Two Wrongs to get it Right? Of Freedom of Speech

A Ghanaian lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, northern Nigeria’s most prestigious public University recently got into hot water for speaking his mind. Mallam Issah Hassan Tikumah,

a Lecturer in the Social Science Faculty of the University was fired from the University a few weeks ago and arrested by the Police for what he believes to be the fall out of conservative-wingers reactions to his book on face veiling in Muslim societies.  The book titled: Niqab (Face-veil): An Exemplary Sunnah or a Repugnant Innovation? All Africa.com reports that the book expresses the writer’s thoughts on the practice of face-veiling, which is expected of women in many conservative Muslim societies.

I’m not a Muslim but from the title of the book alone, I can tell easily that Mallam Issah is no fan of the practice. The Muslim scholar says he wrote the book after conducting extensive research but seems genuinely surprised that no one is thanking him for his attempt to enlighten the public. Instead, he says, he now lives in fear and under threat of violence from groups who are opposed to his views. Some of these groups have written a petition against him to the State government. Should Mallam Issah be truly surprised at the reaction? Issah is at a loss at how he is now referred to as a “CIA agent disguising as a Muslim” and wonders how security forces could accuse him of threatening the peace and security of Nigeria, in spite of the fact that he has ‘defended and fought for the cause of Islam for over 31years’? Seriously?

Let’s look at the facts:
Mallam Issah is a Muslim and Ghanaian immigrant who has settled in Nigeria and in his own words: “lived in Nigeria for the last 12 years, received my higher education in Nigeria and three of my children are Nigerians by birth.”
Being a scholar and academic, Mallam Issah should be acquainted with some of the history and prevalent sentiments of his adopted city. He lives in Zaria (old name: Zazzau), which was the capital of the ancient Hausa kingdom of Zazzau. Zaria was Islamized in the late 1490s and the city is one of five major Muslim centers in Nigeria along with Kano, Sokoto, Katsina and Maiduguri.

Zaria is in Kaduna state, one of 12 northern Nigerian states that voluntarily adopted Sharia, a strict Islamic code of law in 1999. The following year, the Sharia court carried out the amputation of the wrist of Buba Bello Janjebe, as the Islamic court’s prescribed sanction for the theft of a cow.  A local activist group Civil Rights Congress (CRC) started an online chat on the tenth anniversary of the amputation as a way of bringing attention to the practice, unleashing reactions from pro-Sharia groups, one of which filed a suit on March 19 against CRC to stop them from continuing the internet discussion. Less than a month ago, the Magajin Gari Sharia court in Kaduna issued an historic ruling in favor of the Association of Muslim Brotherhood of Nigeria, the plaintiff banning the continuation of the online chats!

Islam is not a religion that tolerates criticism. Death Fatwas  (religious edicts prescribing action)  have been issued for less.  Mallam Issah should have known by precedence that Sharia-adopting Zaria in 2010 was neither the time nor place to write a book with a clearly discordant title that belittles the strongly held beliefs of the people.

There are some aspects of Islam that I take objection to but frankly, I admire the fervor with which Muslims defend their religion.  There have been not a few times that I have wished Christians were less forbearing and forgiving when people have attacked and attempted to ridicule the basis of our faith. Case in point being the ridiculous portrayal of Jesus Christ in movies especially Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1973 American film adaptation of the rock opera of the same name, based on the conflict between Judas and Jesus. I could never bring myself to watch the movie after I heard some of the reviews.  The Da Vinci Code raised many debates on Christianity, which had me thinking: “Hmmph, they wouldn’t DARE do this if this were about Islam”. In fact, there are NO Islamic movies where any human has played the part of the Prophet Mohammed!

Oddly enough, each time I fume in silence like that I actually imagine the Lord chuckling. I, for one would have struck them all dead with lightning if the shoe were on the other foot but I have this belief that God is a lot more open to questioning than we humans are. I guess that’s why I am a mere mortal and the Lord is God.  Now, if only Mallam Tikumah had taken the facts into account, he would have been better prepared or at least taken a leaf out of the book of others like Salman Rushdie and Lars Vilks:  If you must attack other people’s strongly held beliefs, do it from a safe distance!