By Rasheed Abubakar
The travails of Palestinians in the hands of the murderous Israeli regime is once again at the front burner. Ramadan, perhaps, offered the platform for Muslims across the world to reflect on their sufferings in unison, including Nigeria where many issues including currency crisis and rising food insecurity have also come up.
But before dwelling into that, let me quickly narrate a scenario relating to a British-Nigerian professional boxer, Anthony Joshua, which will of course, be useful to the purport of this piece.
Anthony Joshua was relatively unknown, especially to the Nigerian audience, until he identified with his Nigerian heritage, tracing his lineage back to Sagamu in Ogun State. The romance between AJ, as he’s fondly called, and his Nigerian audience was so much fruitful that he enjoyed enormous support from Nigerians home and abroad. In turn, he also began to fly the Nigerian flag along with the British flag during his fights and victories. One could easily say Nigerians gave him more popularity.
Despite having lost just three out of his 31 fights, those losses didn’t sit well with some overzealous Nigerians and the vituperations he received was not unexpected, knowing how Nigerians react to defeats except for loyal and die-hard fans who will always stand by AJ, win or no win. In fact, he was also called overrated and a fluke by these Nigerians.
The two-time world heavyweight champion definitely took it to heart and after his last and most recent victory against Cameroonian mixed martial artist, Francis Ngannou in just two rounds in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he uncustomarily left out Nigeria in his appreciation message which sent the whole of his Nigerian audience into another episode of revilement.
Now, the attitude of these set of Nigerians to Anthony Joshua is similar to the one put up by a section of Nigerian Muslims, who have spared no Muslim leader, both in the Arab and non-Arab world of insults and harsh criticisms over the travails of Palestinians in Gaza. They have called them out for being silent, for allegedly not supporting Palestinians to wage war against Israeli soldiers who have sadly massacred over 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children since the beginning of its terror attacks in Gaza.
The recent bombing of Rafah, Gaza’s last hope of escaping the war, and the indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestinians by the occupation forces seemed to have provoked a fresh outcry from Nigerian Muslims. Betraying emotions, they have lambasted world Muslim leaders, starting with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Muhammad Bn Salman, famously known as MBS, to Turkiye President, Recep Toyyip Erdogan, who has been at the forefront of supporting the Palestinian cause. A disappointed Erdogan supporter said on a WhatsApp platform, “We love him because he showed love to the Ummah through his audacious utterances for the Palestinians but the moment he changed course, we seize to love blindly.”
Like in the case of Anthony Joshua, some sections of Nigerian Muslims have refused to be loyal supporters of Muslim leaders who they feel have not done enough to defend Palestinians in Gaza. They are, however, not asking the right questions to guide their anger. They are suggesting that Arab countries should supply ammunitions to the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, because the US is doing the same for Israel without finding out the implications of such a move.***
Renowned Muslim scholar, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sudais, for instance, is also being bashed online by some Muslims, including those who love his sonorous recitation of the Noble Qur’an, over his alleged disposition and attitude to the plight of Palestinians. A video of him praying Allah to grant Palestine victory during the taraweeh prayers on the 27th night of the just concluded month of Ramadan, however, came as a surprise to those who ignorantly felt that the respected scholar had been unacceptably silent, tagging him a “palace rat”. What they fail to understand is that even before and during Ramadan, Sheikh Sudais has always prayed for Palestine.
Without making a case for the world Muslim leaders who have allegedly neglected and betrayed their brethren in difficult times and in the face of suffocating oppression, I feel the need to point out the fact that most of the Nigerians calling out these leaders are as guilty as the leaders they’re calling out.
The Nigerian Muslim community – the largest in Africa, is part of the Muslim world. Evidently, their advocacy on the plight of the Palestinians in the ongoing war has been generally poor. Apart from the Shiite group, Islamic Movement of Nigeria’s solidarity rally for the Palestine in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the last time a notable, strong awareness programme was organised for the Palestinian cause in Nigeria was between October and November, 2023, when the war was barely a month old. It was a collaborative effort between Muslim organisations as well as human and civil rights groups which culminated into a mega rally in Lagos and a press conference in Abuja and Ibadan, respectively. Muslim News followed those events, and sadly, that was the last coordinated major awareness for the oppressed Palestinians from brethren in Nigeria in a six-month genocide that has continued, whereas some countries with their people – including non-Muslims, have sustained the protests, calling on their governments and world leaders to end the war and bring Israel to justice.
In South Africa for instance, both the government and the people have launched a massive campaign to create awareness about the ordeal of Palestinians. Interestingly but unsurprisingly, Pretoria did the unimaginable, dragged the apartheid State of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for committing genocide in Gaza. Intriguingly, while the heroic move of South Africa received global commendation, Muslims who have become more of spectators rather than being players or participants in the affairs of their brothers in Gaza also applauded the move.
Nigerians are all over social media. In fact, a 2023 ranking by the World of Statistics rated Nigeria as the number one country which spent more time on social media, with an average of 4 minutes, 20 seconds daily. But sadly, Nigerians trend on cruise, not on important matters and unfortunately, the large members of Muslim community have been affected by this virus. We are far behind in the advocacy for Palestine and this year’s Ramadan, which ended on Tuesday, April 9, really exposed our betrayal.
Close monitoring of activities of Nigerian Muslims on social media in the last 30 days showed very little awareness about the plight of Palestinians – including those in the West Bank, who have resisted and endured Israeli occupation forces attacks and invasions of Masjid Al-Aqsa, Muslims third holiest mosque in Jerusalem, during Ramadan. It was even worse for the southwest Muslims as many of them frequent social media, especially on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) but engaged on banters, frivolities and personal attacks. Hardly have some Nigerian Muslims posted anything about Palestine on their social media accounts, maybe late last year, during the mega rally, that’s all! Many are not concerned! They are simply indifferent about the happenings in Gaza. Can we all now see that we, Nigerians Muslims are as guilty as the complicit Muslim political leaders?
The worst of all these are the so-called scholars. Many amongst whom are not only clueless, but also lack direction. They neither display thorough understanding of the Deen nor the comprehension of what global Islam means – throwing banters and initiating needless controversial matters in the month of Ramadan when piety should be at its peak.
There are some Muslims on WhatsApp platforms with what I call “emotional gra-gra” – a Yoruba word for “spontaneous aggression”, yelling at Muslim leaders for what they term “betrayal” and Western world for hypocrisy and double standard, whereas, many of them are guilty of the same offence. Many users, for instance, will fiercely attack Muslim leaders for betraying the Palestinians on Whatsapp platforms with less than 200 Muslim members; but will fail to use other open social media platforms – such as Facebook and X with thousands of users and followers to support Palestine.
There are so many Muslims with hypocrisy on social media. They will never tolerate discussion on the Israeli genocide on social media which may be a threat to their business interests, even when a non-Muslim, like former Nigerian Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has been consistent in his advocacy on social media. He regularly churns out quality contents, educating the ignorant Nigerians who have over the years erroneously believed that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is between Islam and Christianity!
If Muslims in southwest Nigeria accuse leaders of Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE and so on of not supporting Palestinians, how much have they also supported their oppressed brethren with the social media tool in their control. Some might say “we solicit for fund and send to the Palestinians in Gaza”, similar to the same humanitarian support some Muslim leaders and international organisations are rendering. That isn’t enough. The social media is a potent tool in informing the public and setting agenda. Censorship should not discourage serious minded activists from expressing their views and #standwithpalestine in the face of hypocrisy, oppression.
Let us also look at the case of boycott. While boycott against Israel is gaining traction in the West and some Muslim countries, Nigerians are also slacking and lagging here, when this is another powerful tool within our reach. If we can’t physically go to Palestine or supply Palestinians with ammunition, we can certainly make do with boycott against Israel and the companies funding the Israeli regime. But the question again is, how much are we doing in this regard? South Africans and its people have embraced the boycott, not because they are Muslims, but for humanity sake. In Turkiye, which has been harshly criticised for it’s docility on the Palestinian cause, both the government and the people take boycott against Israel very seriously. Reverse is the case in Nigeria. Nigerians, Muslims inclusive aren’t serious with #boycottIsrael. For instance, I witnessed a pro-Palestine lecture few weeks ago in Lagos where the organisers served the students products of Coca-Cola, one of the leading firms supporting illegal occupation in Palestine.
Muslim News recently conducted a vox pop on the effectiveness of boycott against Israel in Nigeria. It was understood from the various responses received that the awareness level on the products and companies funding the Israeli regime is low. Some people don’t know why they should boycott in the first instance and how buying or using these products contribute to the killing of people In Palestine. Do the Muslims in Nigeria have organisations that are dedicated to this responsibility? What efforts have those critics made to bridge the gap of awareness among the people? These are contributions that are closer home. These are what they should undertake to orientate the people.
Disu Kamor, the Executive Chairman of Muslim Public Affairs Centre, MPAC, one of the advocacy groups in Nigeria, observed this ugly trend and concluded that it’s a case of “finding it easier to point fingers”, adding that “It’s always easier to be an armchair critic; to say it’s someone else’s job.” He went further to state two critical factors responsible for the phenomenon.
1. Most (Nigerian) Muslims are not trained to be organised in this type of activism. Unlike their Jewish counterparts, what we are more primed for is emotional attachment to issues when the iron is hot. You are talking about individual Muslims, when last did you hear about the Palestinian issue on the Mimbar (pulpit) during Juma’ah services on Friday since October 7th? This should have been the place for education, rallying support and sustaining the advocacy amongst the wider Muslim population. It is like some of the Imams are either unaware or unbothered. We are untrained in activism because of the lopsided “importance” we now place on worship over human lives. I hope this will be understood in the proper context.
2. There are no professional advocacy groups that focus and dedicate their entire resources and campaign to the Palestinian issue. What we have in Nigeria are groups, including advocacy groups doing Palestine advocacy as part of their works. Yet, this issue is so important that we need dedicated organisations that will manage the entire value chain of the Palestinian advocacy work.
Moving forward, there is a need to stop the blame game. Everyone should take responsibility. The Palestinian cause is the responsibility of all. As Muslims, on the day of judgement, Allah (SWT) will not ask us about Saudi Arabia, UAE or Turkiye, we’ll account for our own efforts and contributions. The Arabs and other Muslim countries’ leadership will account for their own betrayal, just as we will account for our on docility and negligence. It’s therefore important to face our own obligations of global brotherhood squarely and stop frittering away time and resources on the blame game.
– Rasheed Abubakar is the publisher of Muslim News Nigeria. Email: rawshield123@gmail.com
*** Some critics have complained about the delay in the announcement of a trade ban by the Turkiye government against Israel. Muslim News findings, however, revealed that one of the reasons for the delay was to carefully assess the impact on the people of Palestine. When it comes to such trade, there is indistinctness of the target destination. Many goods are marked Israel, but are indeed for Palestinians because of the 12% tax advantage. The delay is therefore in the interest of the oppressed Palestinians. The Turkish government does not want to take decisions haphazardly, which might in turn lead to unintended consequences. The remaining delays will be updated to this article…