Why we engage in religious debates—Adepoju

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA Chief Lecturer, Academy of Islamic Propagation, ACADIP, Alhaji Yusuf Olatunde Adepoju, has explained his interest in comparative religions, adding that it was to clarify the many misconceptions about Prophet Muhammad, (s.a.w) and Islam, by Christian clerics.

He spoke barely a week after the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rt. Rev. Matthew Kukah, delivered a paper at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka’s 43rd lecture blaming the rise of insurgency in Nigeria on what he described as “conspiracy of silence and breakdown of societal surveillance.” Adepoju, condemned the spate of violence across the country but reiterated that he would not sit and watch the non-Muslims write and circulate journals blaspheming “Allah, Prophet Muhammad, (s.a.w), and Islam without doing anything in form of the religious comparatives.” In an interview with Vanguard, in Ilobu, Osun State, yesterday, the son of former Chairman Osun State Civil Service Commission also blamed the Federal Government for not being proactive in nipping the incessant crises in the bud. “They allow crisis to brew and break before taking action, towards stopping it,” he said. He stated that holistic measure should be made in ensuring that adherents of both Islam and Christianity preach and carry out their religious duties in private and public places with strict adherence to the dictates of their respective religions. Adepoju, who observed that blasphemy of Allah had been encouraged in Nigeria by authorities and many people do not see anything bad in it, adding, “it was hypocritical for people to see the agitation of Muslims over blasphemies of Allah, Muhammad, (s.a.w) and Islam as unreasonable.” “People have written many books blaspheming Allah, Muhammad, peace upon him, and Islam that is our natural way of life. One of the books is ‘Who is this Allah?’ which leads to many non-Muslims passing erroneous and misleading comments about Allah, our Prophet and Islam. The problem of the North cannot honestly speaking be totally blamed on illiteracy and poverty due to what they described as failure of the governments in that part of the country. It is basically religious and government should be more proactive about it and stop blaming the Muslims unnecessarily. Just like Chief Bode George once said ‘a society where injustice thrives, peace will continue to elude them’. “Tell me, between ensuring that the acts of intolerance and hatred capable of causing religious crisis are stopped, and allowing the acts to cause crisis and then begin to expend huge funds, which would have been used for development and welfare of the people, on deployment of soldiers to fight the crisis; which one is better? I think it is high time Nigerians choose one.” He stated that his organisation has chosen the intellectual path of religious debate as a way of responding to the errorneous concepts and blasphemies about Islam. Nigeria’s problem caused by conspiracy of silence – Kukah A few days ago in Nsukka, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rt. Rev. Matthew Kukah, had blamed what he described as “conspiracy of silence and breakdown of societal surveillance” for growing case of insurgency in the country. He said that any society that was not sensitive to social and security threats in its environment was bound to experience manifestations of insurgency such as Boko Haram terrorism in parts of the North. Kukah said, “There is need to try to understand why things have not worked out for us in Nigeria, why the project for national integration and development have been stalled and why the cumulative impact of all these has created such as fractious, angry and seemingly frustrated society. “We must seek to explore how we ended up with so many years of retarded development, how we became such a severely fractured country and what can be done to rebuild it again. Boko Haram has tested our wills, but we also have many lessons to learn especially regarding the real history of our country, the levels of injury, grievances and wounds that our communities carry. “We also need to learn the importance of proper and correct diagnosis,” said Kukah. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/04/engage-religious-debates-adepoju-2/#sthash.f6NiDPmY.dpuf