2.5.13 Their Concepts of Jesus
Apart from the Ahmadis as we shall discuss in chapter five, all other Muslim groups and traditions to the best of the researcher’s knowledge do not have any well formulated teaching about Jesus that set them apart from one another. Even though Jesus is highly esteemed by all Muslims in Nigeria, as elsewhere, as earlier indicated, there does not exist any comprehensive or official teaching on Jesus in the other groups as is the case with the Ahmadis. Although few may be aware of the positions held by the Muslim umma across the globe according to their affiliations, it seems they are only content with emphasizing what he is not – as portrayed in the polemical works of the South African Ahmad Deedat and others as earlier indicated – rather than concentrating on what he is since he does not constitute the central figure of their worship. Due to the utmost reverence they have for Jesus as well as for other Islamic prophets, there have been instances in Nigeria where they have had to make their position clear either through protest or through corporate official statements. Two vivid examples were the circumstances that led to minor skirmishes in Katsina in 1991 and the issuance of a rejoinder refuting the divinity of Jesus in 1986.
The 1991 Katsina riot started around a contestation for the alleged desecration of the Prophets Jesus and Muhammad. An article in Fun Times, a publication of Daily Times
allegedly insulted both Jesusand Muhammad by claiming that both had relations with
‘women of easy virtue.”214 In the Fun Times, a special opinion columnist asked the readers “if they would marry a known prostitute turned “'born-again Christian'?" Orlando Emmanuel Atanda gave the background to his question using Mary Magdalene in the Holy Bible who was a prostitute that had converted to following Jesus. He also used the Holy Qur’n and claimed Muhammad had an affair with a woman of easy virtue and later married her. Like the Iranian Sh`ites’ reaction to Rushdie’s "Satanic Verses", this so provoked one Yakubu Yahaya, a former student of al-Zakzakky, and his followers, who regarded the publication as blasphemous of the two holy prophets. They did not stop at that but extended their attack on the “infidel” Christian governor of the state, John Madaki, for allegedly participating in the Federal Government’s campaign through CAN to spread Christianity, including secularism, throughout the country. Their leader, Yakubu Yahaya, maintained that since the paper belonged to the Federal Government, its publication in the state under a Christian governor was an endorsement of anti-Muslim attacks by the Federal Government and a clear example of the government’s generally pro-Christian and anti-Muslim stance. In defiance of the “infidel” Governor, he declared his readiness to die for a noble cause, “I am a Muslim under Muslim rules and I do not recognize any authority over me but that of the Holy Qur’n… I am proud of this noble cause and I am ready to die for it.”215 Consequently, he gathered around himself supporters in their hundreds who went about burning government buildings and cars including the sales office of the Daily times. He explains:
while doing that, we did not touch any of the staff of Daily Times nor did we insult anybody. We burnt the publications in order to express our displeasure with the Daily Times for putting up two of our prophets to ridicule. We know that the punishment of whoever ridicules our prophet is death, but we could not carry out this sentence because we did not know the actual person who was responsible for the act. This was why we had to punish the company with the hope that our action will serve as deterrent to others.216
214 Newswatch, 29 April, 1991, p. 16-19; Fun Times, Vol. 2, No. 67, Dec. 1990.
215 West Africa, 20-26.5.1991, p. 796.
216 J. H. Boer, Nigeria’s Decades of Blood: Studies in Christian & Muslim Relations (Jos: Stream Christian Publishers, 2003): pp. 79-80.
It might be true that no staff of Daily Times was killed as Yahaya claims, but many people were killed by his supporters in the process of carrying out their ‘punishment’ on the company. Owing to the loss of lives and property, Yahaya and many of his followers were tried and jailed. The governor threatened Yahaya with a death sentence which further inflamed the situation. This prompted his spiritual mentor and former teacher, al-Zakzakky, who had passed a death sentence on the Governor, to mobilize more than 2,000 supporters from his base in Zaria who invaded Katsina to give support to Yahaya.
The quick intervention of the combined team of the police and the army prevented the riot from degenerating or snowballing into another huge religious mayhem.
In 1986, the New Nigerian carried a rejoinder by the Jama’atu Nasril Islam claiming to be on behalf of all Muslims in Nigeria (possibly excluding the sws and the Ahmadis we would suspect) challenging as well as correcting the alleged distortion of what they perceived as the Qur’nic Jesus by one Salihu. The rejoinder read:
The Jama’atu Nasril Islam will like to make it clear that the Muslims believe that Jesus is one of the mighty Messengers of God. They also believe that Jesus did wonderful things by the will of God as Jesus said in John 5:30 “I can of my ownself do nothing, as I hear, I judge and judgement is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which has sent me.” The Muslims believe also Jesus was born miraculously because he was born without a father but by the word of God; but the Muslims also believe the way Adam was created without father and mother by the word of God was more miraculous than of Jesus. In fact, the Bible refers to Israel as the First son of God. So what does this mean? With regard to Jesus himself he has been referred to in the New Testament 83 times as the son of man while he has been referred to as the son of God only 13 times and even these have metaphorical meaning.217
While the first instance says nothing more than that Jesus is a highly revered prophet in Islam, the second relies heavily on the work of Ahmad Deedat as noted in chapter one.
Ahmed Deedat’s works as can be seen from these words continue to underline most Nigerian Muslims’ perceptions of Jesus. Although this only covers a refutation of the divinity of Jesus and in the absence of other official or written document covering other attributes and claims of Jesus by the Muslim groups or JNI on their behalf, it nevertheless
217 Jama’atu Nasril Islam, “On Divinity of Christ: A Rejoinder” in New Nigerian, Tuesday, August 12, 1986, p. 12.
shows the primacy with which Jesus is held among Nigerian Muslims. As a justification for the Kano religious riot that was nipped in the bud on Sunday April 20, 2008 which was said to have reduced potential economic activity of the North by “about 20%” for the next few years because of the destructions due to an alleged blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad by a Christian trader, a Muslim commentator reiterated that while
“Christians can condone Jesus being scandalized, the Muslims CAN NEVER condone anyone lambasting Mohammed Or Jesus!” Another wondered why in the first place one will commit blasphemy. “Why would one insult Prophet Muhammad or Prophet Isa (Jesus)?218 Although Kano metropolis, and by implication, the whole of Nigeria, was saved from being engulfed in another round of bloody ethno-religious crisis due to the quick intervention of the police, Muslims again showed that insulting both Prophet Muhammad and Jesus remain unacceptable. It is left for their Christian neighbours to understand and as a matter of necessity respect this sensibility for mutual co-existence.
2.7 Conclusion
Why have we taken so much space rehearsing Nigerian historical past for what would have just been summarized? We feel this is important because experience has shown that these are important issues for both Christians and Muslims. From the slavery to the British or colonial legacies to the long years of Muslim rule, many Christians seem to have reached a conclusion of no longer wanting to be subjected to Muslim rule any longer. They have often nursed the concern that if Nigeria is a multi-religious country, no single religious group should be allowed to dominate the others as they continue to point to the imbalance in the number of Muslim Northerners that have ruled the country since independence with its obvious economic, religious and political implications. The Muslims too are bent on maintaining the status quo. This is not only demonstrated at the national level with some still calling for secession, but also at communal, local and state levels which has exasperated the already tense situation. Although the history painted and the Muslim groups and organizations covered are not devoid of positive contributions to the development of Nigeria as a nation, certain historical antecedents and the dispositions of certain Muslim groups and organizations as delineated play a contributing role for the
218 S. O. Isah, “Police Avert Religious Crisis in Kano” in Leadership Nigeria, 21.04.2008.
stalemate in Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria for a long period of time as well as at present. The next chapter is a survey of the kind of relationship that has dominated Christians-Muslims relations in Nigeria over the years in view of what has been discussed in this chapter.
CHAPTER THREE: MUSLIMS’ RELATIONS WITH OTHER RELIGIONS IN