Pandemonium on Protest; where lies your truth?

1: The last time I kept myself worried about uncouth responses to any of my articles was in 2017. Ever since, I always ignore those who feast on controversies with their emotions; and this is a human deficiency which is not exclusive to any tendency.

2: I have seen a lot of posts: some mentioned my name; some did indirectly, claiming those of us who wrote in support of Peaceful Protest are the causes of the present killings in some part of Nigeria; that I (we) fuelled the protest with my (our) articles.

The disheartening aspect of the responses is that most of them are borne out of emotions and not based on facts. The pattern of responses, both verbal and written exposes the unfortunate phenomenon of the death of the Reading Culture among the Muslims and the sad emergence of Listening and Veiwing culture.

3: I am actually aware of the fact that some of my articles are not meant for every Abdullah, AbdurRahman and Abu Fulaan. No matter how simple and explanatory they can be. When I wrote about the awkward and problematic issue during the reign of Ali, I was accused of villifying the Sahaabah; as well as articles on Birthday, Anniversary celebrations; Solaatul Faatih; the Prophet’s enchantment and many others. Yes, we can differ, but based on evidences and facts and not emotions without a constructive refutation of what you claim to go against.

4: My dear, do not be fooled by titles. No matter the weight of the Alkimba and oratory of a Sheikh, the truth is not monopolized by any individual or group.

It once happened that Imam Ahmad said something to which he was told that Ibn Mubarak said otherwise. Imam Ahmad responded that Ibn Mubarak did not fall from heaven. In the same manner Imam Ahmad could also be disputed, like Imam Shaafi’i and other Ai’mmah; talkless of some Saudi scholars who seek to protect profligate regime. So, qoutes of any Sheikh is not to be made a basis of truth.

5: In my article titled “Fifty (50) Evidences Supporting Protest in Islam”, I never mentioned the Nigeria on-going protest as a case study because that is not what the article is addressing. The only point, where I mentioned “EndSars” is in point No. 40 whereby I claimed the EndSars protest is among the victories recorded through peaceful protest. And I even said it clearly in that same point 40 that “When the citizens protested, the government should listen, the president or head of the state or country should address the case and all protesters should return to their respective homes waiting for the implementation of the government promises without turning it into a Revolt and Riot”. This was said because as at then, the protest actually yielded fruitfully.

6: My article on Protest is addressing the Islamic Ruling as regard Protest and not for or against #EndSars protest. The article discusses the permissibility and efficacy of Peaceful Protest which is the primary factor of consideration; just as protest has a lot of forms and demonstration is just a form.

7: What some people failed to understand is the differences between the basic Islamic ruling of something (Protest in this case) and secondary rulings attached to it. A ruling is not determined in the Shari’ah by the reaction of people to it. If people fulfill a permissible act in an extreme way, we are to warn against the extremism and not the permissible act. There is extremism in virtually all human beings deeds.

8: Yes. Protest is Halal and permissible Islamically; as peaceful demonstration is likewise permissible. No evidence to say otherwise. Many of the evidences of those who argued against it have been discussed in my previous article on Protest and some will be discuss in this article also; while others will be kept in the book on Protest.

9: Also, what should protest be staged on is a secondary factor of consideration and does not have effect on the basic ruling. If what protest is staged on is halal and legitimate, then such protest remain halal. If it is haram (Eg Protest for the legalization of alcohol, weed, and other things that are haram), then such protest becomes haram. This is a secondary and sub factor.

Anyone may make his own protest halal, and that tells us that protest can never be basically deemed haram. Faithful Muslims protested against the abuse of Hijab in this same country Nigeria; eminent Islamic personalities protested during Fuel Subsidy crisis and they maintained the sanctity of protest.

Now, my stance on the #EndSars Protest in Nigeria:

10: Right from when Azeez Fashola announced that he will lead a protest on a Tuesday (which he later canceled), up to when the demonstration was led by Folarin Falana on a Thursday in Lagos and Aisha Yesufu in Abuja respectfully, I never encouraged people to partake in such protest because of those who championed that cause and its secondary considerations. I am fully in support of their #EndSars call even though Sars is not only the problem, rather all armed forces need to be reformed. Infact, an average Nigerian gets brutalized and harrassed in our airports, ministries and many other places, we all need to reform ourselves and all sectors; but definitely evils are not on the same page.

11: Among my reasons for not supporting the demonstration itself is the mode of the demonstration whereby Muslims can hardly avoid intermingling with opposite sex; illicit music; and all other immoral acts. Their cause is a legitimate one but their grounds are not holy for Muslims. If we cannot join them in the cause offline because of the immoral acts, nothing stops Muslims from engaging in an Online Protest in support of #EndSars and #EndPoliceBrutality. The salient truth is that, we are all tired; we are all fed up by this government; things are not set right in this country. Instead of we (Muslims) all to support and lend our voices in making a better change of the country, some ignoramuses called Salafees keep driving us backward – claiming participating in politics, elections, protest is unislamic.

12: Personally, I always try as much as possible to avoid political discussions on social media because emotions will set in and as some are pro-govt, others are anti-govt, all factions will keep defending their interests and the conversation gets unhealthy.

13: Despite that, no matter what political party you belong to, no matter who and what you love, you should not block your intellect from acknowledging the truth. We must not blame the oppressed for the sins and oppressions of the oppressors. Allah says:
“قال رب بما أنعمت علي فلن أكون ظهيرا للمجرمين”.

14: The guys came out to show their (and our) grievances, the government reacted and acknowledged their efforts, they should have put the protest on hold ever since then but you know what? Non of us trust this government anymore. They have banned this same Sars over 4 times and you won’t just tell the protesters to get played again with coated mouth by these politicians. So, they raised a #5for5 demands in which government only still acted upon two of these five. And truth be told, the 3 remaining demands will not take government a week to implement; rather they still want to play with the intelligence of the protesters.

15: Some of you reacted against the protest because there was no named leader. This is actually a good point because once there is no leader, Shaytan becomes the leader. But don’t you think once a leader is pronounced, it will turn to politics?

The leader and his team can easily be manipulated or threatened. Nobody is trustworthy and God fearing in Nigeria once money and life is involved. The government are ready to give the leader and his team billions of naira to stop the protest and later find a way to take it back from our money. The reason they still had the protest ongoing (online and offline) is because there has been no named leader, they don’t know who to threaten, they don’t know who to bribe.

Factually, many of us know there are leaders who were coordinating the protest. Social media Celebrities and influencers donated millions of naira for them to finance the protests.

The government can resolve the issue if they really want to without knowing their leader. The protesters made their messages very clear and they said they want actions, and not promises. So there is no need of setting people to speak for them.

16: As for the case of the thugs and hoodlums said to have hijacked the protest and demonstration grounds, the question begging for answer is, who owns and controls the thugs in Nigeria? Who enriched Sunday Igboho? Who enriched Mc Oluomo? Who enriched Koko Saria? Who enriched Jango? Who enriched Kunle Poly? Who enriched Baba Lado? Who enriched Auxiliary? Who enriched Iyeru and all other touts? The fact remains that the guys and girls who went out to demonstrate own no weapons; and since October 8th they started the demonstration, violence was not recorded in any of the protest grounds. Until days after when the controllers of these thugs and hoodlums began to threaten them with arms and violence. So, why should you blame the oppressed for the oppression of the oppressors? Whether the thugs were sponsored by men of the Pro-govt or anti-govt, Allah knows. But it is most correct to say Hoodlums did not hijack the #EndSars movement. Government brought in hoodlums. We all watched as hoodlums were transported with government buses, police vans and supervised by Police. In fact, the leader of the first attack by the hoodlums on the Alausa protesters is an associate friend of SamLarry who is among the men of Mc Oluomo. We should not be suspicious; but the salient fact remains that these politicians own these thugs. They gave them power and money and they likewise use them during elections.

17: The executive governor of Lagos state, Sanwo-Olu imposed a 9pm curfew yesterday night and even before 7pm, soldiers have been mounted at the Lekki toll gate (the most peaceful demonstration ground so far) and they have started shooting at protesters. I watched this horrible moment yesterday live on Instragam via dj-switch page. I was shocked to see 7.62 × 51 NATO bullets only classified to be used at war front used against peaceful protesters. I was shocked to see the governor of Lagos this morning claimed that no fatality yet. I watched the live video where people are being hurt and some were dying and I even screen-recorded it on my phone. Why blame the protesters for the oppression of the oppressors?

18: We all should know this is a democratic government and not a dictatorship form of government; the leaders were elected to serve the best interest of the citizens; to serve the best interest of the nation. The citizens have the full right to advice, support and likewise criticize the government; and I believe that is why we have the senators, house of reps, house of assembly members, chairmen, councilors and special advisers to relate the peoples’ wants to the authorities. But our government want to turn us all to dummies who must not criticize their erroneous steps after electing them in power. This is tyrannical!!.

19: Those hoodlums and angry youths who resorted to burning down BRT buses, see how stupid they were thinking they are harming the government not knowning they are harming themselves and other patriot citizens. The government officials are rich enough to get themselves cars, they don’t take public transports, at worst they order themselves uber/bolt. Ditto to those hoodlums who set Tinubu’s properties ablaze; you only become oppressors by such barbaric acts. When we said we don’t blame the oppressed for the oppression of the oppressors, it is not a principle to be implemented on the government officials only; in this case, Tinubu and other owners of the damaged properties are the oppressed. Even though the government attitudes, shootings and killings caused their anger, yet they could have remained peaceful.

As for those brainwashed Salafees who choose to put the blame on the protest and claim protest does more harm than good:

20: Firstly, you need to know that these set of people are hypocrites. They are out now claiming protest is unislamic because the Prophet warned against it and the actions of the Sahaabah and Salaf are not to be considered when there is a prophetic warning. Without even studying the said prophetic warnings against protest, it is on this same platform I have told these people severally that “The aqeedah of the salaf is the consensus of the salaf in aqeedah; while the manhaj is equally their consensus.”

21: They claim we have to understamd Islam according to the fahm of the salaf (understanding of the righteous predecessors), we gave them narrations whereby the Salaf themselves engaged in Protests and even Revolts, they said “no, the fahm of the salaf is no more useful, we have to go by the prophetic narrations”.

22: Why can’t we now understand the said narrations by the understanding of the salaf and narrators of the ahadeeth who participated in protests and revolts? They only allow themselves to be brainwashed by some Saudi scholars who seek to protect the profligate regime. Reasons I regarded them as hypocrites.

23: If truly they want to be sincere and disregard the Salaf understanding towards these ahadeeth, they should start by villifying Mu’aawiyah bn Abee Sufyaan (radiya Allahu anhu) who engaged in Revolt against the sitting caliphacy of Ali bn Abee Taalib (radiya Allahu anhu) and many other Salaf who engaged in Revolts and Protests. Or do they mean these salaf were not aware of the ahadeeth they misinterpreted to mean a negation against protests!! And that made an ignoramus among them said history is not part of Islamic evidences. I wonder how ahadeeth and aathaar got to him if not through Islamic history. When next they want to force a deceitful Fahm Salaf on people, they will return back to history and understanding of the Salaf then.

24: Secondly, as for their famous evidence they claim to be a negation of protest, the narrative which says “even if your back is beaten and your wealth is taken, listen and obey to your leader و إن ضرب ظهرك و أخذ مالك….”

It is pathetic how these faithful people of ours got themselves brainwashed easily without further verification of their claim.

25: The problem they have is that they had allowed the seemingly religious outlook of scholars to becloud their sense of judgment vis a vis the quranic concept of justice.

They do not look at the Quran and sunnah persé, but they look at disposition of seemingly religious scholars, they falsely presume they cannot be supportive of oppressors forgetting that these scholars are human that can be persuaded and induced materially by the oppressor while still maitaining their false sence of sincerity.

26: It did not start today but it is deep rooted in our dark historical past where scholars only admonished the oppressed and keep silent on oppression, the weakness of the past has been turned to an ideological reality by palace scholars.

27: We have to return back to the justice of the Quran and the golden era symbolised by the Prophet and the rightly guided caliph.

28: What was obtainable after the rightly guided was oppression and tyranny but historian and some scholars tried defending the error of the past, such that later generations were now making it a model and outrightily forgetting about the justice of the rightly guided caliphs.

29: They have been hypocritically defending the actions of Ummayad and Abassid kings yet they acknowledged that Umar bn Abdul Aziz deserve to be the fifth rightly guided caliph. If Umar Abdul Aziz was, why then do they cover and defend the tyranny of those before him?!

30: If these issues are not addressed and a spade is not called a spade, the Muslim nation will continue to be under tyrannical regimes where human rights are violated indiscriminately and then use palace scholars to legitimise their actions.

31: They failed to know that this statement is weak and even a mudarraj (one added by the narrator of the hadith) and not the actual Prophet’s statement.

31: For the sake of argument, if we even accept the narration to be authentic, they are filled with prejudices which beclouded their reasoning to interpret “Sabr” to mean “Silence.” When the Prophet himself consider the person who spoke against a tyrant as a Shahid (martyr).

The prophet advised “patience” and not silence in the face of tyranny, because the companions never kept silent but were patient.

32: Let them mention the hadith where the Prophet adviced silence else they would be considered as Murjiah. Irjau is a tendency propagated by tyrant rulers, yesterday and today.

And the #EndSars protesters have been patients all since Sars have been claimed banned for more than four times, yet they keep operating. So why put the blame on protest?

33: Thirdly, I do marvel at the hypocrisy of those who often hide under the statement of Imam Ahmad on absolute obedience to the ruler but who will never give consideration to the position of the same Imam Ahmad who seriously warned against working for a Sultan or government under whatever guise – either as a judge or an advisor. Imam Ahmad even warned against going to their door steps, just as he rejected Ahadith that were narrated by scholars of the Sultan. In fact, Imam Ahmad was reported to have rejected gifts from his biological son who was an employee of the Sultan. And Imam Maalik rejected going to the ruler’s (Haarun Rasheed) house to teach his children saying “العلم يؤتى و لا يأتي” meaning “you go to acquire knowledge and knowledge does not come to you”. As reported by Ibn Kethir in his Al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah volume 10 page 174.

34: Fourthly, these extremist guys hide under the guise that Peaceful Protest is unislamic because it later turns out to be riot and claim their evidence is “سد الذريعة” meaning: “blocking the pretext – the evil that may occur from the incidence”.

These our brothers should understand well that this maxim adopted by the Maalikiyyah as an independent evidence only helps in developing the cognitive reasoning of a jurist. It is not a fixed maxim, it is dynamic and it is the dynamism that breeds conflicting output. The reason the Hanafiyyah and Shaafi’iyah rejected it as an independent evidence. The problem is not in this maxim as even the Hanafiyyah and Shaafi’iyah had applied it indirectly; but the real problem is in the application and usage of this maxim.

35: Using Saddu Dharee’ah as an evidence will only be applicable in a case whereby the protesters already have been heard and their greviances have all been acted upon, then they were warned to stop the protest, in this case, saddu Dharee’ah will be implemented because their cause is no more legitimate and they have to abide by the authority to protect themselves from any evils and chaos that may befall them later.

But to just make a claim of saddu dharee’ah to support the tyrannical government and put blames on the peaceful protesters who are not armed, this itself is an injustice and oppression. The blame should be on those who politicized the protest and government who keep oppressing the oppressed. Saddu dharee’ah is a no go area to condemn peaceful protest in its entirety.

36: I read someone who claimed “the protesters should not turn Nigeria to Libya, Egypt and Syria”. These brainwashed hypocrites forget to tell us the causes of the chaos and unrest in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iran, Yemen, Algeria. I explained that of Libya and Syria in point No. 37 and 38 in my previous article on Protest.

37: They mischievously hide the fact that Saudi Arabia sponsored the wars and bloodshed in these countries. I have the clear audio voice of Sh. Rabiu Madkhali where he was telling the Libya Madkhalists to keep supporting Haftar in his killings. The same Saudi sent millions of dollars to El-Sisi in July 2013 to ousted the democractic elected President Morsi. They murdered thousands of Yemenis claiming they are Shiites.

38: The same Saudi had spent approximately $100 billion in just about 30 years in exporting the fanatical idea; much more than $7 billion spent by Russia for a period of 70 years (1921-1991) in spreading Communism.

39: And this is one of the Major plans of the “Sudairis Seven” which has now been reduced to 3. The Seven Sudayri is the common used name for a powerful alliance of seven full brothers within the House of Saud. But it has been reduced to 3 now. Just make your independent research and come back to belie my fact.

40: Why don’t you blame the government who sponsor and turn peaceful protests bloody? Why still blaming the oppressed for the oppression of the Tyrants?

41: You see these Salafi guys who are throwing emotional messages everywhere and pretending as if they really care about this whole issue, they are only pretending because they have seen an opportunity to claim “Protest is haram because it always turns bloody”; not that they really care. When Saudi murdered Khashogji, we didn’t hear anything from them; when the Saudi associate Fatai El-Sisi murdered Muhammad Morsi, they kept silent and said “serves them right”. There are hundreds of scholars in Saudi Prisons, they will still come out and justify the despotism of their revered Saudi and put the blame on innocent citizens agitating for their rights. They always support oppressions and the oppressors against the oppressed.

42: May Allah not make me a supporter of the criminals and tyrant oppressors. We pray Allah grant us all peace and blessings.