*Angers rising as CAN excesses not checked
Few days after it called on National Assembly to stop a bill having passed second reading to institutionize Hijab in Nigeria for those that have constitutionally recognised fundamental rights to wear it, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) went step beyond it’s bounds on Monday when the youths it instigated to violence against Muslims over the matter demolished a mosque in the Kwara State capital.
Although CAN is aware that the Constitution declares as fundamental rights for the the girl child to practice the religion of her choice and, in other education act, that no one shall teach a child religion not of her parents, it continued to insist that Muslim girls in public schools anywhere in Nigeria will have no such rights, which is what it has adamantly played out in its escalation of its war against Hijab from South West to the North Central state of Kwara.
The DEFENDER’s checks revealed that the 10 grant-aided schools the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is waging war over are public schools funded and staffed by government of Kwara State and with larger Muslim population except for the missionary names they bear for instance Baptist Secondary School Ilorin.
Despite court judgements up to Supreme Court favouring the state government’s position that the Church or Christian Association has no rights to deprive Muslim girl the right to quality education, either by hijab restriction and otherwise, the Pastor samson Ayokunle-led CAN has gone haywire from sponsoring Christian youths attacks on Muslims in around the schools to demolition of Muslim Mosque that has existed for long inside the public school known as Bishop Smith Memorial College, GRA, Ilorin, in the state, on Monday.
According to reports, the Christian youths were protesting against the fundametal rights of the girl child to wear the hijab within and outside the government-owned schools premises during which they attacked and demolished the mosque. We have no proof that any Muslim person was injured in the attack shown in a viral video.
The video of the demolished mosque where the students and staff of the school observe daily salat (prayer) was posted on social media on Tuesday by an Ilorin-based Islamic scholar, Mallam Lukman Isalekoto.
In the 7 minutes, 25 seconds video which went viral, according a report by Muslim News, Malam Isalekoto showed the remains of the demolished mosque, which he said was destroyed by the suspected Christian Association of Nigeria’s members.
It will be recalled that the Christian apex body had earlier kicked against the Kwara State government directive to allow any willing student to use Hijab following the law, calling on its members to occupy all the affected 10 public schools, formerly owned by the missionaries.
Malam Isalekoto said, “This is Bishop Smith Memorial Mosque in Ilorin. It was destroyed yesterday by one of the hoodlums with the representative of CAN and other people. They came to the school, forced the students to leave over the use of Hijab, and then, demolished the mosque, took away their prayer mats, and blocked their ablution centre.”
Muslim News confirmed that its visit to the school at GRA area of Ilorin on Tuesday proved authenticity of the video, saying the mosque was completely razed down by the suspected members of CAN.
A high-ranking official of the school, who preferred anonymity, reportedly said it was true that the mosque was demolished, but added that it was not certain when it was destroyed.
The official said that the students and staff of the school resumed work Tuesday to see that the mosque had been destroyed, saying that it was probably after the school activities were disrupted Monday by some Christians protesting against the use of Hijab.
According to him, “some Christians came to disrupt school activities. Classes were ongoing when they came, shouting ‘we don’t want Hijab in our school.’ This is a government school, we told them but, we couldn’t control them when they started removing Hijab from the Muslim students. We decided to end classes around 12:30/1 pm yesterday (Monday).
“So this morning, on getting to work we discovered that the mosque has been destroyed. It wasn’t destroyed when we were in school. They did the cruel act when we were forced to vacate the school premises. We suspected that the Christian protesters came to the school later to destroy the mosque,” he added.
The official told Muslim News around 12: 57 pm on Tuesday that the vandalisation didn’t affect their classes as the students, including female Muslims in Hijab and their counterparts in berets, are being attended to without discrimination.
In the meantime, a warning has gone to the Federal Government and government of Kwara State against inability to put leaders of Christian Association of Nigeria under check as no one has been arrested since their excesses against Muslims in the country and currently in Kwara State started.
This warning came following angers now being expressed by some Muslims, who believe that the CAN’s excesses have been tolerated enough are that they may be forced to defend themselves, if government that has the constitutional responsibility to do so fails in its duty.
