This piece is elicited by the
string of tweets going on recently on the Twitter space about a boy who
purportedly left Islam to become an atheist. He goes with the Twitter
handle @mubarakbala and claims to be from Kano. His Twitter profile then
reads ex-Muslim. Why an ex-Muslim? Why not just ‘I am an atheist’?
An Ex-Muslim can be a Christian,
an Atheist, a Hindu or Buddhist. Is he ashamed of his new faith? When
someone leaves other religions to Islam, s/he does not say I am an ex
that. S/he says I am a Muslim. And I think this also applies to other
faiths, probably, except this new form of atheism.
Then I decided to go through his timeline. As expected, his ex-Muslim
tag fetched him a lot of the backing he desired. There was deluge of
messages of support for his newfound freedom of belief. Many people,
especially the non-Muslim, tweeted on his right to believe whatever he
wants to believe in. They were outdoing one another to get this
ex-Muslim out of a psychiatric bed to which his relation has confined
him as a befitting place. But, I was able to discern the hypocrisy which
defines Nigerians as being religious people and human right champions.
Annoyingly, prevalent among the so-called enlightened youth. I found out
that the support he enjoys for his freedom of belief was because he was
an ex-Muslim-whatever that means-not because he actually enjoys any
sort of freedom of worship.
Nigeria is a religious space, you know. So, when the congregation of
one religion depreciates, the other gets happier. This is just the
mentality here, no matter how we pretend that one people’s religion is
accommodating while the other is intolerant.
I was able to see further the Nigerian human right activists in their
true nature as just religious people behind the mask of civil society
groups. I even saw a write-up on the situation ex-Muslims face in Africa
by one Leo Igwe. But it is understandable why Nigerian pseudo human
right activists would be in the active mode when the issue at hand goes
against Islam and Muslims, but become silent when crimes are perpetrated
by a particular religion or region.
I recall I couldn’t count the number of lawyers jostling to represent
Muhammed Masaba in his 86 wives saga, as they were so many. However, I
vividly remember that only one insignificant lawyer took up the case of
the little girl who was slapped by a prominent pastor for claiming to be
a witch for Jesus. Does that little girl not deserve freedom of belief?
Why have our human right activists not fought for the daughter of a
pastor who converted to Islam in Niger state to let her be? Is she not
entitled to freedom of religion which we so much sought for ex-Muslims?
She was kidnapped by the Emir, they say.
What of the pervasive cases of children being violated in churches
across eastern Nigeria under the label of witchcraft? Yeah, only
Almajirai in the North is a problem. What about the rampant cases of
baby factories in Christian populated southern Nigeria? Okay, it is only
child marriage an issue worthy of signing phantom petition for. What of
the little girls who are picked from southern Nigeria villages to be
used as housemaids in Christian households of Lagos, Ibadan or Enugu,
but are chained to pillars, tortured and burnt with pressing iron. You
know they are actually bewitching the children of their aunties/madams
and therefore the pastor ordered that they be exorcised. It is okay for
some people to commit crime because of their region and religion.
Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!! Hypocrisy!!!
Now coming to the topic of atheism, is atheism actually a lack of
belief? It is not. It is essentially a belief in nothing, but nature. It
is the belief that God is non-existent. Atheists believe there is no
life after death. Things by themselves happen by nature. May Mubarak and
other atheists be guided.
Well, the way I have come to decipher atheists is that they are
misled by ‘freedom’which in essence is their belief. Atheists suffer
from freedom of thinking. While you have freedom to think, you should
also have freedom to think rationally. This is what an atheist lacks.
The problem of atheists is that they think they have a limitless
knowledge of universe or nature. This is where most people don’t get it.
Human knowledge is very limited. The limitation of human knowledge
makes him discover things from time to time. If human being has complete
knowledge, there would not have been need for researching. Man should
have just made a list of future knowledge, discoveries, advances and the
end of them.
Atheists are misled in the belief that they possess a comprehensive
knowledge, and through their adding together of events of the universe
they conclude that God does not exist. But one can easily see through
the shallowness of atheists’ intelligence by their analysis of events.
They question why there is hunger, oppression, inequality etc., if God
exists. Indirectly, they accuse God of injustice and unkindness, if
really He exists.
For instance, in @mubarakbala’s timeline, an evidence of his
non-existence of God is the picture of a crawling, close-to-skeleton man
devastated by hunger. I believe @mubarakbala eats at least twice a day
and yet a man walks around without a meal but he does not deem it fit to
get him a ration of his meal and still he accuses God of lack of
generosity. He wears nice shirt as I can deduct from his profile
picture. I guess he has more than one of that shirt. Yet, many children
walk about in Kano in tatters. Did nature not teach him to be kinder
than God by sharing his nice shirts with those children? Or
free-thinking does not enjoin sympathy, kindness and justice.
The very nature of the confusion we have in the world today is what
strengthens my belief in God and the hereafter. Someone, greater than
all of us, must ask that pastor why he slapped that little girl. So, you
mean if Shekau the Boko Haram leader dies today, he will not account
for his many atrocities against innocent people. You must be kidding.
Then if such is the case, nature does not worth believing in because it
makes people not to answer for their crimes. God may decide to forgive
as well. The atheist would say injustice. Why does the atheist see
anything wrong when s/he wrongs someone and the person decides to
forgive?
Freethinkers may wonder what sort of punishment would God hands down
to some criminals that will commensurate with their crime. As much as we
may think any punishment is lenient, yet someone who commits multiple
murders will not want to go to jail for 50 years or be killed. Is a
50-year jail sentence or his being killed equal to a single murder?
Atheists think nothing must be left to God to decide and everything
must be open to them like black and white. Yet they never question their
examiner at school, a fellow human being, why s/he decides to ask some
questions but leaves others out in a test. These are very basic things
that atheists have been unable to understand, yet they think they
possess knowledge of creations.
In conclusion, the very problems of human, which the atheist uses as
testimony of non-existence of God, are human being themselves. Humankind
accuses God for what it has brought upon itself. The atheist opined
that if God exist, He should not have made the opposite of whatever we
consider as being good. Then the essence of the Day of Judgment would be
negated.What use is the court or justice department when everyone obeys
the law? Whereas humanity has blamed God for destruction of wars, it
has not blamed God for technology which give birth to the former. Have
the atheists question nature why it created them, unless they also
believe there is nothing call ‘purpose’. Then nature must be stupid for
creating for no purpose.
Ramadan Mubarak to all my readers.
A.S.M Jimoh (anehi2008@gmail.com)
.............Happy To See You Here to Read the Blogs and Please To Be Here Is Not A Must, But As Long As You Are Here Use Your Brain Properly!!!
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