Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director of Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC) has sounded a note of warning to the authorities of the
Nigerian Law School on the suspected violation of the rights of
Muslim female students wearing hijab to the Law School dinner.
Drawing the attention of the National Assembly, particularly the
House of Representatives already investigating the Amasa Firdaus
matter, the Director of MURIC warns that urgent steps be taken
before the matter turns to a religious crisis.
Below reads the press statement
from Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC)
Although the dust is yet to settle on the call to bar hijab
saga featuring Amasa Firdaus, the six Nigerian Law School campuses
across the nation may not allow female Muslim students due for Bar
Part II to wear their hijabs during the 2017/2018
First Term Law Dinner, which started yesterday, Wednesday,
13th February, 2018. The dinners will run till
tomorrow, Thursday, 15th February,
2018. The Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC) warns that any attempt to bar female Muslim
law students who wish to use hijab from doing so is an infringement
on Allah-given fundamental rights of those students as entrenched
in Section 38 (i) & (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Already, MURIC has
received reports of a number of female Muslim law students at the
Agbani, Enugu, Lagos and Abuja campuses who are allegedly being
threatened with disciplinary measures should they use the Hijab at
the Law Dinner. We remind
authorities of these Law School campuses of the provisions of
Section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution which prohibits the placing
of any citizen under any internally formulated restriction. We also
call attention to Section 13 of the Code of Conduct
Bureau and Tribunal Act (1991) which forbids officials from taking
any action “prejudicial to the rights of any person knowing
that such act is unlawful or contrary to any government
policy” We affirm clearly,
emphatically and unequivocally that whatever emanates from any
circular in any Nigerian institution (the Law Schools included)
must comply with the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution which is
the font et origo of all laws, rules, regulations, provisions and
directives in this country.
MURIC warns that certain campuses of the Nigerian Law Schools
are deliberately precipitating crisis by stereotyping female Muslim
students on the issue of hijab. Those who seek to play God in the
lives of Nigerian Muslims are religious fanatics bent on
intimidating, oppressing and persecuting Muslims.
This is a dangerous situation
capable of snowballing into a religious crisis whose consequences
no one can predict. The Qur’an affirms that oppression is worse
than killing (Qur’an 2:191). This verse underlines the gravity of
the hijab phenomenon. Female Muslims are being persecuted in order
to give undue advantage to non-Muslims. It is religious apartheid.
It is unacceptable. We will rather be free men in our graves than
live like puppets and second class citizens.
Those who make rules and regulations
impossible to obey make it impossible not to disobey. Law Schools
where anti-Muslim dressing codes are issued in a multi-religious
Nigeria do not belong to decent and accommodating communities of
men and women. While MURIC
advocates non-violence in its interventions (based on its avowed
motto, ‘Dialogue, Not Violence’), Nigerian Law Schools should not
wait until radical and anti-dialogue elements hijack the initiative
and start disrupting Law School Dinners. They may even do more. The
fact that these anti-Muslim antics are not attempted anywhere in
the core North suggests tactical conspiracy against Nigerian
Muslims by authorities of those Law Schools where the profiling and
persecution of Muslims have become the
stock-in-trade. Finally,
we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly
(particularly the House of Representatives where the Amasa Firdaus
case is still being investigated) to turn its attention to what is
going on in the Law School Dinners across the country. Muslims are
not being violent now but they are being persecuted. Those who fail
to listen to the dialogue group may have cause to regret it sooner
or later.
Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director of Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC) has sounded a note of warning to the authorities of the
Nigerian Law School on the suspected violation of the rights of
Muslim female students wearing hijab to the Law School dinner.
Drawing the attention of the National
Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives already
investigating the Amasa Firdaus matter, the Director of MURIC warns
that urgent steps be taken before the matter turns to a religious
crisis.
Below reads the press statement from Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC)
Although the dust
is yet to settle on the call to bar hijab saga featuring Amasa
Firdaus, the six Nigerian Law School campuses across the nation may
not allow female Muslim students due for Bar Part II to wear their
hijabs during the 2017/2018 First
Term Law Dinner, which started yesterday, Wednesday, 13th February,
2018. The dinners will run till tomorrow, Thursday, 15th February,
2018. The Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC) warns that any attempt to bar female Muslim law
students who wish to use hijab from doing so is an infringement on
Allah-given fundamental rights of those students as entrenched in
Section 38 (i) & (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. Already, MURIC has
received reports of a number of female Muslim law students at the
Agbani, Enugu, Lagos and Abuja campuses who are allegedly being
threatened with disciplinary measures should they use the Hijab at
the Law Dinner. We remind authorities of
these Law School campuses of the provisions of Section 42 of the
Nigerian Constitution which prohibits the placing of any citizen
under any internally formulated restriction. We also call attention
to Section 13 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and
Tribunal Act (1991) which forbids officials from taking any action
“prejudicial to
the rights of any person knowing that such act is unlawful or
contrary to any government policy” We affirm clearly,
emphatically and unequivocally that whatever emanates from any
circular in any Nigerian institution (the Law Schools included)
must comply with the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution which is
the font et origo of all laws, rules, regulations, provisions and
directives in this country. MURIC warns that certain
campuses of the Nigerian Law Schools are deliberately precipitating
crisis by stereotyping female Muslim students on the issue of
hijab. Those who seek to play God in the lives of Nigerian Muslims
are religious fanatics bent on intimidating, oppressing and
persecuting Muslims. This is a dangerous
situation capable of snowballing into a religious crisis whose
consequences no one can predict. The Qur’an affirms that oppression
is worse than killing (Qur’an 2:191). This verse underlines the
gravity of the hijab phenomenon. Female Muslims are being
persecuted in order to give undue advantage to non-Muslims. It is
religious apartheid. It is unacceptable. We will rather be free men
in our graves than live like puppets and second class
citizens. Those who make rules and
regulations impossible to obey make it impossible not to disobey.
Law Schools where anti-Muslim dressing codes are issued in a
multi-religious Nigeria do not belong to decent and accommodating
communities of men and women. While MURIC advocates
non-violence in its interventions (based on its avowed motto,
‘Dialogue, Not Violence’), Nigerian Law Schools should not wait
until radical and anti-dialogue elements hijack the initiative and
start disrupting Law School Dinners. They may even do more. The
fact that these anti-Muslim antics are not attempted anywhere in
the core North suggests tactical conspiracy against Nigerian
Muslims by authorities of those Law Schools where the profiling and
persecution of Muslims have become the
stock-in-trade. Finally, we call on the
Federal Government and the National Assembly (particularly the
House of Representatives where the Amasa Firdaus case is still
being investigated) to turn its attention to what is going on in
the Law School Dinners across the country. Muslims are not being
violent now but they are being persecuted. Those who fail to listen
to the dialogue group may have cause to regret it sooner or
later. Professor Ishaq
Akintola, Director, Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC)
Read more https://www.nairalaw.com/let-not-this-hijab-matter-turn-to-a-religious-crisis-muric-warns-nls/