Terrorist Attacks Not Targeted At Christians — Forum

Ulama Forum in Nigeria, a forum of Islamic scholars and leading Islamic organisations, has petitioned the Secretary, United States Department of State, Antony Blinken demanding the outright discountenance of the position of five American Senators on the crisis in Nigeria.

The petition signed by the forum’s convener Aminu Inuwa Mohammad and Secretary Engineer Bashir Adamu Aliyu and made available to journalists on Saturday in Kano observed that Blinken was wrongly informed by the US senators to assume that the senseless killings in the country are particularly targeted at Christians in Nigeria.

The body said it is regrettable that senators Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio, Mike Braun, Tom Cotton and James Inholfe decided to harp on isolated incidences of interest and have deliberately failed to understand that a larger per cent of casualties of the terrorist attacks are Muslims.

The Ulama equally declared that the distinguished legislators “missed a momentous opportunity to rise to the highest expectations of their offices, duty and responsibility to douse situation, quench fires of discord, not inflame them, and help confidence and peacebuilding process they owe to Nigeria."

“Wrongdoing anywhere by whoever is condemnable, unacceptable, and intolerable in all civilized societies without exception.

"Violence wherever perpetrated is an offence to humanity and should be prevented and punished, irrespective of the ethnic background, creed or religious affiliation of the perpetrators.

“In light of the foregoing reasons, we, therefore, object and reject the action of the senators and urge you to ignore their demand in the interest of justice, peace and tranquillity in Nigeria and in the rest of the world.

”We urged the US government to lead the international community and all friends of Nigeria in assisting in all possible ways in order to strengthen the government and people of Nigeria to effectively overcome the security challenges facing the country.

"Uninformed positions, which promote hatred and religious conflict as championed by the five distinguished senators, would only complicate matters, deepen and prolong the crisis, cause greater harm and avoidable suffering and render solution more intractable, a situation true Christians would least wish or desire to any people at all," the statement said.

The petition endorsed by 25 members of the forum was also copied to the offices of President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President, President General Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and Sultan of Sokoto, American Embassy, British High Commission and European Union.