REJOINDER Re- My sons’ blood, cry for vengeance –El-Zakzaky Just one day to the release of thirteen arrested members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria by a Magistrate Court in Kaduna, after they were handed over to the Police Command by the 1 Div Military Police Corp and charged for breach of Peace in Zaria when they participated in a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest, the perpetrators of the extra-judicial killing and torture of the members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria that followed the peaceful protest are at it again. A Lagos-based newspaper, National Daily presented a feature titled “My sons’ blood cry for vengeance”, dated Sunday, 03 August 2014, insinuating a planned uprising by members of the Islamic Movement, which only looked more like a continuation of the mischievous plan of the perpetrators of extra-judicial killing and torture of participants at the pro-Palestinian peaceful protest. Although the acclaimed writer, Shehu Dauda, was not able to bring any evidence or proof of where he quoted the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky saying “My sons’ blood, cry for vengeance” he went ahead to claim that the revered Islamic leader may “renege on his alleged promise not to take violent action to protest the alleged killing of his three children by security agents…” The personality of Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) is that of a person that has never for once been found wanting in his words or actions. He is that personality that never goes back on his words; a rare display of honesty consistency and focus that had earned him the loyalty and support of millions of followers both home and abroad. Since the incident in which Nigerian soldiers killed 33 members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria including three of the leader’s children, Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) had in a press conference at his residence called for calm and restraint. This statement alone kept the entire members of the Movement composed and calm, humbly waiting to hear only from him what the next step will be. The leader called for calm and restraint in order to avert any form of bloodshed that might affect innocent people. He described this as the best approach to the acts of instigation by the blood mongers who are bent on disrupting peace and creating chaos in order to achieve their personal greed. The National Daily newspaper went further to claim that a highly informed source told them that Sayyid Zakzaky (H) had started making subtle contacts with fundamentalist organizations oversea to unleash religious unrest. This insinuation shows that the newspaper must either be part of the perpetrators of the killings, whose plans have been destroyed by the silence of the revered Sayyid Zakzaky (H), something they never envisaged, or simply a concocted lie by the newspaper which should attract legal attention. Notwithstanding, we members of the Movement are forced to believe that the insinuation by the newspaper that if Sayyid Zakzaky (H) fails to do something about the killing of his sons that no one could “tame his restive followers” is only a mischief. The Islamic Movement in Nigeria is the most organized peaceful mass movement of the people on the continent of Africa with a consistent, focused and committed leadership system. Under this Movement, the leadership is not influenced by the selfish volitions, personal whims or caprices of the followership but by the aims, objective and principles of the Movement and its ideology. Such insinuations like some people working on plans to take “violent actions” having seized the initiative from the leader are deceptive and inconceivable. This is a disgrace to the professional standing of the newspaper as it displays its inability to adapt by the basic principles of journalism practice of balance and objectivity. Suspicious of this mischief, we see it as a plan by the perpetrators of the killing and torture of our innocent brothers and sisters to raise their terrorist activities to higher levels while they mischievously blame the Islamic Movement just as they have been doing around the country, bombing innocent people and attacking and killing people in villages in the name of Boko Haram; they are indeed the true Boko Haram. It is worth mentioning that Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) has on several occasions mentioned that “whenever you see crises and bloodshed being perpetrated and you want to know the perpetrator, simply look for the one benefiting from it; he is the perpetrator.” Against this backdrop, we say, who would benefit from any bloodshed or crises? Is it the armless members of the Islamic Movement, the innocent citizens or the stooges representing the imperialists who are in an all out war with the oppressed? Definitely the revered leader of the Islamic Movement and the innocent citizens has nothing to benefit from any bloodshed. We declare that the insinuations contained in the write-up are blatant lies aimed at creating a scenario that will provide the terrorists that killed our brothers including three children of our leader with more room to unleash terror on innocent populace. It is clear to all that no one has any reason to fear Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) and his followers most especially after he had received condolences from many reputable Nigerians who have described him as having unique leadership qualities worthy of emulation by the so-called leaders in Nigeria. Those that condoled with the Sayyid included Politicians, Religious Scholars, Civil Servants, Government Delegations, Diplomats, Businessmen, Academicians and many others. They never saw the revered leader of the Movement on hunger strike crying and chanting Allahu Akbar all day. What they rather saw was as usual, a composed and calm personality whose warmth reception never looked like that of a man mourning the death of three promising sons killed by extra-judicially by soldiers. It is pertinent upon us to mention here that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is not an armed movement and it is not part of its policy to take up arms against the authority or anybody even while it has been facing attacks on several occasions in which its members have unjustly been killed, tortured and imprisoned in its 35 years of history. The protest in which 33 members of the movement were killed, the International Quds Day is commemorated everywhere around the world including Washington, London, Paris and even Jerusalem. The issue of the pro-Palestinian protest match is that of humanitarian activity and not religious or sect. The fact that the protest is conducted in Nigeria under the leadership of Sayyid Zakzaky (H) does not make it a sectarian or religious activity as there were also Christians that were victims of the killings. Nations that showed concern and described by the National Daily as “fundamentalist elements” such as Iran, Lebanon and Turkey all have diplomatic relations with Nigeria. It is only natural for such countries to be sure that their people working in their diplomatic missions are safe when Nigerian soldiers, payed with tax payers’ money can go on a shooting spree and kill innocent peaceful protesters. This is only an act of diplomatic responsibility on their part. One wonders why Nigeria is having diplomatic ties with “fundamentalist elements”. It is our opinion that the mentioned countries summon the National Daily newspaper for fro a legal explanation of their statement. We hereby call on the National Daily newspaper to withdraw its malicious and abusive write-up and apologize to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria for portraying it in bad light failure of which might attract legal actions. sign: ABDUL MUMIN GIWA National Secretary Media Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:16:16 +0000
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