NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 10th - Sunday 16th February 2025
THE POLITICS OF RELIGION
A controversy is currently raging in the public domain over plans to establish Sharia Courts in the South West of Nigeria. Attempts were made by some Muslims to launch Sharia Court and Sharia Arbitration Panel in Oyo and Ekiti states of Yorubaland. Both moves encountered disapproval from the governments of the states and a stiffer resistance from the Muslim population in Yorubaland. It would be amazing to those who do not understand the difference between Islam in the North and Islam in the West of Nigeria. They might be wondering that it is even Muslims in the South West who are in the vanguard of the rejection of Sharia.
In the prayer call of Sunday 24th – 30th June 2024, we carried an article entitled “WHAT DO YORUBA PEOPLE MEAN BY ‘SERIA’?” In that prayer call, we explained Yoruba people's perception of Sharia. They associate “seria” (Sharia) with suffering and excruciating pain. In recent times, that perception has broadened to include injustice, because some elites from the North steal billions from the state treasury without any repercussion while a 12-year-old boy who stole a phone could have his two arms cut off. Yoruba Muslims do not want that brand of Sharia promoted by the Muslim North. Some Yoruba Muslim intellectuals have pointed out in the raging controversy that there are Muslim arbitration panels operating in some areas of Yorubaland, but they do not intrude into the larger society.
Christians need to understand how the raging Sharia controversy affects them, their faith, as well as their country. That understanding would take us to the root of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the global sponsor of Sharia. The object of the Muslim Brotherhood in sponsoring global Sharia is not religious piety but the intent to establish the global Islamic State. That's politics and power.
The first thing to understand is the difference between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion, while Islamism is a political ideology that teaches that wherever Islam is, Muslims must dominate. Islamism is a political ideology, like democracy, communism, socialism, and welfarism. Muslims in the South-West practice Islam as a religion while their counterparts in the North practise Islam as a political ideology. The leaders of Islam in the North are mostly Islamists who manipulate the religion of Islam for cultural and political domination. That is the underlying reason why the brand of Islam in the North is intolerant and violent towards other religions and non-Muslims, while Muslims of Yorubaland engage in peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims, because for them, Islam is essentially a religion.
In the run-up to elections in 2027, the Muslim North is demonstrating desperation to regain power, and has resorted to the manipulation of religion to split the South-West, having identified it as a crucial voting bloc. The desperation is confirmed with the intervention of the Sultan of Sokoto in the raging debate. He spoke through an Igbo convert to Islam, further highlighting the determination to split, not only Yorubaland, but also the South. Most Yoruba Muslims were not pleased with the statement made on behalf of the Sultan of Sokoto, and they voiced their objections openly.
While Christians practice their faith under the Biblical injunction to “follow peace with all men”, they should understand that not all men are committed to the same ideals. Islamism was established with “jihad” in mind. Current Islamism dates to 1924 when Mustafa Kemal, the “Atarturk”, dismantled the Ottoman Caliphate and embraced secularism and western civilization so that Turkey would develop. Some Islamic fundamentalists felt then that his action was a betrayal of Islam, so in 1928, Hassan Al Banna led some fundamentalists in Ismaila, a village in Egypt, to establish the Islamic (Muslim) Brotherhood. At its inception, the Muslim Brotherhood had two objectives:
1. To implement Sharia worldwide
2. To re-establish the global Islamic state known as the Caliphate.
The creed of the Brotherhood is: “Allah is our objective; the Koran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”
In addition to establishing global Sharia, the Muslim Brotherhood aims at dismantling two critical institutions:
1. Western civilization which it traces to a Judeo-Christianity ideology
2. Democracy – Representing liberty, freedom of choice, and freedom of expression
Islamism is averse to human rights, democracy, and western education. All three aversions are prominent in northern Nigeria, and surreptitiously spreading all over the country. At present, Nigeria is not practicing democracy in its true sense because votes do not count, and the ballot box has been replaced by the courts in declaring “democratically elected” leaders. Some of those holding elective positions in the country were not elected at the polls but appointed by the courts. That is not democracy. It is Sharia. Democracy is deliberately undermined, and Sharia is promoted.
Islamism entered Nigeria in 1962. Sheik Gumi, Snr. accompanied the Sardauna on his Islamic Unification trips to different Islamic nations. While in Egypt, Sheik Gumi came across a handbook of the Muslim Brotherhood. He brought it to Nigeria and started implementing it. That was how Islamism supplanted the Sufi Islam which was the traditional religious practice in northern Nigeria. The ideology behind Islamism is the Salafist/Wahhabist ideology with roots in Saudi Arabia.
Some Christians engage in the politics of ethnicity, not realizing that the political terrain has changed, and the country is now playing the politics of religion. The politics of tribalism ended with the trio of Azikiwe, Sardauna, and Awolowo. Politics in Nigeria today is determined by religion, and those who understand it are building upon the jihadist Abuja Declaration of 1989. As many Christian leaders did not understand the present politics of Nigeria, they were easily manipulated to take positions that were against their interest. In 2014/2015, many Christian leaders conspired to remove a Christian president and install a core Islamist as the President of Nigeria. In the 2023 elections, they had not learnt their lessons. While the Islamists pushed their gains and demanded a Muslim-Muslim ticket, some undiscerning Christian leaders threw their weight behind those Muslims without realizing that they were implementing the Abuja Declarations of 1989. Some salient portions of the Abuja Declaration are as follows:
• To ensure the appointment of only muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations; (e.g. Muslim-Muslim ticket)
• To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-muslim religions in member nations (e.g. Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, ISWAP, Al Qaeda etc)
• To ensure that only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member nations. (In the first five offices in Nigeria, nos. 1,2,4, & 5, are Muslims)
• To ensure the ultimate replacement of all Western forms of legal and judicial systems with the Sharia in all member nations before the next Islam in Africa Conference. (e.g. the removal of CJN Onnoghen and his replacement with Justice Tanko, a Sharia lawyer, in a Common Law country)
For Nigeria to have peace, it must retain its status as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural society. The promotion of one religion for political and cultural domination will bring doom upon the country. Fortunately, Muslims in the South-West have seen through the exploitation of religion and are stridently opposing it. Meanwhile, some Christian leaders still act as if nothing has gone wrong, yet Christians are the main target of Islamism, as confirmed by the rabid terrorist attacks on Christians and Christian communities in the North. Islamism has done great damage to Nigeria. It entered Nigeria in 1962 and, under democracy, has been ruling since 2015. Nigerians should look back and assess the state of the country from 2015 to date. Even some Arab Islamic states cannot tolerate Islamists. It would be recalled that both Egypt and Tunisia, in the wake of the Arab Spring revolution, placed Islamists in power. Within one year, both countries conducted a counter-revolution and threw them out.
Under the circumstances, Christians must unite internally and collaborate externally. There must be political cohesion within the Church while efforts must be made to collaborate with other non-Christians in the country for the common good of all. All efforts must be geared towards protecting and promoting democracy. Votes must count, and only the ballot box must produce elected officials, not any court in the land. If there is contention over results, there must be fresh election. This implies that there must be an electoral reform before the 2027 elections. All the loopholes that INEC manipulated in 2023 must be plugged. The incursion of Islamism into the politics of Nigeria must stop so that the politics of merit can commence.
God bless Nigeria.
PRAYER POINTS
1). Ps. 124
Thank God for preserving and delivering Nigeria from forces that were determined to enslave the country.
2). Isaiah 8:9-10
Pray that God would scatter all local and international forces of Islamism that plot to take Nigeria captive.
3). Col. 2:14-15
Cancel every declaration, communique, or resolution by Islamists to take Nigerians captive.
4). Ps. 94:20
Plead the blood of Jesus and nullify every law of mischief that promotes iniquity in Nigeria. Decree righteous laws upon Nigeria.
5). Isaiah 45:8
Pray for righteousness, liberty, and justice to cover Nigeria as the waters cover the sea.
6). Ps. 75:6-7
Pray that God would empower righteous people to become stronger in Nigeria and prevail, while the wicked and the ungodly shall be weaker and of no influence.
7). Isaiah 43:18-21
With thanksgiving to God, call forth the new Nigeria.
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DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
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