The News Nigeria
By Yushau Shuaib
“Take the law into your hands… You need not report to any authority to kill any blasphemer!”
I was shocked to the marrow when an Imam, during a Juma’at service in one of the mosques in Abuja, ordered his followers to engage in extra-judicial killing.
As a Muslim, not only by birth but also by training and practice, I would be terribly disturbed if anyone disparages my religion or the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) whom we the faithful hold in very high esteem. Yet, in that aggrieved state of mind, I would never take the law into my hand but will rather channel my deep consternation appropriately by reporting such sacrilegious act to constituted authorities for suitable judicial measures.
In recent times, I have had to contend with a series of gory footage of extreme brutalities. I watched a video in which blindfolded captives were thrown into a deep ditch and buried alive by their tormentors who were speaking Arabic. I also saw another video in which a female soldier was violently raped in the presence of her husband, also a soldier, before they were both slaughtered by some unknown gunmen who were speaking Igbo. I have equally watched the latest video in which a female student was stoned and later burnt alive by young men speaking Hausa.
The jungle and vigilante justice of taking the law into our own hands, which is barbaric, un-Islamic and a manifestation of violent extremism, can only lead to great social upheaval and chaos. The geneses of some of the crises we are facing in Nigeria today – especially banditry, terrorism and violent secessionist agitations – were extra-judicial killings involving state and non-state actors…
