The Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria argued that “the report was part of activities designed to discredit Islam and Muslims in Nigeria saying that saying that, ‘implicit in the definitive assertion is a mischievous attempt at wholesale stereotyping and slander of Islam and Muslims, typical of western governments and their media, since 9/11’.”
No, you’re discrediting yourselves by defending suspected jihadists, and not on the merits of the case against them, but on the basis of a belief in a vast conspiracy. “Nigeria: Islamic Body Seeks Release of Suspected Al-Qaeda Members,” by Reuben Buhari for This Day:
The Federal Government has been urged by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria (SCSN) to call the State Security Services (SSS) and other security agencies in the country to order over the recent reported claims by the SSS on the presence of Al-Qaeda cells in Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Yobe States, and urged for the release all those arrested in connection with the report.
The group also argued that the report was part of activities designed to discredit Islam and Muslims in Nigeria saying that, “implicit in the definitive assertion is a mischievous attempt at wholesale stereotyping and slander of Islam and Muslims, typical of western governments and their media, since 9/11.
“Unfortunately, similar jaundiced expressions seem to be gaining ground in Nigeria, in our government agencies, through some key public functionaries who are pursuing parallel agenda, clearly aimed at employing the machinery of state to victimize and terrorize Muslim organizations and individuals, a typical case of giving a dog a bad name to justify hanging it.”
Secretary-General of the SCSN, Alhaji Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, who spoke at a joint press conference in Kaduna on behalf of other Muslims groups, also asked the National assembly to, “re-examine the unconstitutional and unreasonable definition of acts of terrorism in Section 2 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2006 which is a replica of Section 15 of the Act.”
According to Baba-Ahmed, the persons who are said to belong to Alquaeda who the SSS arrested are just “ordinary people” who are victims of a set up explaining that, “what the SSS said is a lie. We got our lawyers to interview two of the accused persons arrested in Kawo, Kaduna . It was a set up. The SSS set them up. They are ordinary people. One of them is a tailor.
“We believe the timing of the claim by the SSS, coming barely a fortnight after a similar claim by the out-going British High commissioner and the very week when Mr. John Negroponte, US Deputy Secretary of State, was in Nigeria to cajole our government to support the American sinister plan to establish AFRICOM, could not have been coincidental.
“Rather, it is a premeditated design to lend credence to the sinister agenda of America to establish AFRICOM and legitimize acts of impunity by the SSS against Muslim scholars and organizations.
“We’re deeply disturbed by the penchant of our security agencies and other Federal Government parastatals for blindly accepting and parroting the American script, by demonizing and slandering Nigerian Muslims and their faith.”
Some other Muslim groups who were represented at the press briefing were, the Movement for Islamic Culture and Awareness [MICA], National Council of Mulim Youth Organizations [NACOMYO], Muslim Sisters Organisation [MSO] and NASFAT, among others.