Why wouldn’t these Islamic scholars, of all people, know that Islam respects women and grants them more rights than they enjoyed in pre-Islamic Arabia? Ingrid Mattson, call your office! “Kwara: Islamic Scholars Rise Against Female Gov,” by Hammed Shittu in This Day, June 1 (thanks to Twostellas):
[…] Also, some Islamic scholars recently issued a statement which called on the stakeholders saddled with the responsibility of choosing a new governor to desist from presenting a woman candidate either for the position of governor or that of deputy governor.
Part of the statement read: “We as descendants and disciples of Sheikh Aalim Sheikh Kamaldeen Al-Adabiyy, Sheikh Adam Al-llory and many other scholars, therefore see it as our collective obligation before our creator, then as a duty we owe those erudite scholars of our beloved town of Islamic principles, to set the records straight on the position of Islam in such a case. This is being done without any motive to either support or work against the candidacy of any aspirant.
“While it is unequivocally stated in Sharia that a woman can occupy, and indeed women have occupied, the position of subsidiary leadership, as ministers, commissioners and the likes, the grand leadership of a state or a nation is exclusively for men, as the masculinity is usually stated conspicuously, as a prerequisite for the position of leadership of a state or a nation.
“Leadership in Islam is a responsibility and not a privilege; hence, restriction of grand leadership to males alone never suggests discrimination against women. The fact is that we have had female leaders in very few Muslims countries, compared to the overwhelming majority of them.
“The fact that most of the so-called democratic countries of the world still have males as their leaders speak volume of the indisputability of differences in natures, propensities and peculiarities of each gender.”
However, as the move by Senator Gbemisola gathers momentum, associates say the woman is unperturbed by criticisms from the scholars. Already, sources indicate that she has already set up campaign machinery to help her realize her ambition of ruling Kwara next year.
Before now, the Senator was said to have paid a visit to various stakeholders in the state seeking for their support in her bid. As a way of currying favour from the hard-line Islamic groups, she was said to have sponsored over 1000 people to the Holy Land to observe the Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj and Umrah. She was said to have implored them to pray for her so as to actualize her ambition….