Wole Soyinka Condemns Attack On Bishop Kukah, Says Christmas Day Message Didn’t Denigrate Islam

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Wole Soyinka Condemns Attack On Bishop Kukah, Says Christmas Day Message Didn’t Denigrate IslamNobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says he has studied the transcript of the Christmas Day speech of Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, and found nothing in it that denigrated Islam, as claimed by some Muslim faithful.

He said this in a statement on Monday, January 18 titled, “The Kukah offence and ongoing offensives.”

Kukah accused Buhari of nepotism in the Christmas message and stated that there would have been a coup if a non-northern Muslim president did a fraction of what Buhari did.

Read Also: Arewa Youths Call For Bishop Kukah’s Arrest, Prosecution Over Criticism Of Buhari In Christmas Day Message

However, the message sparked reactions, with some Muslim groups demanding his prosecution for allegedly calling for a coup.

A Muslim group last week told the Bishop apologise for his alleged “attack” on Islamand Muslims or leave the Caliphate.

Read Also: Christmas Day Message: Muslim Forum Asks Kukah To Apologise Or Leave Sokoto

The playwright however flayed those who criticised the bishop based on the speech,saying he was bothered by the threat to evict the cleric from Sokoto, saying such was unacceptable.

Read Also: “Rise In Unison, Stand For Truth” – Catholic Church Backs Bishop Kukah’s Position On State Of The Nation

Soyinka said;

In its own peculiar way, this is actually a rational proceeding. A perceived threat to a collectivity tends to rally even waverers round the flag. The core mission of faith custodians then becomes presenting religion as being constantly under siege. It all contributes to interpreting even utterances of no hostile intent as “enemy action.”

There is a deliberate, emotive displacement of central concern. It is calculated avoidance, diversionary, and thus, nationally unhealthy. Humans should not attempt to play the ostrich.

He added;

It should not come as a surprise that a section of our Islamic community, not only claims to have found offence in Bishop Kukah’s New Year address, what is bothersome, even unwholesome, is the embedded threat to storm his ‘Capitol’ and eject him, simply for ‘speaking in tongues.’ Any pluralistic society must emphatically declare such a response unacceptable.

On a personal note, I have studied the transcript as reported in the media and found nothing in it that denigrates Islam but then, I must confess, I am not among the most religion besotted inhabitants of the globe. That, I have been told, disqualifies me from even commenting on the subject and, quite frankly, I wish that was indeed the case.

Life would far less be complicated. However, the reverse position does not seem to be adopted by such religionists in a spirit of equity. They do not hesitate to intervene; indeed, some consider themselves divinely empowered to intervene, even dictate in secular life.

The author stressed;

Everyone should be reminded that religion is upheld, and practised, not by robots, not by creatures from outer space, not by abstract precepts, but by human beings, full of quirks, frailties and conceits, filled with their own individual and collective worth, and operate in the here and now of this earth.

That makes religion the business of everyone, especially when it is manipulated to instil fear, discord and separatism in social consciousness. The furore over Bishop Kukah’s statement offers us another instance of that domineering tendency, one whose consequences are guaranteed to spill over into the world of both believers and non-believers, unless checked and firmly contained.

In this nation of religious opportunism of the most destructive kind especially, fuelled again and again by failure to learn from past experience, we must at least learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud.

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