National Muslim Peace Conference: Humanity is Greater than Religion – Alabi Salihu
INTERVIEW
By Omowumi Omotosho
As Nigeria experiences rising tensions in certain religious sectors, the historic city of Ilorin will , on Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, welcome the first-ever National Muslim Peace Conference.
The event, which will be hosted at the De Peace Hotel and Suites Banquet Hall in Tanke, Ilorin, Kwara State, is designed to foster unity and understanding within the Muslim community.
Held under the banner “The Ilorin National Muslim Peace Conference 2024,” this event arrives at a pivotal moment, bringing together scholars, leaders, and dignitaries from Nigeria and beyond to promote harmony.
The convener of the conference, a faculty member in the Department of Politics and Governance at Kwara State University, Malete, Dr. Alabi Salihu Hammed, highlighted during an interview session with National Pilot last Thursday, the gathering’s mission.
Known for his expertise in governance and peace studies, Alabi emphasized that the conference will focus on how the Muslim community can advance peace, mutual respect, and societal development.
You wrote a book on religion and conflict resolution. What’s the motivation behind it?
As a pioneer student in the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, I particularly picked interest in conflict and religion. That is the aspect I chose as my specialised area. And because I have seen and I’ve read and I’ve researched that religion plays a pivotal role in the conflicts that we have in Africa in most cases. And in my Master’s degree, I work on the role of religion and ethnicity in Jos North conflict. Then in 2008, 2009, 2010 specifically, the crisis in the Jos was on the height of it. And that was what I did. And in my PhD, I chose to write on the factors of religion among the scholars, Muslim scholars, and analysis of conflicts among Muslim scholars in the Lower Emirates.
Why I’ve also chose religion as a factor, is because I’ve come to realise in recent time, the rate at which Muslim scholars have conflicts among themselves on issues that can ordinarily be settled is quite alarming.
Why do we have these proliferations of crisis everywhere, particularly among the scholars in Islam who are expected to be a role model to thousands of Muslim women across the world?
Research has shown that several factors can be highlighted of why there have been proliferations of conflicts and friction among Muslim scholars.
One, I dentify political involvements of scholars in political activities. With reference to 1999, with the return of Democratic setting, a lot of politicians saw the need for them to mobilize members of the emirate to take advantage of the crowd that always followed them and because of that, some scholars became involved in politics where they use the congregation on their weekly Friday sermon to canvass for candidates of their choice.
Since then, the emirate could not be the same and since then, scholars were unable to speak with one voice. We’ve been having a recurrence of conflicts among Muslim scholars.
We’ve also identified economic reasons. Politics go along with economic benefits. Most of the scholars that got involved in politics, some did not just do it for doing sake because as there are a lot of economic benefits that follows it. A lot of them became wealthy. They received car gifts from political appointees.
Some received annual hajj and Umrah. Some, because of their involvement, got employment in the federal parastatals for their wives and for their relatives. That alone also encouraged a lot of them who are not even part of it wanted their own piece of cake, and because of that, a lot of them got involved in it.
Another factor that I’ve identified through my research is inadequate knowledge of Dawah. The Dawah is one thing that is not meant for everybody. Just like in academics in the western system, not every brilliant student is meant to be a teacher.
If you want to be a teacher, apart from being a brilliant student, you also undergo a lot of training so that you become an expert. I’ve come to realize that 70 to 90 percent of scholars that have gone to the Arabic and Islamic college want to venture into Dawah. Everybody wants to hold a microphone and say one thing or the other. Because of that, a lot of them are not well tutored.
They don’t know the extent of words you need to say outside and for every gathering, there is a language that is meant for them. I think this aspect is also one of the factors that propelled the recurrent conflict among scholars.
Are there external factors that contributed to this conflicts?
I discovered through research that there has been a lot of affiliation with foreign institutions, and foreign organizations.
I’ll give you an example. For some of the scholars that have gone to school for the advanced learning in Mecca, majority of them upon return, the type of Islam they practice is far different from what is known to these environments. A lot of them target Salafi, some call it Wahabi, some call it Al-Sudan.
Historically, Sufism in Africa has been one of the pivotal agents that pilots the affairs of Islam and because of that, a lot of scholars that champion the spread of Islam Africa have realized that some of their culture and some of the tradition in Africa were closely related with that of Sufi culture, the culture of multiple wives, the culture of encouraging people to use their local power in support of what they are doing. So because of that, Sufism were able to get access to Africa and Nigeria at large on a very high speed. As a result of perceived similarity.it’s not difficult for some of the adherents of traditional worship to embrace Islam in the early days of the introduction of Islam in Africa.
Factually, all the African countries has larger percentage of Sufism. So in the early period of the 21st century, with the emergence of Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Wahab and Najdi in Saudi Arabia, a lot of scholars from the Emirates benefited from the scholarship scheme from Arab world and because of that, those scholars that were given opportunity to school in Arab world at Azhar University, University of Mecca, University of Medina and some other universities in the world. Fortunately and unfortunately, some of them having received their institution knowledge, some of them were indoctrinated, and brainwashed to practice Islam the way and manner is being practiced in the Arab world.
Unfortunately, upon their home return, they met a very stiff resistance from the local scholars who believe Islam is a religion of peace and wisdom like Prophet said in one of his Hadiths that you can always be a better Muslim if you apply wisdom with the environment where you are preaching. This actual differences became a source of conflict between the local scholars and the returning scholars. They believe that the returning scholars are playing the card of the East. They are championing the information of Islam that has taken place in Arab world.
Was the altercation between the home scholars and the returning scholars has to do with the mode of preaching and presentations?
Some of the strategy that was deployed to spread their Islam is questionable in terms of their entrances, they lack wisdom and the respect the people of Africa is known for. Even if you have a beautiful message to pass, when you see an elderly person, you must respect them irrespective of their age, irrespective of how brilliant or how old you are. Respect is something the African people valued so much.
But unfortunately, some of the scholars were using very harsh languages and the method of the Dawah was radical to some extent. Because of that, there have been a lot of frequent and reoccurring conflicts between the two groups, the returning scholars and traditional scholars.
All of these together formed my ideas to venture into what I call my journey into my PhD, which I chose and was later accepted and championed the research on the analysis of conflict among Muslim scholars in the Emirates. I also was involved and became interested in this topic of endeavors because when we were growing up as a child, we met some traditional scholars, brilliant scholars, great scholars, and we never observed nor seen a situation whereby scholars would be having differences to the extent that you go to the public and attack anybody, attack their personality, both physically and spiritually.
How do you conceive the idea of Ilorin National Muslim Peace conference?
As a child growing up, we would trek from my area at Centre Igboro, we would go to Oke-mali, where Sheikh Mohammed Kamaluddin, late Sheikh Mohammed Kamaluddin, do his tafsir. When we come back, we go to Sheikh Abdullah Salati’s Dawah. That is how we’ve been going from one place to the other.
So, it’s surprising after some years that we now have divergence and because of the divergence in the belief and in the ideological of your leader that you cannot even attend or even learn under another scholar. It’s very strange.
All these things all together form my background and my basis of venturing into my academics endeavours in my PhD that I carried out the research on the analysis of conflicts among Muslim scholars in Kwara State, Nigeria. And to the glory of God, I accomplished it. I completed it in good faith and I had my final presentation on the 4th of October 2023.
And to the glory of God, one of the recommendations of my thesis is to convene a national peace conference which I think is very germane because I’ve seen that a lot of scholars have been carried away by what has happened and what is happening within Islam where scholars who are expected to be a role model, to be an ambiguan of peace have become something else, are championing crises and conflicts in all areas by their utterances, by their conducts, by their Dawah, by their activities to the extent that a lot of beautiful things that join Muslims together are not even being respected again.
As a Muslim, we have five pillars of Islam. All these five pillars, virtually all the sects and the groups in Islam believe in these five pillars. We believe in one God. We all believe Prophet Muhammad is our leader, is our prophet. And we all pray at the same time, five daily prayers.
I’ve not seen any group that is praying six times daily or they are praying seven times daily. We all go to the same. I’ve not seen anybody saying he’s going to another place to go and perform Hajj.
We all observe the same Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan, we all fast for 29 or 30 days. I’ve not seen any group fasting for 100 days or even lesser.
So there are thousands of things that join us together. Instead of us hammering, instead of us patronizing areas and great areas that we have among ourselves. And that is the focus of this conference.
The assemblage of the scholars are from diverse specializations. We have among them who are Sufis, we have among them who are Salafis, we have among them who are scholars in the academia, in the universities, we have justice, we have social workers. We are bringing all of them together to come and tell us a way forward.
We need to be united as people. Humanity is greater than religion because Prophet Muhammad was described as, I mean, the trustworthy one ever before he even became a prophet. As a child growing up, everybody knew him to be a peaceful, a trustworthy, a well-behaved someone
And that gave him the opportunity to actually champion the cause of Islam when he was ordained by Almighty Allah when he attained the age of 40. And that is where this conference takes a premise that we need to see more of what joins us together as people, as dwellers, as adherents of Islam. Rather than emphasizing on issues that disunite us.
What should scholars expect from the conference?
They would be exposed to reasons scholars have issues. Through this conference, they will get to know why they have differences. Because if you don’t look closely, you will just see scholars talking about themselves in bad manners. You wouldn’t understand if you’ve not gone through the training and you did not see, because most times it goes beyond what you see on the surface.
What other categories of individuals are invited ?
We’ve assembled traditional rulers, military and paramilitary, the police, Commissioner of police has been invited, because in most cases when they have issues, some of them got arrested and even jailed for some activities. And some of them that have pronounced unguided statements. At times, are invited for questionings and interrogation.
How has this conflicts affected the practice of Islam most especially in the Emirate ?
Well, we’ve seen some cases in some places in the Emirates, why different groups had misunderstanding that led to the close down of their mosque, where they are worshipping. We’ve seen in the Emirates where mosques were locked up and some closed for years.The Malete Central Mosque was closed down for years before it was eventually reopened. The same thing happened in Offa, that the central mosques where Muslims worshipped on daily basis were closed down because of leadership tussle. We’ve also seen in Balah, in Asa local government, where the mosques were closed down because of leadership, the imamship crisis. Somebody was made an imam. Before the sheikh died, he gave the power to his son to lead the congregation.
Upon his demise, the late Imam’s student challenged his son and the town was divided into two. Some part of the town are following the son of the sheikh, while some are following the student of the sheikh. And most times, they even fight every Friday and the police have been involved in this. Some led to court case litigation, where the courts will close the mosque for peace to reign. So we are bringing all these stakeholders who are involved in this activities and the aftermath of some of the conflicts that we’ve experienced in Kwara State . And by extension, Kwara State is just a unit.
Most of the things that is happening in Kwara State is also happening in other Islamic-dominated communities and towns, and villages. And that is why we call it a National Muslim Peace Conference. Some of our scholars are not domiciled in Kwara State.
Who are the Special Invitees of the Peace conference?
The Executive Governor of Kwara State has been invited as the Chief Host. We also have the Executive Governor of Niger , His Excellency Alhaji Muhammad Umar Bago as the Chairman of the occasion, the CEO of Rano Oil from Kano State. His Royal Highness, the Emir of Ilori, Alhaji (Dr.) brahim Zuluganbari CFR is the Royal Father of the Day.
We have the Royal Father in the person of Sheikh Muhammad Bashir Umam Sali, the Chief Imam of Ilorin. We’ve also invited the Grand Mufti of Ilorin, Dr. Sulaiman Farooq Onikidipa OON, the Grand Khadi of Kwara State, Honorable Justice Abdul Lateef Muhammad Kamaldeen is also invited. We’ve also invited, virtually all the Muslim organizations, including women’s organizations, Ansarudeen Women’s Wing, Ansarudeen Men’s Wing, Nawarudeen, NASFAT, and all of them are willing to attend.
The lead speaker, who is Sheikh Ibrahim Hamad Makari, is the National Chief Imam of National Mosque Abuja. He is coming to give his knowledge on the way forward to get these conflicts resolved. We are also inviting Sheikh Fuhad Adeyemi, the chief imam of Islamic Center. We also have Professor Abdel Razak Abdel Majid from Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin. He is also coming to bring his ideas. Also invited is Dr. Abdulqadir Al Salman Al Juma, the first Malami Ubandoma of Ilorin.
Also invited is the National Missionary of Ansarudeen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh Hamad Olarewaju. He is also coming to give his own view.
Also, we have invited an entrepreneur expert, Mallam Nasr Abdulqadir, the CEO of Positive Service, and the founder of NasTV Africa. He is talking on a topic, entrepreneurship and Islamic scholarship.
Talking about inviting an Entrepreneur Expert, what is the correlation between Religion and Entrepreneurship ?
Why we brought him on board is that research have revealed to me that a lot of scholars, young scholars, are involved in conflict because they lack what to get and what to eat or what can sustain them after their graduation from the Islamic colleges. Some of them don’t have anything doing rather than the knowledge they’ve acquired. Yes, the knowledge is enough to sustain you but even as a civil servant at level 10, level 12, level 14, you also do other things.
You do uber, you do some businesses, you farm so that you have alternatives and that is why we feel these students needed to be tutored on how they can be global citizens . Already you have the language advantage, you can speak Arabic, you can speak English, some of them even understand French but you can also have some entrepreneurial skill. That is not stopping anybody that graduated from Islamic college to know how to do POP. You can do carpentry job, you can do shoe-making, you can do so many things.
So before you even get job that you dream of or before you get admission into any institution of your choice, you see something that you can be doing to sustain yourself. I’ve seen some of my friends and colleagues who got admission in UK, in Mecca, in Medina and because of what they are doing, the entrepreneurial skills that they have here has helped them to have a beautiful endeavors over there.
Has there been any support so far and why is “Peace” the title of the conference?
Yes, the conference is my dream particularly with the kind of response I have gotten and I am still getting from the Muslims, even non-Muslims, I have received calls from Christians scholars who are not Muslims that this kind of conference, I should make it a national conference that both Muslims and Christians can be invited to share their ideas because everybody has realized the essence of peaceful coexistence.
This one is a self-sponsored program but I’ve received thousands of support from a lot of well-wishers, from a lot of people who felt what we are doing is beautiful and they’ve supported it. One of the key pillars and sponsors of this event is our Senator, Distinguished Senator Saliu Mustafa. He has seen light from what we are doing and he has bought into the ideas.
Engineer Suleiman Alapansanpa, the Chairman of the Ilorin Emirates Durbar Committee has been so supportive. I’ve also received support from Alhaji Lukman Atanda, who is the President Emirates Descendants Union Abuja branch, Engineer Suleiman and some others that I know will support what we are doing. And from the government, too, I’ve not received serious commitment from the government. Maybe they felt they should allow us to do one and see the outcome of it, but I want to believe subsequently the government will also key in to support what we are doing because I know it’s not a political matter. We are talking about peace.
Will the conference be a yearly one after this maiden edition ?
We are planning to have it yearly or once in two years. All this depends on the kind of funding we are getting.
Do you have anything to tell the public or the populace generally about the conference?
Yes, I want to use this medium to thank the National pilot newspaper, for giving me this rare privilege. I want to believe other media houses should join suit. This is a job that is based on social responsibility and I believe this will also go a long way to encourage people to venture into this adventure.
Peace is very wide. There are thousands of areas people can venture into. They can venture into childhood peace, into domestic violence, into peace and health, good governance and environment.
I invite other scholars who have been on research. Their findings can break a ground aiming towards the development of this country. We need the support of the government to do some of these things.
The atmosphere and the environment need to be encouraged. Our resolution and the communique will be passed to the Executive Governor of Kwara State and we’re also planning to take it further and submit our findings to the Kwara State House of Assembly and the National Assembly for implementation and you can see the area where l said the government is very vital in some of the issues that will be discussed.
We want to ensure that virtually all the advanced Islamic and Arabic schools that we have in the state are invited and we are going to make it seamless. We are going to provide a bus that will go to their schools and bring them to the conference and return them back. With this, it’s going to be easy for them because we want them to have the access information. We want them to know the value of these scholars that have been assembled to speak to each on the topics of the conference. And I believe the youth are the leaders of tomorrow. So, we believe if they have received necessary training, they will be a better youth for tomorrow.
