Unfair Reportage: Letter to Nigerian Media, by Rasheed Abubakar
Dear Nigerian media,
The Boko Haram insurgents did not just kill 8, 12, 13 or 15 people in Borno State, as many of you reported in today, Friday’s edition of your newspapers. The terrorist group also burnt an Imam, his wife and three children to death during the coordinated attacks on four communities, including an IDP camp.
It is on record that many of you did not indicate that an Imam and his family were burnt to death in your headlines, as you would have done if the victims had been Pastors or Christians.
Well, we no longer worry about your subjective perspective in reporting the Boko Haram menace. Sheybi it is your media? Fine! Continue, but your skewed reportage will catch up with you guys soonest.
We are also not unaware of The Punch’s anti-Islam/Muslim rhetorics, but it is nauseating to see the so-called “Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper” still using the term “Jihadists” to qualify the group throughout its story, headlined: “Boko Haram kills 12 in Borno villages”.
Dear The Punch and other media partners-in-crime, how else do you want us to educate you that the group’s extreme ideology is antithetical to the pristine teachings of Islam? Have we not presented you with evidences from the Qur’an and Hadith that negate their nefarious actions? Why do you still call them “Jihadists”?
This is a group that has bombed houses of Allah (mosques), and killed thousands of Muslim worshipers in the process. The victims of their recent attacks (including Saifura Khorsa and Hauwa Liman, who were murdered in cold blood in September and October) have been Muslims.
What else do you guys want from us?
Allah says: “They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths (or pen through the media) but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.” – Qur’an 61: 8
*Rasheed Abubakar |Twitter @rawshieldpr | #MuslimNews | November 2. This was picked by The DEFENDER November 22, 2018.
