Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has condemned the killing of Deborah Samuel, saying any Muslim who kills a Christian for insulting the Prophet won’t smell paradise.
Gumi was reacting to the aftermath of the brutal murder of Deborah where two prime suspects were arrested by the Nigeria Police Force following the outcry that greeted the incident.
However, on Saturday, Sokoto state youths staged a protest demanding the release of the suspects and thereafter, Igbo businesses in the state were attacked by protesting Muslims.
“Nigeria’s non-Muslims are not living under the Islamic laws. We all have an agreement under the Nigerian constitution to live together. So, Prophet Muhammad said whoever kills the soul of a non-Muslim that is under such agreement of living together, will not smell the fragrance of paradise. Such a person’s distance to paradise will be like a journey of 40 years,” he said during a sermon in Kaduna on Sunday.
He said those who killed the student had no right whatsoever to do so, adding that the right thing they ought to have done was to report the late Deborah to the school management.
“The right thing the students who killed the lady in Sokoto ought to do was to report her to the school management. Then the management reports to the governor or Sultan for them to know how to stop her.
“Just by hearing her commit blasphemy, you just carried out jungle justice on her. Who taught you that? What do you want our country to turn into? We must leave these acts of barbarism,” he said.
The cleric said Nigeria is not an Islamic state, adding that Nigeria Muslims had an agreement with people of other faiths to live together peacefully.
He, therefore, noted that anyone (Muslim) who killed any Christian under the guise of a religion had committed a grievous sin.
Gumi said it was unfortunate that some Muslim clerics were quoting verses that they didn’t understand and at the same time urging followers to kill whoever insulted their religion.
He argued that killing a non-Muslim under the guise that the person uttered a blasphemous statement against Prophet Muhammad was not an excuse.
This, he said, was because “Allah has told us in the Qur’an that the non-Muslims will insult Allah and His Prophet. In fact, it is now that the blasphemy will start after the killing of that lady in Sokoto, the insult will increase, not reduce.”
He added that some Nigerian Muslims defending Prophet Muhammad should be ashamed of themselves because they were corrupt, adding that the only way to defend the Prophet, was to follow his teachings.
Gumi urged Islamic clerics in the country to be alive to their responsibilities of teaching Muslims their religion in order to avoid being ignorant.
He said, “We the clerics need to wake up and teach the Muslims their religion. We must leave this state of ignorance. We have turned like animals. We the Muslims are not the only ones in this country.
“It is not only that we are not the only ones in this country, we must know that there was nothing the unbelievers did not do to Prophet Muhammad but he was patient because he was conscious that if he killed them, the unbelievers he was trying to bring to the fold of Islam would tag him a killer.
“There are people who are neither Muslims nor Christians in Nigeria and everyone is trying to win their souls. Also, there are people who are not Muslims, to whom we are preaching Islam so that they can enter the fold of Islam and be salvaged in the hereafter.
“If we now begin to kill people, they will say it is even from the leader of our faith, Prophet Muhammad, that we have learnt it. They will say their religion is a religion of bloodletting. At a time we are trying to draw the attention of people to see the beauty of Islam, we are now scaring them away.
“It is unfortunate that we even see some clerics who are telling people that whoever insults your religion, just kill them. They are quoting verses they don’t understand. There is no one who has the will to kill anyone except through the Islamic justice system. And in doing this, the conditions of such justice must be completed before anyone can be killed.”
The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) expressed displeasure over the student’s killing.
CHRICED in a statement issued on Sunday by its Executive Director, Dr Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said her killing over alleged blasphemy ‘constitutes an affront to the humanity of all Nigerians and further justifies the demand for a national conference to address the multi-faceted problems confronting the country.”
Kaigama insists on inter-religious harmony
Also speaking on Deborah’s murder, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, Sunday, called on Nigerians not to give up on the struggle for inter-religious harmony in the country.
The cleric said the people who attempted to gain selfish advantages without respect for rights or ethics, and through forms of extremism must be opposed
Kaigama said this in his Homily delivered at St. Louis Church, Efab Global Estate, Abuja.
According to him, Nigerians should not give up on the pursuit of brotherhood and peaceful coexistence, but “must continue to speak up in a common voice and act in solidarity with one another against the evils of our time.”
