this movement draws its students from girls whose parents no longer have the means or desire to see their girls continue w their education.
now, the woman who founded and runs the project is one of the most inspiring people i met in africa over the decades. her name is viola vaughn, and she hales from detroit. like a number of detroit blacks who came to kaolack for religious reasons, she learned and practices islam there, and unlike the others, stayed.
she talks about not being submissive, as a woman, even in the mosques back home in detroit. and she raises her girls to be assertive and entrepreneurial. i strongly supported everything she said; and saw with my own eyes the marvelous results ofher work.
now here is the kicker. i know of the other major brotherhoods in senegal, themourids, the tijanis. i know how revered are their founders; i know, we all know, that the hadj is done locally to touba for the mourids. the founder, cheikh amadou bamba, is regarded as divinely blessed, to have had the powers of baraka, and to have brought new knowledge of islamic practice to millions. the same is true of the tijani order.
those orders maintain strict distinction between boys and girls in their education and paths in life.
the order which viola joined in kaolack was different. it was the niassene order. although it started in senegal, it spread. guess where to? nigeria, where it grew and flourished.
so you can imagine my shock in reading about the 9 men condemned to death for blasphemy. i expected atheists or who knows what. do you know what their crime was? basically, they were niassene, praising the founder of their order. i am sure they would have been considered religious, not blasphemous, in kaolack. and no doubt many many nigerian niaseene agree with them.
this puts a different note on their sentence. it is a struggle between the different orders, not some western intrusion on northern nigerian beliefs.
here is the bbc report:
ken
Nigeria court in Kano sentences nine people to death for blasphemy
- 26 June 2015
- From the section Africa
An Islamic court has sentenced nine people to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
The accused, who were all Muslims, had pleaded guilty, the head of Kano's religious police, Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, told the BBC.
The trial was speedily done in secret after a section of the court was burnt down by angry protesters last month.
It is not known if they will appeal against the sentence.
The alleged offence was committed last month at a religious gathering in honour of Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the Senegalese founder of the Tijaniya sect, which has a large following across West Africa.
The nine, eight man and a woman, were reported to have said that "Niasse was bigger than Prophet Muhammad", triggering unrest.
The venue was burnt to the ground by an angry mob and the nine were arrested,
"There has been consensus among Muslims scholars that insulting the prophet carries a death sentence," Mr Daurawa told the BBC Hausa service.
"We quickly put them on trial to avoid bloodshed because people were very angry and trying to take law into their hands," he added.
Kano has a predominately Muslim population and Islamic courts operate alongside secular courts.
BBC Kano reporter Yusuf Yakasai said people celebrated in some parts of the city when news of the judgement emerged.
Tijaniya at a glance
The Sufi sect of Tijaniya was founded in Algeria in 1784 by Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tijani.
It spread all over the world, with large following in north and west Africa. It also has followers in South Africa, Indonesia and other parts of the world.
There are other Sufi sects in Islam but Tijaniya is the largest.
They have three main daily practices: Asking the forgiveness of God; sending prayers to the Prophet Muhammad and affirming the Oneness of Allah.
Senegalese-born Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse was credited with reviving the sect in the 20th Century. People travel from across the continent to visit his shrine.
They have several factions including the Haqiqa (Realist) group, whose leaders were convicted accused of blasphemy in Kano.
Several states in predominantly Muslims northern Nigeria have introduced Sharia law after the country returned to civilian rule in 1999.
This is the first time a death sentence has been handed down for blasphemy in northern Nigeria.
The sentence has been delivered for other offences such as adultery but none has been carried out
--
I campaigned against Buhari saying that his extreme stance will embolden latent Islamic extremists to come to the open to perpetuate inhuman acts.
Now Buhari is President and 9 'blasphemers' have been sentenced by a Sharia Court in Kano to be beheaded. Hundreds of protesters had destroyed the court house and threatened the judge to put through that sentence. It is reminiscent of a savage kingdom.
I first heard the term 'blasphemy laws' on Aljazeera in relation to the situation in Pakistan where people were beheaded for 'insulting' the prophet. I knew that we had to prevent anybody that commands in Nigeria, the class of people capable of such ignorance from becoming President or we'll be damned.
Now it has happened and the first executions that will trend Nigeria on foreign media alongside Pakistan when discussions on 'honour killings' and 'blasphemy laws' is in the offing. Once again, I and many other anti-Buhari campaigners have been vindicated.
The people who shouted me down the most during my political campaigns were Christians living in areas far from the North. They fell for and got drunk with the promise of 'change'. Now they remain removed from the consequences of the Kano case just as they have always been shielded from the realities behind the façade called 'change'.
The many ordinary people in Kano and places like Kano have been exposed to the possibility of a primitive existence.
There's more to come.
It's a tragedy.
But remember that there is an army of angry people waiting to pounce on any judge who gives 'unfavourable' judgements in the case.
So whats the correlation between Buhari & the sentensing?
Did Buhari sentensed any one? or did he prescribe the law?
Always reseach well on issues.
People maintain their way of lives,tradition in diffent ways
Please
No wonder, the white man u called not a fool just accepted the legalization of GAY.
May God save us.
A God whose existence is unproven.
Prophets whose claims are unproven.
Any religion where that is done demonstrates a deeply primitive and inhuman element.
Islam needs refinement.
This our tomfoolery for western/arabic religion is getting out of hand!
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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