Criminal Tendencies in Single Story (II) By Adamu Tilde .....Thirdly, it is on religion and sectarian affiliation. The common belief, on which perception is built, with respect to single story, is religion. The usual disposition of thought toward the non-member of one religion is total condemnation of his/her belief system. Narrowing the scope of the writing to intra-religion affiliation, one will quickly seen, as evidently displayed here at home and globally represented— the total intolerance of other people interpretation of text. The usual perception is that, for instance, as in my case, I am Sunni Muslim, even in my Sunni affiliation, I am a living witness to the regrettable way of exchanging words and open despisement of the other fraction of the Sunni as a result of differences in the interpretation of text. Giving the single story that we used to hear from our teachers, parent or read from books authored by our sect’s intellectual arm, which is often a portray of the other sect as bad, evil, and many unprintable names while our sect epitomised everything good. With this mindset, one will be full of empty boast of himself and sect that, they are the only good people on earth and any other person represents devil. Our think-tank will never tell us, Oh! Those people you are seeing, they are good in this or that. No, the only thing we will hear about the other sect is evil. On this note, I want to illustrate one trend that I found it so disgusting when it comes to unilateral view of issues and single story of personality, says a writer. For instance, since the serialization of HAJJ AND THE SAUDIS; IN DEFENCE OF SHEIKH; IS THE NORTH A LIP by Malam Adamu Adamu, which revealed to many readers a glimpse romanticism of Malam Adamu with Iran and their policies. From that on, I have read many distasteful comments on his personality which was only judged by the afore-mentioned write-ups, one of the menacing effects of single story. Unbeknown to many of the so-called commentators, Malam Adamu epitomized humility and sincerity. He lives a true life without an iota of pretence. It was reported from impeccable sources that, once his brother built a befitting house for him to relocate, Malam said thanks and declined the offer. He was given a slot of deputy governor in his state, yet he declined. His pen could have secured him billions assuming he is greedy–hence, many writers who are unmatchable to his wit and sagacity are today millionaires, until today, he lives a modest life. It was to his integrity that he was to write one of the afore-mentioned articles as a result of his humbleness and humility. He was supposed to be at Sultan Bello mosque for the marriage solemnization of Namadi’s daughters, he could have been the Walee (the person to give a daughter out for marriage) assuming he is after this temporal world, yet, he openly declined and chose to honor the birthday celebration of his teacher. Funny enough, the very teaching and people that made Malam Adamu a potential monster before their audience, were the very one scavenging on the left- over of political loot. What a pity! And what an incidental hypocrisy! One interesting thing with Malam Adamu that will left one in astonishment of that paragon of virtues that he represent is, he is not use to missing the fasting of Monday and Thursday. He is with his people. He lives among them. He loves them and they love him. Alas! Single story put a blind eye to all these virtues and dwell on shortcomings which are not in any way match-able to the virtues. Mallam Adamu, despite the afore-mentioned virtues, is equally a victim of single story and unilateral interpretation of issues and events. Suffice to have a diagnosis of the referred articles of his. In all the articles, Malam Adamu never failed to mock, ridicule, denigrate or look-down on people that did not share his romanticism with Iran. His intolerance, resentment, despisement and pathalogical hatred for their (those that didn’t share his sect) scholars and followers are usually very glaring. To him, they represent anything but evil. Indeed, single story creates stereotype. Conclusively, life is a journey which man can never carried it all by his self. We cannot live in isolation and can never be independent of others. We have to live in groups and societies. And that society will not necessarily be homogenous. It is certainly going to be heterogeneous. Single story creates stereotype. We should imbibe the habit of giving the benefit of doubt and of course learn how to have a bi-lateral view of issues and interpretation of events. For a peaceful and successful living and interaction among the constituent of the entity called earth, we must learn to live by the ethos that depict our humanity. Unquestionably and undeniably, we must uphold the principle of live and let others live. Tilde adamtilde@gmail 2/10/2014.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:51:02 +0000
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