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Alleged disparaging comment on Islam: Stay clear of controversial utterances, Prof Badmas tells Ooni, royal fathers

By Mumini AbdulKareem

A Professor of Islamic religion and Dean of Religious Studies, University of Ilorin, Prof. Lanre Badmas has advised the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi and other royal fathers to desist from making controversial religious comments that is capable of puncturing the peace and stability in the country.
Badmas who is also the Imam of Al-Hilal Crescent Mosque, Offa road, Ilorin was reacting to the comments by the Ooni that both Islam and Christianity derived their roots from the Yoruba Traditional Religion.
The Ooni’s comment made during a BBC interview which had gone viral in the country had attracted condemnation from many Muslims scholars across the country.
Speaking with National Pilot in a telephone interview, Badmas said the position of the Ooni that Islam is an offshoot of the Yoruba traditional religion is not only false but misleading adding that such position was not supported by historical facts.
He said that the Ooni may be under a strange influence adding that it would be a wasted effort engaging him in intellectual discourse over the issue.
Hear him: Well, I would first advised royal fathers in Nigeria to stay clear of anything that will generate negative controversy in other to maintain peace and stability in the society.
“What the Ooni of Ife said is far from being factual and truthful because of the availability of written and documented evidences regarding the origin of Islam.
“If you look at the Qur’an, you discover there are evidence to proof that what the Ooni has said is a kind of figment of (his) imagination. And coming from so young a royal father and traditional ruler is unfortunate because his predecessors who are even older and more knowledgeable did not say anything of such. If there is documented evidence to the figment made by Ooni, it would have been made available by those he succeeded.
“Probably, the Muslim community should ignore the statement because he is just going to be an exercise in futility if we want to go into debate on the controversy. What mattered most to the Muslim is to hold fast to the source of our authentic information which is the Qur’an but unfortunately many Muslims do not have even 10 percent information about Islam and whereas the Qur’an is readily available though written in Arabic but has been translated to many other local and foreign languages that will make it easy for Muslims to derive information from the original source on any issue in the this world.
“The historical facts are not even pointing to the declaration of the Ooni. We have the African and Yoruba history written by credible and knowledgeable intellectuals, why is it that what the Ooni is saying now was never stated in any book of history of any of these. Probably the Ooni was under a strange influence
“In any case, it is not surprising to many people because you cannot pigeon hole the Ooni on a particular religion. Today, you will see him claiming to be the leader of the African traditional religion, another time, you see him claiming to be a prophet or an apostle. So his character is not stable and like a chameleon, nobody should take his statement serious. His statement is just a mere demonstration of…
“I don’t buy the idea of engaging him in intellectual discourse because the palace of the Ooni of Ife is the headquarters of Kufr in Nigeria”.

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