Boko Haram: Muslim Scholars condemn indiscriminate killings of aid workers, say it’s a great sin

Boko Haram terrorists on Wednesday indiscriminately killed four humanitarian workers and a security guard abducted a month ago in Borno state, northeast, Nigeria.

Multiple media outlets had reported that the insurgents, who have always engaged in identity theft by using the cover of Islam as a smokescreen to commit their nefarious acts, had earlier demanded 500,000 US dollars for the release of the aid workers.

The terrorist group yesterday executed the five aid workers with allegations that they, including the Muslims among them, were working for the infidels.

Muslim News findings revealed that the victims were believed to be five humanitarian workers abducted last month along Maiduguri/ Monguno road.

They were Lucas Philibuz with the International Rescue Committee, IRC; Abdulrahman Dungus, with REACH International Initiative.

Others are Ishaku Yakubu, with the Action Against Hunger, AAH; Abdulrahman Bulama, a camp manager with state emergency management agency, SEMA and Joseph Prince, a local guard with Halogen security.

Although, the names of the five aid workers executed by the terrorist group were not published by many media outlets, Channels Television however reported that a staff of the SEMA who pleaded anonymity identified his colleague among those executed, who had also featured in a recent video where they spoke from captivity pleading with the government to intervene.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has sympathised with the families of the five aid workers, while praying that God will comfort them for their irreplaceable loss.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, President Buhari also condemned the killings, saying that his government would continue to do all it can to ensure the remaining vestiges of Boko Haram is wiped out completely from the Northeast while the perpetrators of this heinous crime, face the wrath of the law.

Many Muslim organisations and scholars believed that this killing and other killings of both Muslims and non-Muslims are strong indications that the Boko Haram does not represent Islam, the religion it falsely claims to profess.

“The gruesome murder of Saifura and Hauwa, two Muslim aid workers in 2018 by the terrorist group is still fresh in our memories,” said the President of The Muslim Congress (TMC), Dr Lukman AbdurRaheem, adding that, “We join the peace loving people of the world to condemn the killing of the five aid workers. We appeal to the FG, to as a matter of urgency, put an end to the activities of Boko Haram. Human life is sacrosanct, and one of the good governance indices is providing security for life and property.”

While reacting, Muslim News contributor and a Nigerian-born Middle East scholar, Ustadh Ibn Taofeeq AbdulAzeez said one of the Major Sins in Islam is the murder of that person whose execution has not been ordered by Allah and the Holy Prophet.

“Moreso, the verses of the Holy Qur’an (4:93; 5:32) mention clearly the Divine punishment for the murderers”, he said.

According to him, the terrorist group is neither preaching nor representing Islam. Its actions oppose Islamic rulings and methodology. Its ideology could be linked to that of the Khawaarij (a dangerous sect known to have twisted the message of the Qur’an, Hadith and the statements of the scholars to conform to its selfish interest).