MICA flags-off “Quest for Peace” Multi-City Da’awah Tour 2025 in Lagos
*Details of the event *The media parley address by visiting Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud (UK) *About MICA *Personality of Shaykh Mahmoud
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
“The war raging in the tongue, the one that doesn’t stop abusing, violating, attacking others. This is the war and chaos that come from an organ that requires taming, requires controlling in order for it to, itself, be at peace. Even the war monger is not at peace. The war monger might profit from war but he is not at peace.”
With a Media parley addressed by Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud, a renowned United Kingdom-based scholar and community leader, the Movement for Islamic Culture and Awareness (MICA) has officially launched its largest national intervention of the year, the “Quest for Peace” Multi-City Dawah Tour 2025.
The extensive initiative is said to be anchored by the international scholar, who kicked off the three-city programme in Lagos on Tuesday December 16, 2025 supported by members of the local organising committee of the elitic Movement.
The event, this year according to the organisers, is a strategic collaboration between MICA, Global Peace Movement (UK), and Tahara Collectives, with the main aim of providing young Nigerians with a roadmap for integrating faith, self-development, and ethical leadership during a time of global turmoil.
The DEFENDER Newspaper reports that the Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud-anchored extensive initiative – scheduled to run from the date of media parley on Tuesday through December 30, 2025 – has been projected to feature a distinguished array of other international and local scholars, including Tanim Zaman (UK) and Fatimah Hendricks (South Africa), among many others.
“This tour is MICA’s strategic response to the pervasive ‘crisis of clarity’ and the decline in ethical leadership among Muslims,” said in a statement by MICA on Tuesday, adding that, The centerpiece, the public symposium themed “The Quest for Peace goes beyond motivation to offer practical solutions for inner stability, aiming to promote Islamic excellence, moral reform, and youth leadership.
“The Lagos public symposium will be held on Sunday, 21st December 2025, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Main Auditorium. The tour is projected to reach over 3,000 participants nationwide, with Lagos serving as a major hub for scholarly dialogue,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud, the anchor’s engagement includes the public symposium and exclusive masterclasses focused on building leadership and outreach capacity.
The Multi-City Dawah Trip includes leadership engagement sessions and specialised Dawah study classes across the cities of Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos.
MICA seized the media parley, held as launching pad for the all-important multi-event on Tuesday, to encourage all stakeholders, particularly youth, students, and professionals, to register immediately for what it called the FREE Symposium events, while soliciting media organisations’ support to cover the Lagos events and engage with the visiting scholars for interviews and feature stories.
The media parley address by Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud (UK)
At the Lagos media parley in Lagos Tuesday, Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud took his audience through the students of peace noting that, since God himself is peace and Islam his scripturally sanctioned religion is peace then, he said, Muslims all over the world who are adherents of the religion cannot be known for anything other than peace.
Amidst the current challenges of non-Muslims tending to call their region of Islam what it is not – that is religion with a pool of violence – and tag them terrorists and killers despite their excellent character with which they relate with these fellow human creatures, the international scholar, however, urged Muslims not to stop being good people because their good deeds towards others are not acknowledged. “If you do good deeds to others to be acknowledged, you won’t want to continue. But if you do them expecting your rewards from only God, surely you won’t stop and that is the way of God and his Messenger, Muhammad peace be upon him,” said Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud.
In his address earlier during the parley, Shaykh Mahmoud, who is an Imam of London’s biggest Mosque, said, “Everyone and everything wants peace. Every human being wants peace in themselves, their home, their work, public life, private life, and that’s regardless of their religion, that’s regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of where they live and the circumstances of their finances and their education, everybody is looking for this one thing: peace. And people are looking for it through many different avenues.
“And because it is so in demand, because it is human necessity to feel safety, security and peace, that some people that some people have capitalised and exploited this desire, this need for peace by selling ideologies, selling courses that don’t really achieve the tital outcome, they may have partial impact. So, what is it that gives a full impact, meaning, what method is comprehensive and effective enough to grow in peace in all aspects of your life?
“And so, here Africa is a continent of people who believe in God, be they Muslims or Christians, everybody over here is looking for peace and most people are looking for peace, frankly, through God. And, of course, as Muslims we believe that God is the source of peace so much so that we say after every obligatory prayer “Allahumma anta Salam (Oh Allah! You are peace). Waminka Salam (You are the giver of peace. All peace, contentment, satisfaction comes from you). Wailayka yarjiu Salam (And we return the peace to you).
“Meaning; God is not affected by us but what God wants is for us to reflect his qualities in our dealings. Because as Ambassadors of God, it means that we represent God and a representative is one who carries out the same actions in bodies and reflects the same qualies of the one who has appointed him. And so God has created and appointed us to be on earth as his khulafah, his representatives, his Ambassadors and, therefore, we should reflect his qualities.”
Continuing, he said he exonerated God from all the challenges and uneasy conditions being faced by human creatures and communities as, according to him, “God does not create insecurity for us, he does not create instability for us, he does not create turbulence for us. Rather, these are as a result of our (if you like) misuse of the freedom of will that we have been endowed with.
“So, if God gives us peace, then the least that we can do is to reflect the peace in all of our dealings.”
Citing example of global attitude with regard to claims of giving peace giving, he said, “Today there are super powers they want to spread peace, so they they claim. Now, how is it that someone can give peace if within his own house there is no peace? How is it that if you have neighbours around you and you cause fighting from their homes and you go out in order to confront them that: ‘You need to keep the noice down, if you don’t, then I am going to come in and I am going to enforce peace and I am going to force peace on you’? This is the double standard that every human being identify. They would say, ‘Look to your own home first.’ This is the reality.
In order to give peace, one should first have peace in his own plot. And when you say his own plot of land, actually the plot of land everyone has every full control over us their own body. The whole body is a plot of land. It was created from the earth and it will return to the earth. So, you are, your domain, your kingdom, which its borders, you have the government and you don’t need to call an official, you don’t need to call…, there is a government where there is no election, there is no coup, there is no challenger for that government and that’s your mind.
“Your mind governs your plot of land, which is your body, and have a constitution, you have a set of laws and that set of laws are the qualities that are in your heart, meaning; what makes up your character. You decide whether you want to adopt destructive laws that bring nothing but chaos and disharmony or you want to adopt the good qualities which brings peace to others. So, this where peace begins.
“And so the question is, how can you achieve peace if there is no any peace within yourself? Look at the world made up of seven continent. We have in our own body seven continents which is our world seven continents also. When I say continents meaning these are the organs we do deeds with: the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the hands, the stomach, the private part and the feet. These are the organs that people are accountable for on the day of judgement.
“Sometimes you like your continent, sometimes there is anarchy, sometimes there is discord, sometimes there is war raging in one of the continents, one or more. The war raging in the tongue, the one that doesn’t stop abusing, violating, attacking others. This is the war and chaos that come from an organ that requires taming, requires controlling in order for it to, itself, be at peace. Even the war monger is not at peace. The war monger might profit from war but he is not at peace. He assumes that the money he makes by selling arms, by the service of mercenaries, he assumes it is good for him. But he would never be at peace.
“So, even, waging war, the aggressor is not enjoying. So this is the call we are getting, how you as an individual can attain peace and then, what happens, is peace is infectious; it spreads. Like war spreads, also peace spreads. So, rather than teaching people the art of war, why not teaching people the art of peace. And so this is what all the prophets were sent by God for and this is what all the saints throughout the ages taught people and this is what animals, plans the environment want and everything wants peace,” Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud concluded the delivery of his address at the media parley while yielding the floor for questions and answers.
About MICA
This global online newspaper reports that the organised, MICA (The Movement for Islamic Culture and Awareness) is a non-profit, faith-driven organisation dedicated to nurturing Islamic values, personal excellence, and community development. Through pioneering impactful programs such as Dawah tours, Symposia, Public Discourse, Katibah, Teen Haus and many more. MICA continues to build essential platforms for learning, reflection, and impactful service to society.
Personality of Shaykh Mohammed Mahmoud
To achieve one of of its main reasons of establishment, which the quest for peace, it brought to Nigeria from London, United Kingdom (UK), Shaykh Muhammad Mahmoud, who is a distinguished Islamic scholar and self-development coach of Egyptian origin, based in the UK.
He has served as an Imam at the East London Mosque, one of the largest mosques in London, and is the Founder and Principal of the Salik Society, an esteemed Islamic study institute in London.
Shaykh Mahmoud is a true hero, having been awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Prince William at Buckingham Palace in recognition of his bravery during the Finsbury Park terror attack in 2017. His courageous actions, which included shielding the attacker from the crowd until police arrived, prevented a potentially catastrophic situation from escalating further.
He is an inspiration to many, exemplifying compassion and kindness in the face of adversity. Shaykh Mahmoud has delivered numerous notable lectures and represents WiseLife, an organisation dedicated to promoting global peace and teaching individuals how to achieve inner peace and become beacons of peace in their communities.
