How can You Kill In God’s Name – Ayobami Oyalowo

In the recent past, our dear
country Nigeria has been
besieged by corruption,
violence , executive,
legislative and even judicial
lawlessness. But nothing
compares to the current
siege we are faced with in
the form of terrorism, being
spearheaded by Jama’atu
Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-
Jihad (People Committed to
the Propagation of the
Prophet’s Teachings and
Jihad).
The sect is locally known as
Boko haram, a Hausa
appellation for western
education/civilization is sinful.
While Boko Haram continues
their killings and wanton
destruction unabated, the
federal government of
Nigeria, headed by Mr.
Goodluck Jonathan appears
totally clueless, helpless,
lacking in imagination and
bereft of any idea with which
to curb this scourge.
Boko haram, according to
Wikipedia, became active
around 2002, in Borno State
and their ideology is basically
religious fundamentalism.
The founder is believed to be
Mohammed Yusuf, who was
extra judicially murdered by
the Nigerian police in their
custody in July 2009. After his
death, Abubakar Shekau took
over the leadership of the
group and his reign as leader
of the sect has been nothing
short of bloody. The man
seems to enjoy bloodletting.
The death of Yusuf has seen
a serious escalation in the
boko haram scourge. This
puts a dampener on the
sincerity of the Nigerian
authorities about bringing an
end to Boko haram, as every
senior figure arrested since
the onset, have either
mysteriously died in custody
or have disappeared after
they have been arrested.
Let us examine what may be
the objectives of Boko
Haram. A Terrorist, as
defined by the concise oxford
dictionary is a person who
uses violence and
intimidation in the pursuit of
political gains. While
terrorism is defined as the
use of violence and threats to
intimidate or coerce
especially for political
purposes. We can safely
conclude therefore, that
terrorists are basically
politically motivated, but use
religion as a vehicle to drive
home their agenda.
Also if we look at religion
over several hundreds of
years, we can safely conclude
that terrorism is not
necessarily a problem found
in a particular religion, but
has been used by so many
political figures to pursue
their dreams of an utopian
age.
Terrorists who claim Islam as
Religion have always
predicated their actions on a
few verses in the Qur’an but
mostly use the hadiths to
back up or justify their evil
agenda. One of such is found
in Sura 61:10-12 ‘’jihad is the
best method of earning
(blessing), both spiritual and
temporal. If victory is won,
there is enormous booty of a
country, which cannot be
equalled to any other source
of income. If there is defeat
or death, there is everlasting
paradise…’’ . Sura 47 also
sees Allah commanding
Muslims to smite the neck of
anyone who did not accept
the teachings of Islam. What
those people will not
however tell you is the
context in which the sura was
written. I can show several
verses in the bible, which the
crusaders between 1095 –
1291 misapplied to wreck
havocs in the middle age
otherwise known as dark
ages. There is also the issue
of 72 virgins. From various
studies carried out and
literatures available, there
was nowhere in the Qu’ran
or hadiths where the no 72
was mentioned. Several
Islamic scholars including the
American female Islamic
scholar. Lezzley Hazleton
have disprove that fact. The
word translated as virgin is
houri or dark eyed beauty
was mentioned 4 times in the
Qu’ran and it could have as
well been a sign of purity.
Also studies, shows most of
these commandments to
fight were written in the
hadiths at a time when Islam
needed to spread and the
entire Arabia was inhabited
by pagans. Therefore the
Muslims were encouraged to
fight to protect themselves
and to spread their religion.
Of course cowards and bigots
misused these Suras to bomb
innocent women, children
and defenseless men in
churches and marketplaces in
times of relative peace.
Fundamentalists basically
latch on to a set of religious
quotes, often out of context,
and always attempt to force
their code of conduct and
principle on everybody within
their sphere of influence.
Fundamentalists can be
found in every religion,
although in varying degrees.
In Christendom, you have
various sects. Some very
extreme i.e. National
Liberation Front of Tripura is
an explicitly Christian
terrorist group, forcibly
converting people, the
Christian Science, the latter
day saints (Mormon) etc.
Some of these sects may not
be violent as it were, but
they broke from the
mainstream and adopted
strange ideologies and
appear to impose themselves
on the mainstream
Christians.
The Islamic fundamentalists
on the other hand, are a
different ball game, they seek
to propagate their brand of
Islam forcefully. Note also,
that they do not accept nor
respect mainstream Muslims.
Check out the Taliban in
Afghanistan; they seek to
impose their laws on all and
thereby wish to bring
everybody along with
themselves to the dark ages.
In sura 2:256 the Qur’an
states ‘’let there be no
compulsion in religion’’, but
these lots completely ignore
Allah’s command. They
prefer to continue with their
ill thought out but extremely
bloody campaigns to the
detriments of modern
civilization.
In Hebrew 12:14 the bible
teaches ‘’Follow peace with all
men and holiness, without
which no man shall see the
Lord (emphasis mine). Also in
John 18:10-11, during the
arrest of Jesus by armed
men, we saw the Lord Jesus
rebuke Peter for using his
sword, for Jesus knew that
he who lives by the sword,
shall also die by the sword. It
is therefore amazing when I
hear or read very senior
church figures in Nigeria,
calling out their followers to
retaliate and kill Muslims. I
ask? Which Muslims? Is it the
poor ‘’mai suya or mai shai’’
on the street or the cowardly
but dangerous but faceless
terrorist that hides and
covertly blows children and
women up? If you succeed in
killing your peaceful Muslim
neighbours, will that end the
reign of terror as represented
by Boko Haram?
Make no mistake about it, I
am as saddened and angry
as the next man about the
senseless waste of lives and
properties, but I also
understand that the enemies
are not my Muslim
neighbors. If I must fight, I
understand that according to
2 Cor 10:14: ‘’the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal
but are mighty through God.
Note also that
fundamentalists assume they
are doing God a favour. John
16:2b Jesus told his disciples
‘’a time shall come when
whosoever kills you will
believe he is doing God a
service. No God will ever ask
people to kill for him. I
therefore posit without any
fear of contradictions that
those so-called men of God
calling for war are not
speaking for Jesus; they are
on their own.
Before you get on my back, I
concede that we have had
religious conflagrations in the
past and I had also been a
victim in Kano 21 years ago.
While I do not support
religious violence, I make
bold to say that what we
currently face is not mere
religious skirmishes– we are
at war with terrorists and
terrorists world over are
dangerous and brutal. Their
end game is political
domination. You may ask
why target churches? The
answer is simple: to provoke
Christians and create
mayhem. Note– ours is a
peculiar setting and If that
worked, and Muslims
probably win, they will
proceed to deal with the
Muslims too, like they did in
Afghanistan, where Muslims
were forced to practice a
form of Islam that is
barbaric. Terrorists fear
neither God nor respect any
religion. Their aim is strictly
political and economic
domination.
Rather than engage in petty
fights as Muslims and
Christians, it is pertinent we
call on the federal
government of Nigeria, with a
security budget of N1trn in
its kitty, to ensure our lives
are truly secured. I
remember vividly, that during
the OBJ years, some Christian
leaders made stringent
insinuations that ‘Al quaeda’
was in Nigeria, specifically
around Bauchi and Plateau
states; training would be
terrorists on the mindless art
of killing many. But the
government turned a deaf
ear. We also recall that
before the recent bombings
in Zaria, Kaduna state,
security was abruptly
withdrawn from the affected
church, hours before the
attack, despite protests by
the church leaders. What is
the government hiding from
us? Also do not forget that
we have been informed by
government that some
masterminds or kingpins of
boko haram have been
arrested. But as I write, not a
single breakthrough in terms
of information has been
mined from those arrested.
Rather, we have watched as
all suspects have
mysteriously died in custody.
Finally my advice to my
Muslims brothers and sisters
especially from the North is
for us to foster a better
understanding with our
Christian brothers. Let us
stand united and show those
cowards that we will not let
them push us into a
senseless civil war. And to my
fellow Christians– be sober,
be vigilant for our adversary
the devil moves around like a
roaring lion, seeking whom to
devour (1 Peter 5:8)
Remember the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal.
Do not let any man push you
to where Jesus has not asked
you to go to. We do not war
against flesh and blood and
our enemies are not the
Muslims. Our enemies are
spiritual. Take charge on your
knees. Be wise as serpents
and be gentle as doves.

The writer is on twitter
@Ayourb

#CONSENSUS 2015