Sokoto blasphemy killing: We cannot continue like this

In every revealed religion, human life is sacred. Sadly, some Muslims for whatever reason recently decided to ditch this doctrine and take the laws into their own hands by killing a butcher in Sokoto, Usman Buda, whom they accused of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

We do not make any excuses for blasphemy, nor for those who knowingly or unknowingly blaspheme. Indeed, we cannot. But we believe we have a duty, first to Islam, and then to our society, to point out, very clearly, that the killing of people outside of any judicial process for the sake of a religion that strongly teaches the sacredness of life is, indeed, the height of religious ignorance, bigotry, cruelty, and man’s inhumanity to man.And that, we condemn in the strongest terms.

Buda was reportedly beaten and stoned to death on Sunday June 25, 2023, following an alleged blasphemy at the Sokoto main abattoir.

The exact details of what Buda said and of the incident are hazy, according to different media accounts. But two key details are clear: that Buda had been accused of blaspheming the Prophet Sokoto blasphemy killing: We cannot continue like this Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, PBUH), and that he was killed as a direct result of that, as a mob instantly started throwing stones at him, and stabbing him with knives.

Although the police were invited to intervene, Buda was killed before their arrival. It was gathered that the mob wanted to set his corpse ablaze but the police averted the attempt. The victim’s corpse was thereafter evacuated by the police and deposited at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital morgue. Buda’s wanton killing has orphaned his six children, in addition to his aged father.

This gory episode adds to a deeply disturbing trend of such incidents, happening barely a year after Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in the same Sokoto, was killed and burnt on May 12, 2022 over a similar allegation. Barely a month after Deborah’s case in Sokoto, a member of a vigilante group, a Muslim, was killed on Saturday June 4, 2022 in the Lugbe area of Abuja for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). That’s three reported extra-judicial killings by a mob for blasphemy in just about a year, a record no Muslim society should have, given that a Muslim society is a society of laws, not mobs.

Muslims know better that not even the life of a non-Muslim should be taken by another individual. Human life and the right to it, whether of a Muslim or a non-Muslim, is recognized as the first and most important universal right derived from Shari’ah and classical Islamic law. During his sermon at the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) declared that the lives, property, and honour of all people are as sacred as Mecca and Islam’s religious symbols. Allah affirms in Qur’an 17: 33 that “Nor take life which Allah has made sacred…” Moreover, Allah states in Qur’an 4:93 that the recompense for anyone who kills a believer is Hell fire.

This trend of inter and intra-religious bigotry is dangerous for the peace, unity, and progress of the country. No religion or constitution permits individuals or groups to take anyone’s life even where the crime committed is punishable by death. Only competent courts of law are empowered or have the jurisdiction to rule and execute capital punishment, not citizens as followers of a particular religion. If they do, it is subversive to due process of the law since Nigeria has Shari’ah courts that can decide on virtually any Muslim religious issues.

Extra-judicial killing is so heinous that Allah in whose name some ignorant Muslims kill for blasphemy states in the holy Qur’an 5:35 “on that account, we ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person… it would be as if he slew the whole mankind; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole mankind…”

We call on the police to conclude investigations on Buda’s case with dispatch, and to prosecute and convict, any culprits found guilty of his killing, to the fullest extent of the law. More broadly, as a community, as an Ummah in this country, we must all realize that there is no place for mob action of this kind in Islam in any guise or form. We simply cannot allow the ignorant and uncontrolled passions of a few to become the norm for the rest of us. We cannot continue like this. We cannot continue to be known as a society of extra-judicial killers in the name of religion. Such an image, in fact, does damage to the true spirit of our religion, which is peace.

We believe, therefore, that Muslim religious leaders and our traditional rulers have a duty to speak out against this rising trend. They also have a duty, individually and collectively, to educate, enlighten, and re-orient the Ummah in this country on this troubling trend. The government, through the National Orientation Agency, should reach out to Nigerians to imbibe the virtue of tolerance. We also call on the police to always ensure that matters such as this and any other issue where people take the law into their hands, are treated with dispatch and justice seen to be done. It must be stated that when that is done, it will bolster the confidence of the people in the justice delivery system, and that will in no small measure help to eliminate the concept of jungle justice.

Islam is one of the most organized of all world religions, with nearly every single detail guiding individual and collective life laid out in the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and other relevant sources. It behooves, then, that any action taken in the name of Islam must be done according to these sources. On killings over allegations of blasphemy, we simply cannot continue on the path of ignorance and mob action.