The President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has called for a continued dialogue among religious faithful in the country. The Sultan made this call at the opening of the 34th National Qur’anic recitation Competition organised by the Musabaqah Foundation for Qur’anic Recitation in Nigeria at the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto in collaboration with the Muslim Community of Lagos state.
The Leader calls on the religion adherent to always observe caution while passing a public comment so that we do not aggravate issues along fault lines, however, assured that Muslims in the country are good people who would not take up arms against anybody at any provocation.
At the gathering were the Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II; Chairman of Police Service Commission, Musliu Smith among others.
The Sultan’s comment followed the recent disagreement between NSCIA and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the United State Report accusing Nigeria among countries violating religious tolerance.
In a twist CAN backed the US report claiming that Christians were under siege in Nigeria, however, Sultan insisted that CAN were being economical with the truth, saying not all Fulani herdsmen were Muslims and they were not after any Christian as claimed by CAN but a fight of struggle over limited land resources and economic activities.
Though he acknowledged that as they are good Muslims, they are also bad ones just like in any religion or group, he called on the government to deal with the bad ones.
According to Sultan, he assured that no Muslim will take up arms against anybody no matter the provocation based on all the negative media propaganda in recent time, saying these are issues we need to face head-on through dialogue with one another.
He stressed that the Muslim leaders would not cease to give sound advice to the leaders to do the right thing and make the country a better place.
Sultan revealed Islam is a complete way of life and Qur’an in its totality is very important to every Muslims. He said if everybody works with the injunction of the Qur’an, there would be no corruption or any form of criminalities in the society.
He opined that As a nation fighting extremism should be our collective effort, this programme will, among other initiatives, promote the true understanding of the religion of Islam and help make our young people less vulnerable to beliefs that are not consistent with the teachings of the Islam.