provide ammunition to the government to bring Muslims to heel. It is therefore argued that such a clear admission of the sectarian killings at once solves the problem of a clueless administration confronting an apparently anonymous hydraheaded enemy.
With the admission of guilt, the government is armed with evidence to justify whatever action it may be requested to take by its foreign partners and puppeteers. The fact that the current president apparently prefers to make statements on serious matters of state from the pulpit of churches is cited in support. And so on. Conspiracy theories like these are an easy escape from the reality that now confront us in Jos and elsewhere. How easy to pretend that the "extremists" are only active in Yemen, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
How easy to forget that for years, countries like Saudi Arabia have been fighting the wayward ideologies that has led to the loss of so many Muslim and other lives across the world whilst its purveyors continue to hide in caves from where they send other peoples children to their deaths? We seem to have forgotten the September 11 events and its aftermath; how easy then to theorise over an ideology that has complicated matters so intractably in Iraq and Palestine when you only get to see the victims on TV! How convenient to demand that government and their political enemies leave us out of their issues.
But the matter at hand calls for a more honest, clear-headed and rigorous response from us, as Muslims. It would be irresponsible to pretend that characters fomenting these misguided ideologies are not active in our midst, whatever role they may actually have played in the Jos crises. More importantly, it would be dangerous to underestimate their capacity and the force of their determination. Even if we argue their motivations, the very many injustices and inequalities suffered by Muslims in different spheres steadily guarantee these people an abundance of excuses upon which to mount their campaigns. We will continue to argue that the best way the world can fight these people is to work towards a more equitable world order which respects the rights of all its people and corrects the injustices in Palestine, Kashmir, and other open sores on the worlds conscience (to paraphrase Tony Blair).
However, this does not mean that Muslims must take to self-help, indiscriminate blood-letting or political and self-serving interpretations of the Islamiccode. History continues to prove that deviation from the proper Islamic guidance will achieve anything but, success. Indeed, as we have always stated on these pages, the Supreme Guidance which the Shariah of Islaam provides us does not accommodate the misguided view that the end justifies the means.
Again, as we have always reiterated on these pages, the well understood principles of the Shariah which guide our interactions in our contemporary lives do not change with the times. In this regard, it isquite appropriate that several Muslim organizations immediately condemned the Jos bombings and its perpetrators as "barbaric, inhuman and insane".
Admittedly, some of these organisations had hitherto been quiescent in these matters (one of them had indeed ignorantly flirted with a nomadic demagogue hawking the wayward ideology), but this takes nothing away from their new found resolve, which we must commend. It is now up to us as individual Muslims to perform our duty of identifying purveyors of these wayward ideologies and rendering them to the various strata of Muslim leadership. In doing this, we offer them a chance for redemption and reorientation. In the final analysis, it does not matter whether the group that has claimed responsibility for the Jos bombing is a smokescreen or a red herring.
Whatever may be the motivations behind the claims and whatever may be its true character, the vehement reprobation by the Muslim organisations cited above should typify our response to purveyors of the wayward ideologies that seek to divide the Muslim Ummah, in any manner that they present themselves, locally or internationally. When they lay claim to a better understanding of the Shariah of Islaam than our rightly guided predecessors, these characters are not of us. They cannot appoint themselves guardians over our faith, or of our lives. They cannot supplant our well-established and respected leadership, and they cannot break the unity of the Muslims. They do not act for us, and they do not speak for us.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited