Muslims, Blasphemers and the Rise of Jungle Justice in Nigeria

25^th August, 2016

By: AmirAbdulazeez

T

he phenomenon of jungle justice in Nigeria is not new even if recent incidences in Kano, Niger and Zamfara States have unfortunately brought it back to limelight. It didn’t started with the blasphemy-induced actions of some so-called Northern Muslim mobs burning or killing the abusers of Prophet Muhammad and Islam or those who  killed for allegedly refusing to fast during Ramadan; and it is not going to end with them. While we must worry about the causes and genesis of jungle justice, we must be more worried about its rise and why it keeps thriving as well as what it is turning our society into as a whole.

Without mincing words, the Nigerian justice system hasfailed almost completely to the extent that ordinary people seek to find justice through their own ways, and in a society where majority of the people are hungry, angry, idle and ignorant, jungle justice can just be one out of different barbaric methods people can resort to in stamping their authority. For almost every problem in Nigeria, disadvantaged people have developed an equivalent of jungle justice to get solutions. For unemployment, some are into prostitution, stealing, begging and cheating; for a collapsed education system, some have resort to exam malpractice; for an unstable economy and an uncertain future, some have resorted to pillaging our commonwealth; for a failed police and civil service, some have resorted to bribing their ways out of trouble. All these are jungle justices in their own rights.

When people feel so strong about issues in a system that is not working properly and with ignorance so prevalent, they resort to jungle justice. For instance, the phenomena of burning an alleged market thief alive using tyres became very popular in South-eastern Nigeria and Igbo-dominated places elsewhere for a reason. The Igbos have no better profession than trade and won’t allow thievery to constitute any threat to that profession especially when they are almost certain that under the justice system in the land, such thieves will manipulatively go scot-free, get lenient sentences or spend years without their trials concluded. What more then do you expect from a people who feel very strongly about their faith and see its defence even if ignorantly and lawlessly as one of the sure ways to heaven? Until and unless people begin to see the justice system as reliable and effective, we shall continue to witness jungle justice not just for blasphemy but for many other things, many of which may even be insignificant.

Defending Islam is not part of the objectives of this article as doing so would be futile especially when so many non-Muslims, particularly Christians have stubbornly refused to mark the difference between actions of some misguided Muslims and Islam itself. If you say jungle justice is part of Islam and not the action of few thugs masquerading as Northern Muslims for instance, it is just like you are conceding that blasphemy and abuse of others’ religion is part of Christianity and not the actions of few stupid profanitists disguising as Christians. However, many Muslims themselves have not helped Islam and had left Christians and non-Muslims with no logical option within their grasp than to blame Islam for the unislamic actions of some Muslims.

In the Islamic context, Prophet Muhammad is the greatest man in history; he is the greatest of all creatures that were created by God. Even among non-Muslims who may not categorically agree with this, there are many prominent people including renowned Christians who have acknowledged his exceptional and rare divine-given greatness; many among them agreed with his prophecy and message even if they didn’t agree in its superiority over their own faiths. Every Muslim who has a basic history of Prophet Muhammad’s character and adventures should learn a lot of positive things and conduct his own life base on them.

The problem with most present day Nigerian Muslims is their pretence of Islam. While they are Muslims in identity, hardly do you find any Islam in their actions and character. For instance, the prophet teaches us to be honest, caring, well-mannered, trust-worthy, peaceful, hard-working, just, tolerant, etc and we all know that the best way to show love to someone is to obey and adhere to his teachings. Why then would people who have largely ignored all the good things the Prophet stood for be barbarically killing others in the name of ‘protecting’ him without any recourse to law and order? People who stand for everything the prophet disparaged and prohibited; people who do not even adhere to Islamic teachings and principles; people with no regards for law and order are the same people trying to defend the religion with jungle justice without trial? How can this be acceptable? How can one be cowed into feeling that these people represent Islam? The irony is that some Muslims will exhibit a stiff intolerance to the abuse of the Prophet from non-Muslims and even from fellow Muslims as we witnessed last year in Kano, but they themselves will go on to betray and abuse all what he stands for. Alas! Many of them don’t even know what he stands for.

Another angle to this problem is that, in all of this blasphemy controversy, one question many people fail or deliberately choose not to ask or at least not asking publicly is why would a sensible human being abuse someone who is regarded to be the greatest personality ever by more than 1.5 billion people across the globe? What do you stand to benefit by abusing the Prophet of Islam and how does that promote your cause? Why would you live in the domain or stronghold of Muslims and still choose to be so careless while you know so well of the possible consequences? No matter the stupidity or rascality of the so-called Muslims engaging in jungle justice for blasphemy, one thing we are yet to hear or at least has not become common is someone among them publicly abusing Jesus Christ in a Christian dominated area. Have we also noticed that these jungle justice mongers’ actions are not exclusively restricted to Christians and non-Muslims; their actions extend even to fellow Muslims?

One terribly disturbing issue about this jungle justice versus blasphemy affair is the difficulty in ascertaining whether the accused victims did actually commit the blasphemy or the mob did committed their heinous acts sincerely for the sake of Islam. What is only certain is that all of us make prejudiced and highly subjective conclusions. This whole issue is gradually proving to be more socio-ethno-political than it is religious as it keeps polarizing Nigerians along their traditional weak lines. The Nigerian media have also not helped matters with its misinformed reportage. False as well as twisted stories with half-truths have been reported only for the actual versions of what happened to emerge later. The true versions never go viral as the initial false ones. One terrible fact also is that no one can predict when, how or where it is going to happen and therefore, we stand virtually a zero chance of preventing it. Before we blame anyone for not preventing it, we must understand the complexities involved. What we may however complain is about the failure of authorities to decisively deal with culprits even if doing so is also a little bit difficult as it is sometimes difficult to fish out the specific culprits out of a crowd.

Muslims must exemplify the love of Islam and Prophet Muhammad in their character and conduct. If many Muslims truly and sincerely adhere to the teachings of the prophet, Islam would not be suffering from its current battered image. They must report any suspected blasphemer to the law enforcement agencies and must never seek to take laws into their hands under whatever circumstance. Christians involved in blasphemy must understand that it is against their own religion and they stand to achieve nothing except chaos with such silly actions. Christian leaders can help by enlightening their followers and disowning such blasphemers publicly instead of defending them. It is only the collective actions of the good elements in both religions that would produce the desired results. Government on its part must strengthen its security response apparatus and the justice system to stand any chance of eliminating jungle justice from our society.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez