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What really is religious provocation? The UI mosque incident

August 19, 2010

Last Friday, Moslems of the University of Ibadan (UI) demonstrated to the whole world how sensible people of any religion or faith should react to what is clearly the action of a deranged individual.  

Last Friday, Moslems of the University of Ibadan (UI) demonstrated to the whole world how sensible people of any religion or faith should react to what is clearly the action of a deranged individual.  

Since it is widely known that a [tiny] fraction of law students, more than of any other discipline, do exhibit clinically abnormal behaviour and talking gibberish, in the run-up to degree and bar examinations, it is not out of place to assume that Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye might have become unhinged somewhere along the line, even  if only temporarily.

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I comment on religion issues only reluctantly, not because I am irreligious or afraid of the backlash, but because the original clear and valid issues you raise are inevitably lost in the ensuing and predictable hysteria.  I am fortunate to be familiar enough with both Christian and Moslem worlds to enable me, at times like this, make what I consider my objective but humble scrutiny.

The original report from Ibadan is that leaders in the mosque detained Adegunsoye but shielded her from any reprisals, while they called UI security to apprehend.  I do not believe the stories coming out later, of Moslem students beating her to a pulp, or into a coma, as reported by some sensational media.  UI is in Ibadan, Oyo State.  It is not in Kano, or Ilorin, or Kaduna.  I would equally not believe those dramatic reprisal stories if the scene had been Owerri or Calabar or Okene.  Wanton religion violence is characteristic of only certain districts of Nigeria.

I am convinced further that if the crisis had occurred in Kaduna for an example, the careless information by an unthinking official, that Adegunsoye has been released to go home to her parents would by now have resulted in senseless arson and possible murder at their home.  It is also possible that the police and UI gave that information in the first place only to prevent an Akaluka-style attack on Iyaganku or other police stations, or on the university campus.

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However, it is indicative of the depth to which standards of expected behaviour, discernment and tolerance have sunk, that a university community would be considered to have done something extraordinary, for not murdering a common intruder at their place of worship.  Apologists for religion violence are praising the astonishing restraint of worshippers at the UI mosque.  This is supposedly a citadel of knowledge, whom the rest of country look up to for enlightened behaviour, yet people want us to award them prizes for not adopting thuggery in dealing with what could still turn out to be a desperate cry for help by a medically needy individual.

Realising the incendiary potential of religion incidents, Professor Femi Bamiro, a model of a vice chancellor if there was ever any, demonstrated the same quality that has made him famous as a rejuvenator of our municipal academia (aka Federal Universities).  He rushed to the conflict area to apologise for what the whole world knew neither he nor the university authorities ordered, nor encouraged, nor condoned, nor concealed.

For those who have the understanding, Professor Bamiro was not pacifying the worshippers at that mosque last Friday.  He was appealing to the better sentiments of those thugs, hoodlums, layabouts, intending looters and potential rapists who went the next day to barricade UI and those who, at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife the next day, went to accost Christian students, in reprisal. 

There is a saying among the Yoruba, urging guests at a wedding ceremony to pacify a disruptive madman by hailing him as the bridegroom of the day, so that the party could progress peacefully.

Many of those hooligans usually cannot tell what sallat it is for a time of the day, let alone worship in a mosque.  Many of them cannot differentiate their Al Asri from their Maghrib, yet they would claim they were defending Islam.  It is for the purpose of those good for nothing opportunists, some of them undoubtedly remnants of the Adedibu clan, that Bamiro’s appeasement was necessary.  It is also because of them that any attempt to trivialise the incident will not only be ill advised, but also, profoundly foolish.

To be clear, Adegunsoye did not go to that mosque to preach the gospel.  Not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  For any other Christian fanatics out there that may want do likewise, I refer them to Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in.”   Jesus Christ did not practise, nor did He give anyone the mandate of, militant evangelism.  Neither did He advise deceptive, terrorist methods, to gain access to other people‘s worship space.

Adegunsoye, on that Friday, was one of two things.  The less likely is that she knew what she was doing and was simply an adventurer trying to make a joke that nobody finds funny, or she was simply trying to be famous by what everybody agrees is dangerous means.  Otherwise, why did she not go to Kano central mosque where she would have made the most impact but predictably would not last five minutes after such an outburst?  If truly she meant her escapade to be a joke, she needs to tell us when to start laughing.

The other possibility, the more likely of the two, is that she was suffering from a mental affliction, temporary or otherwise, for which she deserves nothing but our sympathy and, appropriate medical help. 

This makes you wonder when some people describe her actions as provocative of the Moslem world. 

Provocation, according to the authoritative Oxford English dictionary, is a test or action, intended to elicit a particular response, or reaction.  Put into perspective and, according to apologists of religion violence, Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye went into that mosque on Friday, to do what she did, so that UI Moslems would beat her into a coma, kill her, burn her corpse, disturb the smooth running of the university and start off a religion riot in Oyo State and all over the country.  Even in her obviously disturbed state of mind, that must be farthest from her intentions.

Provocation in religion matters is borne out of a deep understanding of the provoked, by the provoker.  Usually it is anchored in hatred borne of years of bloody confrontation or silent hostility.  Such provocation is usually organised, sponsored, and monitored.  How can a single so called Christian, acting on her own, provoke an entire Moslem world?

Adegunsoye’s action cannot be put in the same category as Israeli soldiers using rocks to break the arm of a stone-throwing Palestinian boy protester, to teach him a lesson.  Neither can it be placed in the category of neo-Nazi thugs going to dub swastika on graves in a Jewish cemetery.  Those acts are organised and borne of deep hatred.  In those actions, the perpetrators knew what the reaction would be and it is exactly for that particular reaction that they did what they did. 

If a lunatic goes into a church and replaces the bible on the altar with a Koran, does that constitute religious provocation of Christians?  Is it provocation of the Igbo race when a Yoruba armed robber goes to operate in Aba?  Is it to provoke the ethnic Yoruba that an Ijaw man fornicates with a Yoruba wife?

I feel so much pity for Adegunsoye and her family.  Any parent can imagine how painful it would be, to nurture a child from infancy through primary education to university, only [for her] to be overwhelmed by the pressures of success, just as you are about to heave a sigh of relief and sing gratitude to God that the child is completing her formal education.  While other parents are looking forward with joy to graduation, Adegunsoye’s are faced with the sad prospect of their daughter ending up in a jail or sanatorium. 

It is such considerations that should shame any thoughts of bruised religious egos.

Whatever the thugs of Ibadan and Ife thought they were defending, they need to be told that Yoruba communities including the respectable and highly respected people of Hausa, Ibo, Ijaw, Efik and other origins living there, have learnt to resolve religion issues without resorting to gratuitous violence. Thankfully, the riotous element in Ibadan and Ife appear to have calmed.

Religious tolerance, like other good behaviour, can be taught.  The lesson is to make sure whoever engages in bigotry of the violent kind, lives to regret it.  It should not matter how numerous their number or how few.  It should not matter how highly placed or well connected they are.  No one wants the type of disgraceful murder of innocent young men in Maiduguri (unbelievable if one had not seen incontrovertible video footage), but we are asking for a process of thorough investigation and lawful punishment of anybody or any people that use religion incidents as opportunity to foist their criminal tendencies on an already widely lawless country. 

Without such deterrent, we will continue to hold our hearts in our mouths every time a common criminal or madcap decides to engage our attention with mindless religion (mis)adventure.

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