Pars Today

Following last Tuesday’s attack by the Nigerian military forces on a peaceful rally of Shi’a Muslims, coupled with rumours of plots by the government to murder Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, the detained Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, voices of condemnations have been raised against President Muhammad Buhari. We present you excerpts in this regard.

Iran’s English language daily ‘Kayhan International’ in its viewpoint column on Thursday, July 27 wrote: The government of Nigeria, under the influence of the Wahhabis and the Zionists, has adopted a suicidal policy against its own citizens.     As it continues to detain without trial, in violation of the Federal Court’s order, the Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, his wife and scores of his followers, on Tuesday last, it again used brutal force to disrupt a peaceful rally commemorating the anniversary of martyrdom of three of the revered Sheikh’s sons and 31 IMN members on July 25, 2014.

According to reports, the 3^rd anniversary requiem for the martyrs held at Dar-ar-Rahma in Zaria, was besieged by military forces and finally disrupted. The participants who numbered 10,000 and were carrying placards demanding the release of Sheikh Zakzaky, decided to disperse peacefully so as to avoid any untoward incident, in view of the brutality of the Nigerian Army.

December 15, 2015 was one of the darkest days in the history of Nigeria, when the army suddenly burst upon the huge gathering on the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), at Baqiatollah Hussainiyah in Zaria, indiscriminately killing some 2,000 men, women and children.

The holy place was razed to the ground, copies of the holy Qur’an were desecrated and Sheikh Zakzaky, his wife, and over a hundred IMN members kidnapped. Since then repeated calls for the release of the detainees have been turned down on one pretext or another, while the health of the venerable Sheikh continues to deteriorate in the absence of proper medical treatment.

Recently a plot to assassinate Sheikh Zakzaky by agents of the regime was uncovered, and has led to sharp criticism of the government by all sections of the society including Sunni Muslims and Christians.    

Analysts point out that the government of President Mohammad Buhari is in secret league with the Boko Haram terrorists, and the reason it has adopted a hostile attitude towards Nigerian Muslims following the school of the Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household of the Prophet of Islam, is the IMN’s criticism of the Takfiri seditionists.

Kayhan International said: The crime of ten million Nigerians in the eyes of the sectarian and blighted regime is that they are Shi’a Muslims. Unlike the Wahhabis and the Boko Haram Takfiris, the Shi’a Muslims neither indulge in threats, terror, kidnapping, and killing, nor do they attack the beliefs of their compatriots, whether Sunnis or Christians. Yet they are discriminated against and deprived of their basic birthrights.

This is gross violation of justice, and does not bode well for the unity of Nigeria, which despite its abundance of oil remains a poverty-stricken under-developed country.

The daily said: regime and the military should understand that brutal suppression, coupled with poisonous propaganda, can neither wipe out a community that is rapidly growing, nor prevent many educated and enlightened Nigerian from embracing the Shi’a Muslim School of Jurisprudence.

The Iranian newspaper advised President Buhari and his uniformed buddy, General Tukar Yousuf Buratai, to read Islamic history and to open their eyes to events in the Muslim World, where Saudi policies, despite the backing of the US and the Zionist entity, are facing defeat on all fronts, whether in Syria or Iraq, and whether in Yemen, which Riyadh thought could be bombed into submission with a few weeks.

It said: It is still not late for the Nigerian government to make amends for its follies and release Sheikh Zakzaky. By doing so, it would gain the support of ten million of its own citizens, which is not an insignificant number, since IMN does not pose any political threat to the country. We hope saner minds will prevail and peace and justice return to Nigeria.

Meanwhile, a statement released in Zaria, Nigeria said: The Islamic Movement in Nigeria will like to draw the attention of the general public to a mischievous plot hatched by the enemies of peace in Nigeria. This latest plot, as disclosed to us by a reliable source, is a fresh attempt to kill our leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who is currently in illegal detention in clear contempt of court judgment, and a simultaneous attack on members of IMN in several cities of Northern Nigeria.

It said: According to the evil scheme, the operation against IMN will start immediately after a crucial and highly important "national announcement" is made in the next coming days or possibly weeks. Those who hatched the plan hope to cash on the political uncertainty they hope the national announcement will generate to finish off their genocidal plans they started years back that culminated in the December 2015 attacks. By carrying out their evil plan of killing our leader and spilling the blood of innocent civilians, they hope to exterminate the Movement once and for all.

The IMN statement said: We are also aware that troops have been strategically and massively stationed in the major cities this operation will be carried out; waiting for the day the "special announcement" will be made, so that they carry out the killing of innocent lives. We will like to call on the international community to prevail upon the Federal Government to call its security agents to order, who it seems are still not satisfied with the over a thousand souls they massacred in Zaria in December, 2015.

Assassination of our leader Sheikh Zakzaky and the murder of members of IMN, will in no way benefit Nigeria and Nigerians.  We therefore urge them to urgently terminate this genocidal scheme. We will remain committed to the peaceful ways of getting justice done to the victims of Zaria massacre carried out by the Army in Zaria. We will therefore reiterate our demand for the immediate release of our Leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky as directed by a federal high court Abuja.

The IMN statement concluded: People of goodwill not only in Nigeria, but the world over, are concerned on the fate of the Sheikh who is clocking 600 days in unjustifiable detention. We want him free now, including his wife and several members of IMN in detention since the Zaria genocide.

In related news, Nigerian Christian activist, Dele Sobowale Decency, called for the release of both Sheikh Zakzaky and Dasuki by referring to the verdict of the Federal court several months ago that the government is trying to ignore. He said: security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct as all other citizen, and if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

Dele Sobowale Decency recalled that Buhari’s twenty-two months as Military Head of State from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985 following his seizure of power in a coup were the most brutal years in the history of Nigeria. Now as the elected head of state, Buhari has not changed at all and is the same brutal dictator. The case of IMN leader, Sheikh Zakzaky is a test of Buhari’s claim to sincerity, and it is evident he has failed.

He said falsehood, like a drunkard, eventually falls under its own weight, and it is clear that Buhari carries additional baggage with regard to the two men – Zakzaky and the Biafra activist, Sambo Dusaki. Rightly or wrongly, Buhari is perceived as using his mandate to fight a sectarian battle and drawing us closer to the bloodshed in the Arab world driven by sectarian violence. Nigerians are not prepared to be part of the carnage in the Arab world. This leaves Buhari in a quandary. He made a promise to the world last year at the London Conference, and he must fulfill it.

AS/ME