There was a bizarre twist on an all-too-familiar story in Nigeria. An irate mob of Muslim protesters set a court on fire for releasing a man, Malam Abdul Nyass, after he was accused of insulting Mohammad. The crowd demanded his death. What is a bit different is that the court was actually a Sharia court imposing Islamic law and the accused was a cleric.
Nyass is part of the Tijanniyah sect, which is represents half of the Muslim population with Sunnis representing the other half.
Nyass was accused of saying that the Tijanniyah leader was more powerful than Mohammad.
The crowd responded to the decision of the court by throwing flaming tires into the building and burning it.
Part of the problem of embracing religious codes as a form of law is that it fuels such demands for religious and medieval retribution. It is hard to distinguish between a court that metes out Islamic justice from a mob demanding its own view of religious justice. Both are seeking to impose their faith on others in the name of some divine being. Such courts also reaffirm that virtual absence of any notion of free speech in countries imposing religious codes. The issue is not whether someone can speak against Mohammad but rather if they did and, if so, what punishment they will face under Sharia law.
Po … no, I do not believe you, you did not notice my reference to Zambia until you re-read my post. The other countries I don’t reference are for good reason, whether you “like” it or not. My first consideration is my friends who’ve chosen to live in Africa permanently…and their locations are no one’s business but those whom they choose to share it with, period. Care to discuss Sudan? South Sudan in particular these days? BTW…do you live in any country in Africa or are you just talking about it? I ask because you cited the term “we Africans”… what country does “We” include?
PS: I am v-e-r-y aware of the idiotic divisions of states in Africa by the colonials, in fact very similar to how several white men in Geneva designed the nation of Vietnam, carved out of Indo-China. I saw first hand how that was not truly a workable division, and ignored a 1000 years of history at the least. I understand your feelings, I think, but not your adamant attitude about what I might say. Makes me doubt your veracity versus your political inclinations. My impulse is to learn more, which I have cited vis a vis the people I know in Africa in general, while yours seems to be inclined to lecturing, and usually without a specific nation as a reference….so how are we that different? Frankly, in the end I do not believe much of what you say.
For a piece focused on thought and journalism over orientalism: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/25/myanmar-muslims-arrested-joining-terror-group-doesnt-exist/
Yawn.
Aridog
1, May 25, 2015 at 5:17 pm
Po … when I want your advice on diction I will ask for it. Note worthy is that you missed my citation of a specific country where my friends are at present, although they have made foot prints in several, and are moving to another, which is no one’s business but theirs.
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Coming from the same guy who keeps chastising me for my tone and replies to others…rather rich, Ari!
I am not giving advice on diction, giving you advice on the use of Africa as a stand in for a specific country. In case you did not know, we Africans do not like it!
I did notice your mention of Zambia this time, but you did not the previous times, hence my addressing it. Rather touchy lately! 🙂
Haha, Paul, I must say, you make me laugh! The good thing about you is that you do not (and no one else does) take yourself too seriously…
Keep it quiet though, but yes, the new manual came out, fresh off the White house press too!
Po … when I want your advice on diction I will ask for it. Note worthy is that you missed my citation of a specific country where my friends are at present, although they have made foot prints in several, and are moving to another, which is no one’s business but theirs.
po – you seem to have descended to ad hominem attacks rather than actual dialogue. New instruction manual come out?
Thanks for saying it for me, Isaac. I would, but fear the lynch mob would gather nooses and torches and accuse me, again, of hatred towards America.
The way I see it, despite the occasional examples of dysfunction, I see Nigeria with a glass half full perspective, where people cohabit mainly peacefully and effectively in spite of the variety and differences in ethnicity, languages, traditions, religions and political perspectives.
Their political system allows for effective representation in the government, and their social system allows for effective and peaceful cohabitation.
Using one example of dysfunction to paint a whole country with a broad brush is lazy and ignorant. As ;long the Nigerian south is not fighting the Nigerian north, as happened somewhere else…:)…, I say they are being successful.
Oluseyi:
Thanks for your perspective.
The trend that I perceive is that all it takes is to make an accusation about insulting the Prophet, or some other religious crime, and a mob promptly becomes violent. It reminds me of the 14-1600s, when people would have their enemies murdered by declaring them a witch. The end was inevitable, whether meted out by mob or trial.
On another note, Mr Zephaniah Phiri Maseko has made incredible advances in rainwater harvesting in arid climates in Zimbabwe. He’s been on my mind recently because of California’s water wars.
Every time I hear about people wasting their energy on destruction, whether in Baltimore or anywhere in the world, I think what a waste of our gifts. Mr Maseko was faced with far harsher obstacles than most people, and yet he became a world renowned expert on farming in arid land, teaching many people how to survive and thrive with limited rainfall. He overcame extreme adversity and paid it forward.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/zephaniah-maseko/
Oluseyi
Where there is ignorance and despair there is superstition and paranoia. Throw in more than one religious power base and this is what you get. Like most African countries European powers created Nigeria as dysfunctional due to the unnatural combining of different tribes, people, and religions. This allowed the colonial power, in this case Great Britain, to enlist and arm the minority to assist in controlling the entire colony. The secular colonial power once removed releases the tensions and angers built up for centuries.
The only solutions are individual countries composed entirely of one religion or the existing countries with strong secular governments. In Europe from the central part and continuing through the East through to Asia, ethnic groups that, centuries ago, developed their own nations but were amalgamated by force into confederations ranging from Czechoslovakia to the USSR have separated into their own original countries and seem to be better off. Experiments of combining groups of countries under strong secular powers, which suppressed the strong ethnic desire for self expression, have not worked so well.
Perhaps Nigeria, Ghana, and the rest of the countries, that were created by European powers many generations ago with colored pencils and rulers, that are destroying themselves internally, could be recreated following ethnic and religious groupings. A part of Nigeria that wants to be all strict Islam could be just that. another part that wishes a less stringent form of religion and a secular government could do what they want.
So far the forcing together of disparate religious and ethnic groups in these fabricated countries seems to bring only misery for those who aren’t in the majority.
Just to correct prof Turley, Nigeria is not half tijaniya and half sunni. Tijaniya is part of sunni Islam…I would know because I am a follower of the tijaniya tarikha. I know the Niass family, one of the major islamic families and tijaniya families in Senegal, and one of the main exporters of the tarikha across Africa and the US.
Limiting my comment to the theological aspect of this story, it is obvious to me that there has been a bizarre misunderstand, for one of the Tijaniya Tarikha ‘s main aspects is the holding of great importance the Prophet Muhamad AS. So to say that tijaniya is greater than the Prophet is to say that Catholicism is greater than Jesus AS, which would be similarly ridiculous.
Ari, please start referring to the countries when discussing someplace in Africa. Africa not being a country, Nigeria is not South Africa, nor is Algeria Senegal. It would be akin to my saying , I have friends in South America.
One of my favorite boxers as a kid was the Nigerian/American, Dick Tiger. He was a great middleweight. I watched many of his fights on TV. I particularly remember his 15 round epic fight w/ Gene Fullmer, taking the middleweight title from him. Tiger stayed close w/ his home country and I remember him being outspoken about the Biafran tragedy.
Oulseyi, I echo what others have said. Thank you for your perspective, and come back as you see fit.
Beldar here. I spent time in Ferguson. There were no “lynch mobs” in Ferguson. There were no “slums”, no “projects”. There were outsiders. Some from nearby and some by NYC like Al Sharptonue. Big Al stirred up the nearby outsiders to loot and pilage. Better to compare NYC to those pirate territories. Not Ferguson.
Olúsèyí ..first, please stop by more often. Next, I have good friends who have moved to Africa as American Ex-Pats, and their kids, and plan to stay permanently. Though white, they’ve assimilated as much as possible, all considered. Now in Zambia, soon moving elsewhere…and they sort of mirror your words…none-the-less, they love the place and are buying a house as we speak. They find hope where despair is frequent. I hear from them daily and it improves my perception of the world in general. I pine for your country and yet believe that a bright dawn can occur eventually. I am grateful for their contact regularly with me because I’ve never been to Africa, mostly Asia otherwise, and their remarks and stories are illuminating…I am never too old to learn, even as an old Yankee crank.
Wonder who has the tire concessions in these hell holes? They must clean up, given all the tires set ablaze each time there is some perceived insult to Islam.
What Olly said.
Oluseyi,
Well said! That could be quoted and applied to nearly every problem we face in our country.
Lynch mobs are world-wide. Sounds like Ferguson.
Gee I wonder why Nigeria is such a mess…..
Because we are a people concentrated on what divides us than on what can and should bind us. We are a people too proud and hateful that tolerance is a virtue lost in the cesspool of self and sectarianism and tribalism and all the bad “isms”. That’s just some of the reasons my country is in a mess, sir.
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