Islam and Global Peace.

by Eze Eluchie

To a writer who is interested in getting feedback from society, the social media, particularly Facebook and online Blogs, remains one veritable medium from which one could elicit responses to issues from segments of society one may ordinarily not be opportune to interact with.

An issue which is increasingly becoming a source of concern to all well-meaning people is the explosion of violence across the Middle East and North Africa – areas with predominant Muslim populations. In addition to populist revolutions which led to the exit of totalitarian regimes in the wake of the Arab Spring, wars have been raging near endlessly across that region in the course of the past three decades. From the Iran–Iraq wars to the present bloodbath in Syria and in the unending conflagrations in post-Saddam Iraq, the region and its people seem to epitomize anger and violence.

The violence in the region has been exported all over the world in the guise of inter religious conflicts. It’s either Muslims attacking Christians in Nigeria, Egypt or wheresoever or Muslims taking on Hindu’s in India. In Burma, it is the Muslims and the Buddhists, whilst the Muslims make out time to engage those engaged in indigenous religious beliefs in Darfur and several entities where such practices florishes. In the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, strife between Islamic sects dating back several centuries, remain at the root of irreconcilable and never ending battles between the Sunni and Shi’a sects of Islam. 

Islam seems at war with itself and  rest of the world.

Remarkably, with the exception of Muslims, other religious groups seem to cohabit in relative peace, one with the other, without much altercations or violent conflicts.

It was thus with a view to understanding more about the Islamic faith that I posed an innocuous question on my page on Facebook, to wit: “Is Islam compatible with Democracy?”

After a few days of silence on my wall, I got a rather terse response from a Facebook 'friend': “The question should be ‘is Democracy compatible with Islam?’”

Hmmmmm

As I reflected on the response, I felt a cold chill trickle down my spine. Embedded in the response, as I later discovered upon more discourse with the author of the response was the question: ‘Was the world compatible with Islam?’ and not 'if Islam was compatible with the world!'

Considering that Islam claims allegiance from close to a billion people, it was only rational to seek to understand the faith more by delving into its sacred books, particularly the Qur'an, a book Muslims believe was a revelation from Allah (the creator) through Angel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed (sallallahu alayhi wasallam – peace be upon him).

The sense of worry did not abate. The emphasis on violence, subjugating and or conquering 'non-believers' until they are subdued/converted/killed which flows through the literature was rather unsettling and questions the veracity of assertions by those commonly referred to as ‘moderate’ Muslims that the extremists and those who rely on terror and violence in the name of Islam are not reflective of the faith.

Is it rational to divorce those who bomb, kill and maim adherents of other faiths (such as the unfortunate victims of the suicidal attacks/bombings in Malali, Zaria, Suleja, Abuja, Kaduna, {Nigeria}, Beslan School-North Ossetia, Moscow Metro {Russia}, '9-11' New York, Boston marathon {USA}, Mumbai, Kashmir {India}, Woolwich, London transportation {UK}, US Embassy buildings in Nairobi {Kenya} and Dar-es-Salam {Tanzania} and all over) under the guise that they are 'extremists' or 'terrorists' whilst the Quran seemingly enjoins all adherents of the faith to do likewise? Could there be other meanings to what the Holy Quran provides its Chapter 9:29 – 31 and in various portions?

As our Muslim brothers and sisters prepare for the Holy month of Ramadan (which commences on the 8th of July 2013), one can only join them in prayer and expectation that they are able to meet the rest of the world halfway as we expect deeper reflection into the faith and a call to all adherents to sheath the sword?

Adherents of the Islamic faith should be able to cohabit in peace with the rest of the world?



Picture: Muslims praying

Picture: Muslims praying

Most Unfortunate Murder of Security Personnel

by Eze Eluchie

To any discerning mind, the news that not 10, not 20, not 40 but over 100 security personnel, inclusive of over 80 specially trained police men, and officers of the State Security Service and Civil Defense operatives were killed in a single operation by a little known rag-tag rural cult group comprised of an admixture of subsistence farmers, fishermen and their apprentices, sounds preposterous, incredulous, like the stuff tales are made of. Not so when you factor in that this is Nigeria. After all, we are the country where the preposterous acquires reason and the incredulous becomes credible.

The pristine, evergreen luscious landscape of Alakyo community in Nasarawa State (north-central Nigeria) in the night of Tuesday 7th May 2013, became the latest waterloo of Nigeria’s (in)security agencies . Over 100 fully armed officers and men from various security outfits, had stormed Alakyo under what had been planned as a clandestine operation to ostensibly arrest a feeble old man who serves as head of an indigenous cult group (Ombatse) – as it turned out, some persons who were suspicious and adverse to security agency operations in the area got wind of the ‘clandestine’ operation, and confronted the huge security convoy of more than 10-truck loads of personnel, resulting in the huge wastage of human lives and destruction of security apparatus.

Media failure

by Eze Eluchie

Like every other institution of the Nigerian contraption, our media is failing us.

If the issue had been to get journalists who will tag along with a Presidential or Ministerial or other governmental delegation on an international trip, there would have been no shortage of journalists willing to join the entourage.

Now that a segment of the Nigerian State has been cordoned off and being ruled under ‘Emergency Rule’, there is near total blanket of information on happenings in Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa States. There is simply no information coming out, save for the terse briefings from the Military High Command, on what the military wants us to know.