Distinguished Leaders of Islamic
organizations,
Brothers and Sisters in Islam,
Gentlemen of the Press,
As-Salaam Alaykunm wa rahmatullahi wa
barakaatuhu.
We welcome you to this press
briefing. The reason for inviting you today is the ongoing attempt to cause social commotion in our dear country,
Nigeria, by whipping up religious sentiment using baseless, unfounded and unreliable
allegations.
These despicable and disgraceful
attempts are being championed by two Christian clerics, namely, Pastor Bosun
Emmanuel and Bishop David Oyedepo.
Pastor Bosun Emmanuel belongs to the Redeemed
Christian Church of God and he is a member of the executive of the Christian Association
of Nigeria (CAN). He represented CAN at the just concluded National Conference.
In a recorded and highly provocative
message, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel made the following dangerous claims and Satanic
assertions:
1. That Muslims and Islam are a
common enemy that needed to be defeated;
2. That Muslims are killing
Christians indiscriminately and destroying churches (he showed pictures and
video clips);
3. that the dreaded Boko Haram is an
Islamic agenda aimed at wiping out the Christians in Nigeria.
4. That the agenda to Islamise
Nigeria was formulated at an OIC conference that held in Abuja in 1989;
5. That Babangida who was the
President of Nigeria at the time gave Muslims $21 billion to actualize the
plan;
6. that Nigerian Christians would be
Islamised the same way the Christians of Turkey were Islamised through force;
7. that APC is an Islamic agenda set
up to Islamize Nigeria and that all the National leaders of APC are Muslims;
8. that Nigerian Christians should
not use their hands to destroy themselves by voting into power the party that
is dedicated to Islamic agenda and finally
9. that APC is the Nigerian version
of the Islamic Brotherhood.
Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living
Faith Church (Winners Chapel) was more blunt in his hate speech and death-wish
for Muslims. He exploded during one of his services inside his church and was quoted
as saying:
1. God has anointed me to lead a
revolution against Islamic jihadists,
2. Spill the blood of every Islamic
jihadist
3. If you catch anyone that looks
like them kill him! Kill him and pull out his neck. I will spill his blood on
the ground. What nonsense!
4. Must the North continue to rule?
5. If Nigeria waits for the church to
rise, Nigeria will disappear as a nation.
6. Lord, if it is Your will to break
up Nigeria break it now! WATCH the
We cannot but wonder how truly Christian
are Pastor Bosun Emmanuel and Bishop Oyedepo.
How faithful are they to their holy
book? The pulpit is a platform of love and kindness. It is the place for hope
when all is lost. How can they use the same pulpit to incite Nigerians against
themselves? How can they command the spilling of blood?
The Bible says, ?Love your neighbour
and bless those that curse you (Luke 10:27) Forgive, in order to be forgiven,
for if you do not forgive those that offend you, neither will your father, which
is in heaven, forgive you? (Mathew 6:14).
Romans 12:17-21 warns against seeking
vengeance while Mathew 26:52 further warns that those who take to the sword
will perish by the sword.
A simple analysis of the above
statements from the pulpits of two Christian clerics show that Pastor Bosun
Emmanuel has willfully incited Nigerian Christians against their Muslim compatriots.
He has also deliberately misled them into believing that Nigerian Muslims had plotted
to exterminate the Christians.
Bishop David Oyedepo has also openly encouraged
Christians to take the law into their hands and to spill the blood of Muslims.
The phrase "anyone that looks like them" in his statement above is
the most dangerous. No other interpretation can be more suitable for this phrase
than any Muslim you can find.
This is very interesting. Bishop
Oyedepo wishes to turn his followers into killers of Muslims. We are not losing
the significance of this statement and its implications at a time like this. A
pastor who is very close to the Nigerian Head of State, President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan, is calling on Christians to kill Muslims.
The same pastor has threatened to
open the gates of hell for those opposing Jonathan! We wonder if Bishop Oyedepo
has the key of the gate of hell in his breast pocket! That will be strange
indeed! We thought the cleric should be more interested in the gate of heaven
and how many souls he could lead through it.
Bishop Oyedepo exposed his hatred for
Northerners when he asked rhetorically, Must the North continue to rule? This
is a misleading rhetoric calculated to whip up ethnic sentiment.
It is the last thing we expect from a
cleric of his caliber.
Oyedepo has also boasted that
Christians are capable of destroying Nigeria, a satanic mission which he has
already embarked upon through these unguarded statements. By inviting God to break
up Nigeria, Oyedepo has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that all he
wants now is for Nigeria to break up. He has placed a curse on his country, Break
it now! He cried hysterically. This is treasonable. Bishop
Oyedepo has failed to lead his
followers responsibly.
We can imagine what would have
happened if an Imam or Shaykh had uttered such treacherous statements. He would
have been arrested instantly and taken to Abuja. Members of his family would
not have had access to him or known his whereabouts for months, if not for
years. This has been the fate of some Islamic scholars in Nigeria under
President Jonathan.
We have every reason to quarry the
role of the Nigerian security agencies in the present dispensation. Why do they
employ double standard in the interpretation and application of the rules? Why
do they always ignore the agent provocateur among the Christian clerics while innocent
Islamic scholars are arrested, dumped and forgotten in underground cells?
Nigerian Muslims are not aware that
you did anything about them so far. This means we are not safe. Mr. President
we are not safe under you. You have failed to assert your authority and prove
that you are the chief security officer in this land. How can you allow
Christian leaders to threaten Muslims and yet you cannot caution them? Some of
the incriminating statements were uttered about three months ago. There is no
statement from Aso Rock up till now. It has been business as usual. We reject
this lackadaisical approach to administration.
We therefore demand reassurance
concerning our safety. We demand the immediate arrest of Pastor Bosun Emmanuel
and Bishop David Oyedepo. These two fanatical Christian clerics must be
arrested and cautioned. They must sign an undertaking wherein they will pledge
to refrain from (and to keep their followers from) any act capable of
disrupting law and order.
Anything short of this will mean that
President Jonathan himself is the one pushing the war- mongering pastors to
vilify and attack Muslims.
We will then hold the president
responsible for any religious commotion particularly in the South-West where it
has never occurred before. We appeal to the international community to take
note of this ugly development in Nigeria where Christian clerics are
metamorphosing into religious extremists and inciting their followers to pull
out the necks of Muslims and spill their blood.
We call attention to some countries
in Asia and Central Africa where Muslims are hounded and killed by mobs. The
attendant humanitarian crisis often affect the whole world but worse still, it
fuels more acts of terrorism.
MURIC charges other Christian leaders
to speak out on this issue. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) should
break its silence on the issue. It is our considered opinion that Pastor Bosun
Emmanuel and Bishop Oyedepo do not necessarily speak for the generality of
Christians nationwide because we know that patriotic and true followers of
Jesus are greater in number than the blood-thirsty war-mongers. We jog the conscience
of the peaceful Christian majority and ask them to speak out now.
We, the Nigerian Muslims, reiterate
our condemnation of terrorism. We denounce attacks on Christians. We have
repeatedly condemned Boko Haram and we have insisted that they are a misled
group. Terrorists are not Muslims and Muslims are not terrorists. It is also
didactic to remember that Muslims and their leaders have also been victims of terrorist
attacks. This should be good reason for Christians and Muslims to come together
to fight the evil called terrorism.
We love our Christian neighbours and
we are prepared to co-exist peacefully together, in an atmosphere of mutual
respect. Fate has brought all of us together and there is nothing we can do
about it unless we want to cause pandemonium. This country is for all of us and
nobody is going to leave for others. Even if we start a Christian-Muslim war
today, no group can wipe out the other. It will be a prolonged war of attrition
capable of causing prolonged suffering, hunger, disease and a humanitarian crisis
of unprecedented proportion. It is therefore necessary for us to realize that
our only hope of survival is by loving and sharing.
We therefore appeal to all Nigerians
to sink their differences and continue to tolerate and love one another
regardless of religious and ethnic backgrounds. We appeal to Nigerians to ignore
the attempt by these two pastors to bring religious sentiment into the 2015
electioneering campaign. All the political parties have Christians and Muslims
as members. For instance, the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is
a Muslim (Alhaji Adamu Muazu) while that of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
is a Christian (Chief John Oyegun).
MURIC charges Nigerians to vote
according to their consciences. Let us vote for integrity, credibility and
performance. Let us shun religious bigotry and ethnic jingoism. Let us rescue
Nigeria from the jaws of the two zealots: the Christian fanatics and the Muslim
extremists.
Finally, we appeal to Muslims
nationwide to ignore the provocations of Pastor Bosun Emmanuel and Bishop
Oyedepo, to remain peaceful, law-abiding, yet vigilant. Allah bless the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment