Media and The Kano Verdict of Blasphemy

 Media and The Kano Verdict of Blasphemy

By Kamoru Sodiq

kamorusodiq03@gmail.com

Indeed, Nigeria is full of stings. Religion or no religion, it is appalling to play blasphemous card. Insulting people's feeling will always trumps emotion. Oxford dictionary says blasphemy is a behavior or language that insults or shows lack of respect for God or religion. Islam discourages blasphemy on all fronts. It calls to Daarul-s-salaam (Home of peace) a community devoid of hate, instigation and maligning.

Few days ago, an upper Sharia court in the Hausawa Filin Hockey area of Kano state handed down a death sentence to a 22 year old singer, Yahya Sheriff Aminu on the ground of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.The public went agog with facts and fumes as soon as the verdict escaped from the court room. The media space immediately caught fire. The fall out was reactive and proactive.

The offence of the singer was that in March, he wrote a song and circulated it via WhatsApp werein he rated a Tijaniyyah Imam above Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The next thing was that angry protesters stormed Yahya family house and burnt it to ashes. The singer ran straight into hiding. To calm the situation, the Islamic Police in the North called "Hisbah" arrested him and proceeded on prosecution through inspector Aminu Yargoje. Precisely this week Monday, the presiding judge, Khadi Aliu Muhammad Kani slammed Yahya with death penalty and the media was no longer at ease.

It is instructive to say that the Northern part is predominantly Muslims. Out of nineteen states, twelve states are operating Sharia law alongside the secular law since Sharia was re-introduced into the region in 1999. The court has jurisdiction on civil and criminal matters. They have powers amongst other to order floggings, amputations, death sentence, dissolution of marriage and so on. The sharia court judges are called "Alkalis" or "Khadi." They are trained both in the sharia and secular law. The court attend only to Muslims and in rare cases non Muslim with his/her consent.

Since 1999, the Sharia court in the North has passed several death sentences, only one has been executed which involved a man who was killed a woman and two children and was hanged in 2002 in Kano. In 2015, nine people bagged death penalty for blasphemy. The last time was in 2016, when Abdul-Azeez Inyass was condemned to death for saying Sheikh Ibrahim Niyass was highier than prophet Muhammad (SAW), all in Kano. As we speak, the guy is still chopping popcorn in detention. No sign off from the governor as required by the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, 2011 as amended. So, all the death sentences are at best in files.

For records, the issue of blasphemy is beyond Kano or northern affairs. It's global. Recall the publication of 12 cartoons to mock Prophet Muhammad in the largest Danish daily newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-postens on 30 September, 2005 and the Danish government's refusal to do "damage control." Several terror attack were launched in retaliation. Again, in 2007, Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist drew the head of Prophet Muhammad on the body of a dog and was published by the Swedish newspaper. The media looked the other way. 

In Denmark, a young man uploaded a video tape on Facebook of himself burning a copy of Quran in December 2015. Just last year November in Norway, Lars Thorsen publicly attempted to burn Quran in the Muslim populated city of Kristiansand though he was prevented by brave Ilyass Umer. There are pockets of abuse of Islam and Muslims everywhere. Unfortunately, the advocates of blasphemy often disguise using human rights and freedom of expression as a fiat.

In case you don't know, Prophet Muhammad is the greatest promoter of human rights and freedom of speech ever in history. He tolerated Abu lahab who cursed him to his face. He blessed the people of Taif who maimed him. He overlooked the disbelievers who persecuted him crudely. He granted waiver to the hypocrites (Muslims) who sabotage his success. He stood firm against tyranny and liberated man from servitude of man and jinn (demons).

No religion condones blasphemy on earth. The old testament declares that "Any who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death," Leviticus 24:16. Islam condemns contempt of other religion in strong terms in Q 6: 108. The trend of blasphemy took a center stage during the Abbasid period in Islamic history. Since then, it has become the tools of trade for evil spirits and gullible Muslims.

Now situating the Kano blasphemy in the Nigerian milieu. The verdict is cosmetic. The intent is politics. It is called politics of populism. At best, the ruling will be reversed or left undone. However, the public outcry on the propriety or otherwise of the case is wack. Nigerians should learn to interrogate issues rather than spitting sentiments and gibberish on spree. There are better ways to handle hardliners and over-drive minds in the community than appreciating them with cheap popularity on a platter of gold. They deserve mentorship not medals. This is why again we need strong institutions not a father figure.

Come to think of it, the Islamic posture of the Northern Nigeria is a major source of heartache for many people. In fact, the increasing Islamic outlook in the Western part here is fast becoming a crime. Muslim Right Concern (MURIC) has been earmarked for abuse and attack now. We live in a country where some people want to dictate to you when and how you should answer the call of nature. They want to give you tutorial on how religion should be practised in the 21th century. Their strategy is usually taste and style. I think folks like this can only see Islam as archaic and Muslims as bigots. It is real. We see it on daily basis.

We should not sleep over the main danger here. The poker is to sell out the credibility of Islam. The handwriting is very clear. You would wonder why many national dailies especially Punch Newspaper took special energy in carrying the story. Punch gave it a flashing headline. Was that out of National interest? Capital No. Truth is, it serves their interest and sweet their pocket. The noise was just too loud. This sentiments has to stop.

In this time and age, we see traditional worshippers killing human for rituals. We read folks spilling blood for money. We see so many shallow graves of hundreds of innocent citizens wasted by bandits, local militias and their big brother (Boko Haram). Southern Kaduna is the latest home of madness. It has never never dominated Punch reportage. We now have a case of a Muslim who willingly submitted himself to Sharia trial, who never denied the offence and was given an option to appeal the judgement. The Punch is now crying woe. It is done in bad faith.

If you think the media war is local, you are clearly missing the show. On Wednesday, Amnesty International, a global non governmental organization in charge of human rights, founded by Peter Benenson in 1961 with headquarter in London, waded in to deride the sharia court saying "the accused was not given a fair trial and directed the Governor to overturn  the conviction with immediate effect."  This is an interesting case of crying more than the bereaved. Pan African CSOs and others are all in this macabre dance.

On the ground of blasphemy, there are many terror ploy, murder, arson and other stiff consequences globally. Kamlesh Tiwari, the leader of Hindu Samaj party was murdered in 2015 in Pakistan. The fate of Asia Bibi on death row for blasphemy is still at stake in Pakistan. Raif Badawi is currently serving 10years jail term for insulting Islam in Saudi Arabia. Ayatollah Kazemeini Boroujerdi is serving a term for waging war against God in Iran. The cases are just numerous to mention.

In a bid to avert the gradual sliding of the world into another World War, in May 2015, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OICs) at its 42nd session of the council of foreign Ministers met in Kuwait and passed a resolution to the effect that; "the need to follow a priority level common policy aimed at banning the defamation of Islam under the pretext of freedom of expression, particularly through the media outlets and the internet." The position is telling enough.

Insofar I never support the populist judgement of blasphemy. I refuse to see merit in the media cry. The solution is simple. It's time we pull down our heads to fix our flunking society. We have had enough. No more lamentations. No more woe. Strong nations are built on trust, tolerance and values. Yahya is an abuser and he knows. He doesn't deserve popularity, he deserves some punishment and treatment. But Life is not fair so is man himself. If you ask me, the media is worst.