| Islamic Banking: Putting things in the right perspective KAYODE KETEFE A sizeable segment of the Christian leaders under the aegis of Christian Association of Nigeria and Islamic leaders of different hues are, strange to say, busy hurling stinkers in each other religious space over the continuing controversy of the proposed introduction of interest-free banking facility, otherwise called Islamic banking, because of its provenance with Islamic jurisprudence. While the former construe the whole idea as a surreptitious attempt by the Governor of the Central Bank, Malam Lamido Sanusi, to subsume the nation's financing sector under the "conservative" Islamic system, the latter see the Christians' opposition to it as a callous antipathy to a product meant to synchronise their lifestyle with the tenets of their religion. Though some Christian leaders, like Pastor Tunde Bakare, have taken the pain to explain that the dreaded facility is not an "evil package" but an alternative product available to all persons (with a few understandable exceptions) like other banking products, many other Christian leaders would simply not hear of it. Thus the opposition has culminated in avoidable Muslim/Christian face-off. Under the traditional socio-religious dispensation, in Yorubaland for instance, you would rarely see the worshipers of Sango engaging the adherents of Ogun, the putative god of iron, in war, neither would you see worshipers of Ifa (the oracle) attacking the Orisa Oko faithful in a manner that would endanger the polity. All these so-called primitive faiths found it easier to live in harmonious co-existence, believing that their slightly different rites were valid religious realties within the same pantheon. But the same, unfortunately, does not hold true for our modern higher religions of Christianity and Islam today. We rarely see what is good in each other's faith. There is so much distrust, suspicion and hate that every slight issue is capable of being blown out of proportion; every storm in the tea cup assumes the destructive forces of a malevolent tsunami. Yet, a pluralistic society like Nigeria, brimming with diversity and eclectic demographic structure and possessing such a wealth of philosophical/religious ideas, must of necessity find a way to entrench the culture of tolerance and mutual respect. Religious leaders have a notable role to play in fostering this culture of tolerance. Sadly, this is not usually the case. What we often witness is spontaneous outburst of unsavoury tirades, unleashed recklessly by the said leaders with hardly any compunction for the feelings of others; these leaders engage in petty, ill-informed, emotive vituperations that are contagious to their myriads of followers. To start with, I, as a Christian, honestly do not see how the introduction of Islamic banking would ultimately "Islamise Nigeria". The rhetoric of the alarmist cry that our secularism is threatened by the advent of profit-sharing alternative to conventional banking is too shallow to convince any person who has taking the pain to know what the proposed facility is all about. Some 75 countries around the world, including Britain and United States, have financial systems that offer one form of interest-free banking or the other and no pernicious effect had been recorded from the practice. Furthermore, the operations guidelines of the proposed facility had already been set by the Central Bank which also would oversee and assess the implementation of the guidelines. Although it may be rightly said that the usage of the name "Islamic Banking" would constitute an affront to section 37 (1) of the Banking and Other Financial Institution Act, which prohibits, among others things, banks and other financial institutions from taking on distinctive sectarian identity like using invidious religious names. But what does that matter? It can be officially called interest-free banking while its proponents can still regale themselves by unofficially calling it whatever names they like within their own circle. Holding this position, this is not to say that the Christian leaders have no right to be vigilant concerning any issue with the potential harm to their faith; after all there has been in this country a covert machination by the Federal Military Government in the 80s to join the Organisation of Islamic Countries in defiance of our multi-religiosity status. That is obviously illegal on the simple ground that the constitution expressly forbids adoption of any state religion. Even then, this right to vigilance should not translate into indiscriminate antipathy to anything outside own religious preferences; it does not follow that any kind of concept with the slightest semblance to Islam or any religion should thenceforth be rejected wholesale no matter how benign, and without even examining the contents on its merit. Let the truth be told, if we claim to operate a federal system and a secular democracy where every citizen is free to practice any religion of his choice, it will be difficult to fault the introduction of any concept simply because it is historically rooted in the tenets of a particular faith. We should refrain from seeing every issue through the coloured prism of religion.Both the Christian and Muslims are serving the same God, whether we call him Allah or Jehovah; it is still the same God. Let us stop a perfunctory opposition to one another in the name of religion. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment