I suppose that dancing around the Mulberry Bush is alright
but when we advance to being more mature dance folks
the melody à la Eddie Harris goes :
"Shaking your head and poppin' your fingers is alright
Are you just gonna sit there and do that all night? "
Once again I'm in deep sympathy with the general thrust of this article about the plight of my distinguished Yoruba Brethren in the caravan of al Islam - but also, once again true or false, in the darkness of night that would be tantamount to – as usual - when just the one word would do, once again all we see is Herr Kperogi flexing some great, big grammar muscle while conveniently side-stepping the brutal truth with his usual long-winded poetic circumlocutions, to name just as few,
"insidiously widespread anti-Muslim bigotry in Yoruba land came to light"
" Osibona's meretriciously outward displays of his Christianity and evangelical exhibitionism"
" it merely instantiates the casual bigotry that Yoruba Muslims routinely contend with in their own natal region on account of their faith,"
"their faith-based systematic exclusion and demonisation"
"causal bigotry"...
"habitually ridiculed for their faith, sneered at for their Muslim sartorial choices, alienated and rhetorically marginalized, and outright denied opportunities" …
" cruel slanders and unwarrantedly unmentionable vituperations."
How was it at the Baptist Missionary School that he attended in Kwarra ? Back in those good old days could a suitably qualified Yoruba Muslim land a plump job via an interview conducted by bigoted, not so bigoted, not at all bigoted Baptist Missionaries?
We ( all of us) are to suppose that at Sunday School the faithful urchins were taught that a spade is a spade and to at least learn how to call "things" by their proper names. That's why it's amazing that in this several hundred words long write-up, that one essential word is missing - that one word writ large, that would have hit the mark: ISLAMOPHOBIA pure and simple
But (once again) could all that Professor Farooq Kperogi has penned for us here, be true? All true?
True: One tree doesn't make a Sambisa Forest!
True too: Nor does the exception make the rule!
It's only uncommon sense asking: If half of our Yoruba Folk are Muslim and the other half are Christian – as is the case- and they have been living in a close, harmonious, symbiotic relationship for at least a century, then how can this account be foisted on us as a true picture, representative of the Christian-Muslim Interface in Yoruba-land?
If Nigeria's Yoruba population is 37,500,000 souls, then the " multiple Yoruba Muslims shared similar such anecdotal encounters of causal bigotry" referred to in this article which does not suggest or provide any kind of statistical evidence as to how widespread Islamophobia among the Yoruba is, could amount to a mere drop in the ocean, like a grain of sand in the Sahara or the Arabian Desert.
Apart from this article, the only other intimation of alleged Yoruba Islamophobia was the diatribe delivered at Ted Talks, by one Femi Fani-Kayode - sounding off not on his own Islamophobia, but sounding off instead on one of his pet subjects, his so-called "Islamic Fundamentalism in Nigeria " although it's not clear exactly where he stands today, since he claims Noble Fulani ancestry/heritage as a part of his distinguished lineage...
The context of all this of course is Islam in today's Nigeria being negatively represented by Boko Haram terror, in its turn being supplemented by all the allegations so far made against Fulani herdsmen, further exacerbated by many of the wanton ransom kidnappings being perpetrated by Muslims that may have been identified as by the Muslims, apprehended thus far. Inevitably, even the sceptic must concede that Muslim- Non-Muslim relations have been further poisoned, by the security challenges posed by mostly identifiable armed & rapacious Muslim incursions into Yoruba- Land, giving rise to self-preservation, self-defence units such as Operation Amotekun
Since salvific Christianity can be suberised as love of God, neighbour and enemy, I should like to remind the Yoruba Christian Brethren and all the Fuji Music lovers like yours truly about these lines from the Al-Quran Al-Karim, Surah Al-Ma'idah – 82
"Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters. And thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe (to be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks and because they are not proud."
Today's Saturday Tribune/Peoples Gazette column uses the story of one Adebowale Sikiru whom Foursquare MD Femi Osibona (who sadly died in the collapsed building he managed) denied a job only because of his Muslim faith to call attention to the time-honored casual bigotry and inferiorization of Yoruba Muslims by their own people in their own land. I'm ready and loaded for bear for the predictable attacks from people who'd rather sweep this uncomfortable truth under the drug and attack the messenger.Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiNigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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