By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Seven years have passed since the brutal massacre in Zaria of some two thousand members of Nigeria’s peaceful Shi’a Muslim community and the ordeal of imprisonment without trial its revered leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, went through before his eventual release earlier this year, yet the scars of the oppression remain fresh.

According to the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Shi’a Muslims who number over fourteen million are a steady growing community despite the bias of the regime against it and its unwarranted persecution in violation of the national constitution that guarantees the rights of all Nigerian citizens, including Christians, Animists, the various Sufi orders and even the seditious takfiris.

The last named outfit, supported by Saudi Arabia and Israel, is notorious for the crimes against humanity of its armed wing, the Boko Haram terrorists, who freely indulge in extortion, kidnapping and organized murder of Nigerian citizens.

Unfortunately, instead confronting the terrorism of the takfiris, the Nigerian regime has adopted a step-motherly attitude towards its Shi’a Muslim citizens. It attacks their peaceful gatherings, shoots down its defenceless members in cold blood, imprisons without charge its leaders, and carries on a systematic campaign of character assassination of Sheikh Zakzaky.

The IMN leader, however, in spite of losing several of his sons to the state terrorism of the regime, remains undeterred in fulfilling his responsibilities, thereby earning the respect of his compatriots, irrespective of their religious affiliations.

He holds regular meetings with members of his community as well as with non-Muslims eagerly seeking his views and opinions on various issues of importance, whether national or religious.

Last Sunday, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, paid a visit to Sheikh Zakzaky, at his residence in Abuja, the federal capital.

Describing the meeting as an amazing one, Sowore took to his “facebook account” the next day, saying, “I visited Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his family at home in Abuja yesterday (Sunday). It was an interesting meeting. Later inspected the models of his properties destroyed by the Buhari regime plus the heart-breaking photos of his six sons murdered between the Muhammadu Buhari regime and that of Goodluck Jonathan. Also spoke with his wife who was badly injured during the Zaria Massacre in 2015.”

These and other meetings with national and international figures bear testimony to not just the social prestige of the INM leader but also the stature of the Nigerian Shi’a Muslims, who remain unscathed despite the sick propaganda of the regime, the Americans, the Saudis, and the Zionists against them.

The government authorities ought to strive for healing the wounds of the persecution of the peaceful community through compensates for its crimes and state-sponsored terrorism against them. 

Among other measures, the Baqiatollah Hussainiya, which the Nigerian Army destroyed on 15 December 2015, needs to be rebuild on a grand scale.