Many people have been accusing the muslims of not tolerating people from other faiths. But is this theory true and to what extent? We are going to examine this topic using Nigeria and its muslim polution as a case study. Nigeria is a country in west Africa sub-region occupying nearly 1000 kilometers squar. The country is a multi-ethnic one divided into North and south by the British colonial rulers. The North is predominantly muslim population while Christians are majority in the South. The country has three major local languages Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. The Yorubas widely spoken in South-west, Hausa is widely spoken in the Northan part of the country while Igbo is widely spoken in the Southeastern part of the country. The Igbos are predominantly Christians while the Hausa\Fulani and other tribes living in the North are predominantly muslims. The Yorubas alse have majority muslims. Islam was introduced to Nigeria more than a thousand years ago through sub- sahara trade by the Arab and Arabic is said to be language of Islam. Every muslim must know one or two Arabic words because it is a language of solat. Christianity was introduced to the country by the British colonial rulers more than two hundred years ago. English language was first used as the language of worship by the British in Nigeria and ever since, the language has dominated Christian worship in Nigeria as many Christian primary and secondary school students in Nigeria now say their prayers in the language on the assembly ground. For more than 50 years after the introduction of Christianity to Nigeria, the bible was read in English language therefore for Nigerian Christians, English language is seen as the language of the bible. Let start our analysis in the southwestern part of the country from political landscape. Southwest has six states, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. Lagos is majority muslim state and all its elected governors since its creation with the Nigeria state have been muslims. From Latif Jakande, Bola Ahmed Tinubu until Raji Fashola have been muslims. Ogun state also has majority Muslims but all its elected governors since its creation have been Christians until Ibikunle Amosu who is a muslim. Gbeunga Daniel, Olusegun Osoba etc are all Christians. Osun state is believed to have 60% muslims but had two Christian elected governors, Olabisi Akande and Olagunsoye Oyinlola and one muslim governor, Rauf Aregbesola since it was created by General Sani Abacha. Oyo state is also said to have up to 90% muslim and it has had Christian governors such as Alao Akala. Both Ondo state and Ekiti state are predominantly Christians and both have not had a muslim governor. So in the Southwest political terrain, these facts show that muslims are more tolerant. Let look at the South East. The zone has five states and all are predominantly Christians. All their elected governors have been Christians. There has never been a muslim governors in any of them. The Northern part of the country are have maintained religious population based political order where state with majority muslims have been ruled by the elected muslim governors except Kaduna and Adamawa which have had Christian governors while states with majority Christians have been ruled by the elected Christian governors. With this we can also agree that there has been some degree of tolerance from the Northern muslims politically. Base on the above facts, it is obvious that a muslim has not become elected governor in majority Christian states between 1960 to 2015. Let examine the education sector. The muslim education system has been renegated to only the study of God ( Quran and Hadiths). But education in Islam is more than that. However, this is cultural problem as we have discussed how muslim scholars have saved the world from dark age to light age with their success in reviving the ancient Greek scientific thinking. So to say education is a Christian or non-muslim idea, it is wrong. But what Islam is against is indocrination that has been added to education which is now called western values. These values includes teaching Children immorality instead of Biology, teaching them deception instead of political science. A system of education that promotes school girls to wear micro-mini skirts in school while school boys are mandated to wear long trousers uniform has an hidden agenda. These are things that makes education western. So removing the word western is removing those verses and what will be left will be education which is biology, physics, Chemistry etc. However Nigerian education system is organized to favour Christianity. For example, resting days in Nigerian education system fall on the days Christians and the Bible worship, Saturdays and Sundays. While the day muslims worship in congregation is said to be working day for the students. The psychological implication of this is that the muslim students are forced to observe the Christian hallidays. Yet no muslim has raised alarm against this. Another fact here is the school calender where the education system has been tailored towards making all Christian holidays to fall within the school calendar holidays which makes the muslim student to observe the sacred aspects of Christianity. First term and second term holidays fall within the Christmas and Easter celeberation period. Yet no muslim has protested against it despite the psychological implication this has on their religion. Lastly is the national language of education. English language has been adopted as education language in Nigeria and the muslims never protested that Arabic language should be used. If Arabic has been adopted as education language, dont you think the muslim students would have been more fluent in Arabic language than Christian students and this will impact on their education performance. The last to analyze is economic system. Just as our education system favours Christianity, our economic system does thesame. For example there is resting period for the muslim workers to go for his solat. Launch time is not prayer time we must know these. But the Christian workers have Saturdays and Sundays for his worship. Even Arabic language has been removed by a Christian Central Bank governor and left English inscription on it. Yet the muslims never protest. When a muslim central bank governor wanted to introduce Islamic bank to Nigeria, the move met a lot of criticism by the Christian leaders even though Islamic banking system is for the benefit of all Nigerians because says people should have access to loan irrespective of their status.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 11:48:04 +0000
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