NewsRescue
by Hamza Suleiman,
I used to consider myself a Sunni Muslim, but thanks to the deadly massacre on the Shias in Nigeria by the Nigerian army, I decided to read about islam better and I realised that all sects, Sunni sect, Shia sect, Wahhabi sect etc were all wrong; we should be Muslims only. So I guess in a way much good is coming out of a rather barbaric action.
More than 1000 people, mostly “Shia” Muslims were killed by the Nigerian Army in Zaria in December last year. While I believe there is no way to possibly justify the act; what disturbed me and many others was the way a large number of northern Nigerian Muslims rejoiced and wished more death on the affected “Shias.”
It has been troubling to say the least. The north of Nigeria has been plagued by extremism of the Boko Haram kind for so long. One would have expected some degree of tolerance but rather in spite of it being clear that most of the victims of the Zaria massacre were killed extrajudicially and had their property demolished also outside of the law, those rejoicing did not care. In fact they asked for more “Shia”blood.
Common comments were like:
“Kill them all.”
“Shia insult the Sahaba so kill all of them.”
“They are terrorists, kill them.”
“They are not Muslims, all Mushrikun must die.”
And so on.
I wondered why the hate is so much. It would be frightening to imagine Muslims in Nigeria’s north hate and wish death on all others they regard as non Muslims to this degree.
Is this what they feel of Christians who in their regard are also “Mushrikun” and polytheists? Is this the same feeling harbored by the northern “Sunnite sect” majority youth towards Nigeria’s large Christian population: that they should all be killed?
Is this what the northern Sunnite sect feel about Jews and others with varying beliefs?
The fact that the first “Shia” group in history and largest initial group, the Zayidis revere the same Caliphs and Sheikh Zaydi was actually killed for not insulting the caliphs, does not seem to deter the hate. Indeed even though the spiritual leader of Iran Ayatollah Khameni passed a fatwa prohibiting “Shia” from insulting the Sahaba and wives of the prophet, the Sunni youth in Nigeria either pretend not to know, do not care or are so indoctrinated and trained to not realize that since 2010 such insult was banned, they prescribe death on Shia for what even if they did was not tantamount to blasphemy in Islam.
It is rather scary to see the type of hate openly shared by such a large population and the way they profess death on others who actually call “Allah” and the prophet of Islam. If people who shared much beliefs with you are so hated by you then how worse is it for those who do not?
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But the hatred in the blood of these northern Sunnite sect youth is not only in Nigeria.
In Pakistan, Iraq etc for the past several decades one continuously hears of Suicide bomb attacks on “Shia” processions. This is an every week and every year thing that we have lived with ever before we knew names like AlQaeda and ISIS (Sunni extremist terror organisations).
Sunnite sect extremists, typically called “Takfiri,” for their ideology of labeling anyone a disbeliever and then killing them; have for eternity taken it upon themselves to label and kill people they regarded different, like the Yazidi and “Shia” in the Middle east.
What is new is the realization after a possibly “Sunnite sect” president took power, that Nigerian youth in the north harbor the same type of deadly hate that could make them also bomb “Shia” to death anywhere and anytime as illustrated by their dancing at the military massacre in Zaria between December 12th and the 13th.
How can a people harbor such hate?
The differences between Sunni sect and so-called Shia they say are not fundamental. These two groups have been living side-by-side and worshipping together in the Middle east for centuries.
The Middle East is almost evenly divided between Sunni and Shia.
Some allege that is is a deliberate hate that derives from political differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
They say that the Saudi government has for years invested billions of dollars funding scholars from around the world including hundreds from Nigeria to study in the kingdom. And that this Wahhabi extremist regime has thereby trained them to pass on the doctrine of hate and death to the wider communities, this is why the Nigerian youth are so similar tor Pakistani youth in their wishes for death on those that see things slightly different from them.
