The Muslim Public Affairs Center (MPAC) Nigeria has joined well-meaning Nigerians in condemning the derogatory comparison of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) with Sunday Igboho by the Afenifere group as published by Sahara Reporters, noting such is a ‘fraudulent attempt to reroute sympathy and mischaracterise the struggle of Prophet Muhammad’.
MPAC Nigeria noted that the published statement by Sahara Reporters is an insult to the personality of the Noble Prophet Muhammad, who upheld ideals Igboho sought to abolish.
In a statement signed by its Executive Chairman, Mr Disu Kamor, it reads “MPAC strongly condemns a statement credited to Afenifere wherein it compared Sunday Igboho’s escape from Nigeria and his entry to Benin Republic to Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Makkah to Madinah.
“The earlier published statement on Sahara Reporters is a great insult to the person of Prophet Muhammad who stood for every ideal that Igboho stands against. The Prophet’s flight from Makkah in 622 CE was to escape persecution, not to escape justice.
“The comparison therefore not only decontextualises the watershed event in the life of the early Muslim community, it also desecrates the plight and triumph of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) over a people who sought to kill him and end his prophetic career.”
Speaking on, Mr Disu Kamor said “to try and graft the noble example of the Prophet (SAW) to validate misguided actions of zealots and ethnic chauvinists is not only a misappropriation of history, but it’s also a fraudulent attempt to reroute sympathy and mischaracterize the struggle and triumph of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) over people like them.”
The detestable statement of Afenifere deserves formal judgment by all people of conscience and we strongly condemn it as an abberation from the normal thinking of any group that wishes to be taken seriously.”
He further advised the Afenifere group to face what it stands for, without insulting the sensibilities of other.
“Apart from using this incident to learn more about Islam and the position of Islam on tribalism, it is important for Afenifere to learn to go about its businesses without offending the sensibilities of others”, he sued.
