Solomon Dalung Foundations. KILLING IN THE NAME OF NEW RELIGION? There is a worrisome phenomenon amongst the sons of Adam especially in Nigeria, which is the ideal approach to the supernatural being. Foremost, What is religion? The concept means differently to many people. To some, religion is worship of the Surpreme being, the author and finisher of all creations, Who demands faithfulness in service and worship. All mortals shall return to Him on the day of judgement. He is God Almighty. While those who disputed His existence believed that the universe is a product of evolution. May be these accounts for the divergent religious practices obtainable amongst mankind. In Nigeria, So many practices are considered as religious acts including killing those who differ in faith. In fact, looting of the properties of persons of opposite faith is regarded as one of the highest forms of religious obligations in some religions. Sometimes artificial conflict situations are created for hunting of fellow humans with orchestrated zeal and fanfare. Road blocks are mounted on public high, fellow mortals are compelled to recite article of faith depending on which one is in control, failure to comply, means the victim will be slaughter with either shouting of Allah akbar or In Jesus Name. Or on the alternative, the house of a so called non believer is surrounded, the entire family are completely burnt down with innocent children crying in excruciating trauma to death under the supervision of jubilating religious or ethnic army. Or worst still, under the watchful eyes of the victims, their properties are looted, then their women and daughters raped to death by overzealous young men taking turns. After all these atrocities, the men will be slaughter one after the other. All these are celebrated acts considered as religious which perpetrators believed will catapult them automatically into eternity. The Muslims and Christians especially in Northern Nigeria cannot claim ignorance of these new short cut to paradise. Bye and large, any person who is opposed to shading innocent blood and dare express such opinion is considered an enemy of that society worthy of death. If such a person is a Muslim, then fatawah is declared upon him, but if Christian, he is called, enemy of Christ. Recently, a group of ethnic chauvinists, on the social media declared me an enemy of Plateau and by extension their christ and called on members of their group to raze down my house with my entire family because of my opinions and stand against injustice. This is how bad our new religious practices have gone. Personally, I have tested the goodness of Almighty God, having survived an ambushed by three men armed with AK-47, who rained bullets on my car, so many assassination and kidnapping attempts including exclusions and deprivations, Iam no longer afraid of death. I want to assure all that I will not leave this earth planet early than it is ordained by my God, therefore no weapon fashion against me shall prosper. The war against against injustice, blood letting, bad leadership, inequality, corruption and ethnic manipulations is non negotiable. While I remained committed to preach and promote peaceful existence, resist religious manipulations, above all continue to pray for a better society. If this is against your own religion then we may not have common grounds to meet even before God. Sincerely, can we claim that what is happening has the blessings of the Holy Books? I have searched the Holy Bible and translated Quran with the Hadith to discover the origin of these attrocities perpetuated in the name of religion but Iam yet to find any. Can anybody assist me with relevant verses from either the Bible or Quran to help me form a different opinion? What verse of the Holy Books support discrimination, nepotism, corruption, or even leadership failure? Who created Heaven and earth and everything that is in it? Who created the Muslims, Christians and traditionalist? My own Holy Bible told me that Almighty God created all these and finally created man in His image and likeness. And that all human beings are from common origin through Adam. Where do we find these new religious practices that preach hatred instead of love, kill fellow human beings instead of leading them to salvation, dispense injustice instead of justice, discriminates instead equity? Sadly, we have even indoctrinated our innocent children into these negative traditions which made them potential terrorists. Was this the original plan of God for man on earth? I seek to differ in answering these questions. As a Christian, I have a burden of carrying the cross of Christ, which requires me to love my neighbour like my self. While preaching, Our Lord Jesus Christ, said blessed are the peace makers for they shall be call children of God, but not blessed are those who kill others for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. The Holy Quran states, that live in peace with non muslims unless they aggressed you and seek to prevent you from doing your religion. When jihad is declared on non Muslims, what is the justifications? who has stopped you from practising your religion? In any case, is jihad self defence in Islamic jurisprudence or an attack? In my considered view jihad is self defence, when you are attacked and prevented from practicing your religion then the alternative remains the battle to regain religious freedom. Prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah, (peace be upon him) utilised jihad as weapon of self defence against those who attacked Muslims or conspired against the religion. When he and his followers were forced out of Mecca to Medina on hijira, he fought back and after victory he stated that what was left for the Muslim Ummah was jihad, which is war against self conscience. In other words jihad is spiritual war against self and not physical assault on non Muslims. There were Christians in Medina during the days of the Prophet, living under Islamic rule with all their rights and privileges guaranteed. So, what is the genesis of these intolerance? where are we comming from with these destructive tendencies? Will killing of one another in the name of religion add value to the kingdom of God? We have lost our sense of worship and fell victims to manipulations of politics. All these negative practices are rooted in politics but not religion. It is politics that has rivalry, competition, hatred and get it at all cost as integral components in Nigeria. For God is Spirit and all those who worship Him must worship Him in truth and in Spirit. No true believer in Almighty God will hate another human being. Our worship places have been hijacked for worship of money, the rich dominates and dictates the pace with ill gotten wealth, while the poor are mere instruments of manipulations. Ethnicity is the vehicle of the crusade and corruption is the fuel driving the machine of hatred and extremism. No wonder, Karl Max argued that religion is the opium of the people. I believed that we have done sufficient harm to ourslves, let some sense of reasoning prevail, so that we can build a better society for the generations yet unborn. But if killing of each others, corruption, injustice, hatred, discrimination, looting, inequality etc is the religious practices, then I will remain the enemy of this so called Christianity and will prefer hell instead of their heaven. As a mortal, Iam not perfect but will die with my finger up against evil.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:29:27 +0000
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