Islam: A Peaceful Religion with a Few Non-Peaceful Adherents

By Ogiri John Ogiri

I believe that Islam, as a religion, has no problem with peace since it is a religion of peace. Islam, if it is truly lived to its ideals, is an instrument of peace. Rather, it is those who hide under the veil of Islam to pursue and achieve their political and economic ends that pose the greatest threat to peace both in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. They read the Holy Book but choose to twist its message, morph it into a very dangerous duet of hate and weapon and offer it to the uninformed in their fold. When their political power is threatened or they face the loss of their power advantage over those from without their faith, they garb it with a cloak of Islam and incite other less informed Muslims to kill those fellow human beings who hold and share a view different from theirs. Sometimes too, they can incite their followers to kill other members of the same faith who disagree with their personal opinions usually christened God's command. At the end when their mission is accomplished, they cheer " Allahu Akbar" to make it appear that those who share in the Islamic faith have gained a major victory for God. Funny enough, such a victory is for them, for their interests, never for God. For after this, they become more powerful and politically relevant. It is on the threshold of the sentiment they create in this manner that they can easily ride on to electoral victories in future elections. 

On the contrary, those who help them fight are made to slip deeper into the nadir of catastrophic ignorance and a highly precarious state of squalor. It is this condition that keep these less informed, poor followers in the condition that makes them easy tools for manipulation; this deplorable conditions give them (the foot soldiers) many reasons not to value life but to be in continuous expectation of a time to die. They have nothing to lose- no major economic and political investment to lose. Do you notice that faithfuls occupying positions of power and who are quick to ask others to fight for Islam do not themselves fight on the battlefield? The poor, the disadvantaged are the ones usually recruited and mobilized to fight. The rich have a lot to lose economically and politically so it is difficult to see them take up arms and fight.

Islam, like Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism etc, on its own, can never lift a sword or a bullet to execute anyone who does not agree with its ideals. Like all major religions, Islam teaches peace but many of its adherents preach violence. Arguably, it is those whose selfish powers feel challenged or threatened by others not from their religious fold or even faithfuls who hold contrary ideologies, that can easily kill in the name of Islam for God. The actions of these selfish religious hypocrites, over times, have painted Islam in bad colour more than anything else. It is the images of Islam these hypocritical elite projects to the world that non-Muslims see and associate with Islam today.

 Every Muslim scholar of high moral repute, therefore, has a duty to flesh out peace from the bone of Islam and propagate it without prejudice and bigotry particularly among the less informed so that, having known the truth, they become impervious to deliberate incitements from self-centred Muslim elites in the future.