A veteran journalist and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal College of Education, Iwo, Osun State Nigeria, Alhaji Liadi Tella has commended the United Nations General Assembly’s approval of the resolution introduced by Pakistan, on behalf of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), setting March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
While welcoming the approval, he described the development as great feat.
The first series of activities marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia was held on Wednesday, with UN, OIC member countries in full participation. Muslim News, Nigeria’s most authoritative Islamic newspaper, also created awareness with different quotes and messages to educate and combat the rising cases of hatred, prejudice towards Muslims.
As a leading campaigner against Islamopobia in Nigeria, Muslim News had an exclusive chat with Alhaji Tella, who was among the two Nigerian journalists that covered Nigeria’s full integration into the OIC in 1986.
According to him, “It is a great and a welcomed development. The OIC and United Nations conversed the motion and passed a resolution against Islamophobia and that should go a long way in promoting global understanding and brotherhood of faith among all unitarian religionists”.
Excerpts of the interview with Rasheed Abubakar and AbdulMumin AbdulQuadir below…
Islamopobia, what does it mean?
When we talk about Islamophobia, some people have the habit of demonizing Islam, portraying it as evil; a violent religion and a despicable phenomenon, thereby promoting animosity against Islam and Muslims. What are their offences? Is it really necessary? Is it from the teaching of Christ? The spate of Islamophobia is most common among Christians especially, it is not very rampant among Buddhists, Zoroastrianians and Sikhs among others.
When it all started in Europe
This trend started in Nigeria around 1986. It was imported by the American pentecostal sect. However, it was already prevalent in Europe – mainly in France, Germany, Netherlands, although not common in Southern Europe. It’s unfortunate that people no longer read history today. Those who were taught history during our time know that the power struggle in Europe had some racial elements. There was a time when the Roman Empire alone governed the entire Western Europe.
Europe saw the Greeks, Mongols, Ottoman Turks Empire, Seljuk Empire, covering the Eastern Europe and part of Western Europe. The Ottoman Turks and Seljuk Turks were Muslim empires. There was a time when Pharaoh, the Egyptian emperor had the Eastern and Central Europe under his control. There was a time in history when the Umayyad Empire covered Northern Africa in entirety and Southern Europe. Andalus, now called Spain was the headquarters of the Moors’ empire for more than 400 years. So, there has been a clash of civilization between the Arabs and Caucasians.
Clash between Islam, Hebrew, Christianity
There’s also a clash between, Islam, Hebrew and later Christianity. One may ask, what was the teaching of Christ? Was Jesus Christ a Christian? He lived as a Jew, worshiped throughout his life in the synagogue and died a Jew. The word Christianity was coined by pagans in Antioch. This happened when Paul was leading an antichrist army to attack the followers of Christ in Damascus. In his reports, He claimed that a light from heaven flashed into his face. He fell to ground and heard a voice saying “Saul! Saul! Why prosecuted thou me?” The story does not go beyond that. What will happen afterwards was that he was led to a seer in Damascus who cured him of his blindness. Then he walked to the hideout of the followers of Christ to get him declared as a Christ follower, saying he had accepted him as a true Prophet of God. Jesus didn’t preach Christianity. Christiandom never existed during his life time. Whoever has any contradictory historical records should please publish it.
Islamophobia began long ago. When the Moors’ (Muslim) center was deeply rooted in Southern Europe, for 400 years, they controlled, Spain, Italy, Greece. They left all the Christian monuments untampered with and allowed Christians to worship in their own way. However, when the Crusaders, a coalition of all European forces for the liberation of Europe from Moors (Muslims) came and conquered the Moors, they destroyed every Islamic monument including hundreds of mosques and many other Islamic landmarks. That was the genesis of Islamophobia.
The situations tightened when in the last 60-70 years, Europe opened its doors of migration to North Africa and the Arab countries. When America was destroying Iraq and Afghanistan, the door was massively opened for Arabian immigrants with the promise that they would rebuild their countries because they said they were fighting what they called “Islamic extremism”. What right do they have to determine Islamic extremism? They aren’t even adherents of the Islamic creed. What business do they have with the affairs of the Muslims? Anywhere they find Islamic strength, America has always gone ahead to destroy that nation. I can give examples.
When Russia invaded Afghanistan and annexed it as part of Soviet Union of those days because they shared boundaries, they were there for about 20 years. They conquered the territory, but couldn’t conquer the minds of the people. America later joined forces with the Taliban to drive Russia out of Afghanistan, believing that having done that, Afghans would be grateful to them and let them into their country. The Afghans were so strong and their terrain could not be understood by foreigners, no matter how mighty their military power. They were eventually forced out of Afghanistan. Before their eviction, American forces destroyed all their (Afghan) monuments and treasures. Why do you have to destroy their heritage if you’re fighting extremism? Why throwing bombs at their hospitals, museums, airports and mosques? What’s the meaning of extremism? Are Americans not racial extremists? Are white Americans not making life unbearable for black Americans? Is that not a form of extremism?
Back to Islamopobia in Nigeria
Immediately Christianity came, according to Desmond Tutu, when the European missionaries came to South Africa, they asked them to kneel for prayers, close their eyes and they did. By the time they opened their eyes, they had taken over their lands and handed them the Bible. They were enslaved in their own country.
When they came to Nigeria, they met Islam, which had been in existence for about six centuries. Muslims did not stop, attack or kill any of them. They came first as adventurers. For instance, Imagine Mongo Park claiming he discovered River Niger which had been there since its creation. After the adventurers, the religionists came to preach the gospel, followed by the traders and then politicians who became imperialists over us. Islamophobia has been in existence since the creation of Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria became an evangelised country since the coming of the Britons. All our public holidays were Christian holidays, all of them and until about 1945-55, there was no Islamic holiday.
The Muslim Students Society of Nigeria established in 1955 began to request for equal rights, not special rights. Equal rights in terms of festivities and holidays and it took another 20 years to achieve that objective. I joined the MSSN in 1966 and it was during the General Yakubu Gowon era in 1973-74 that we were first granted a 2-day holiday for both Eids.I was very young then. If you missed school on Eid day then, you’ll be seriously dealt with on the assembly ground, until we eventually got that freedom.
So, Islamophobia has been a persistent thing and it has been on for centuries. It got to its peak when the Christian Association of Nigeria made its way into Nigeria in the 1980s. Archbishop Okogie was the founder and perpetrator of anti-Islamic sentiments in Nigeria over the country’s membership of Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, OIC. Femi Abass and I were the only Nigerian journalists who covered Nigeria’s full integration into the OIC. The OIC actually started in Nigeria under Sadauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. So, Northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, some Middle East countries and some other North African countries came together to form the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, but when the Nigerian media, particularly The Tribune deliberately reported the OIC as Organisation of Islamic Countries, Okogie took it from there.
Fortunately, Akande, the last president of Christian Association of Nigeria admitted in Port Harcourt that Obasanjo financed the formation of CAN to fight against the establishment of the OIC. Check the records, money belonging to the state has been used to sponsor Christianity in Nigeria, with impunity. Baptist High School in Iwo for instance, was initially Iwo Boys High School, a community-built school, but was secretly and artfully overtaken by the Baptist. Same with Ibadan Grammar School, before the people of Ibadan stood against a purloin; the Anglican. The English monarch is the founder and head of the Anglican Church worldwide, so, any school belonging to local government is called Crown school.
I started primary school in 1965-66, because that was when Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School (AUD) in Iwo was established. That is why I was able to go to school, because before then, Muslims could not send their children to school. Immediately you send your child to school, they were converted to Christianity. Schools then were a conversion centres before a place of learning. If you read history of the Yorubas by Samuel Johnson, all these facts are contained therein. Yoruba as a language was not codified before Samuel Johnson and Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther.
So, in Nigeria, Islamophobia has been in existence from time immemorial. It experienced a crescendo in 1986 and got to the climax in 2022. It got to a worse and unbelievable level during the just concluded general elections. A number of churches raised an army of forces to preach against the emergence of a Muslim presidential candidate (Muslim-Muslim ticket) in Nigeria. They incited their congregation to take back their property. Is Nigeria their property? Which Church? Islam had been in existence for centuries. Christianity came in broad daylight. Islam had been in Nigeria since the 14th century, particularly in Lagos and western parts of the country. Many people erroneously believe the Usman Dan Fodio Jihad of 1804 to be establishment of Islam in Nigeria. That’s what they teach in schools, which is totally wrong. Islam made its way into the region. The first mosque in Iwo for instance, was built in 1482. You can study the era of Alausa Alamiyu in Iwo kingship. Many people, including the kings of Iwo gladly embraced Islam. That’s why today, people call Iwo, the City of Alfas (Muslim Scholars). The Oba himself learnt the Qur’an and traditions of the Prophet (PBUH) and led prayer for his people. So, it became a practice for every newly installed Oluwo to lead his chiefs in prayer and to lead the prayer in his first Eid.
Islamophobia is a very deep concept. It has metamorphosed into political and power struggle. It has now become a tool for oppression of Muslims who don’t agitate or fight back. If not that MURIC has been at the forefront of the cause, putting the records straight, only God knows what might have happened to Muslims in Nigeria. However, the time has come for this to end. America did theirs globally for political ends. The US is preaching democracy in other places and promoting oligarchy in Arab (Muslim) countries. Morocco is the strongest ally of the US in North Africa and Africa entirely except South Africa. Egypt and even Saudi Arabia are strong allies of the US. All these are oligarchy states, yet, America sees nothing wrong with that due to its own interest. There is so much noise about democracy from the US. Is the US itself democratic?
America is the strongest oligarchic oppressive country in the world, destroying Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, and tried to destroy Sudan. Anywhere Islam flourishes, America goes there to destroy them. Claims about America being the leader of democracy in the world are nothing but lies. America is the number one sponsor of Islamophobia globally.
Benefits of anti-islamopobia day to Nigerian Muslims
The United Nations is becoming more civilized today in addressing global issues, but bet you, the so called world powers will disintegrate very soon. If they had the powers, they would have dismembered Russia from the Supreme and Security Councils, but China will never let that happen. Nigeria should have become a member of the Security Council a long time ago, but they they didn’t allow that. They want to retain the control of the globe to themselves. Western Powers want to control the world, but they’ll soon fall apart.
Europe is in crises already, You should go to the stores or malls today, everything there is made in China. Now they want to come to Africa. We must stop them from coming to Africa. There’s a new wave of imperialism that is about to flood Africa. We must do everything in our capability to resist such. Everything they do is to get at us. They sponsor human rights groups and activists to destabilise our nation. Enough is enough!
The passage and implementation of the resolution has named a day, March 15 as an International Day for the fight against Islamophobia. It is indeed a great and welcome development. May God bless those who initiated the idea.
Islam will triumph, whether they like it or not. Go and see what is happening in Europe. Many churches have been raised to mosques. The Europeans that exported Christianity to Nigeria and other African countries have abandoned it. It’s now the Nigerians that are exporting Christianity back to Europe. Getting to Europe, Nigerian churches have problems, because in Europe they have to pay for tax on everything you consume even as a church, unlike in Nigeria where churches pay little or nothing. If mosques were making money and taxes were imposed on them, the mosques will pay, but majority of our Christian brethren want to have their cake and eat it.
Qur’an made it known that the closest in faith to Muslims are the Christians and the Jews. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, same with Ishmael and Isaac, although they are progenies of his. They were all Muslims. Well, I want the Nigerian Christians to be Christ-like. Christ said love your neighbour as yourself. He never said Christians should hate their Muslim neighbours. He didn’t distinguish between neighbours. Moreso, the Pentecostalists have destroyed Nigeria with their preaching of prosperity, Christ never preached prosperity. He said it will be easier for a camel the pass through the eye of a needle than it will be for the wealthy person to enter the kingdom of God.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) established Islam the way it is. He built the first mosque in the world ever. He taught us how to pray. I challenge them to bring out their book and show us where Christ taught them how to pray and worship. They should tell us which church he established. He didn’t establish any church, rather, he chased commercial preachers out of the synagogue. He castigated them. We know how pastors treat members who don’t pay tithes. Did Christ collect tithes during his lifetime? Let them show us evidence.
It’s a good thing that the United Nations came up with that and we pray God continues to strengthen the cause. However, will France, America, Germany and UK among others allow the motion to see limelight. So, the resolution is a moral victory for Islam. It is worth the celebration.
