Nobel Laurette, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has aired his view on the inhumane killing of Deborah Samuel, a 200-Level undergraduate of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, who was publicly gruesomely murdered by her fanatic Muslim colleagues over a WhatsApp post which they said, allegedly, denigrated Islamic revered Prophet Muhammed.
Soyinka, at the One Year Memorial of the Late former Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru, dismissed the “theocratic rhetoric” by Muslim faithfuls in Nigeria when discussing the virtues of Islam or the person of Prophet Muhammad.
Speaking, Soyinka said, “It is no longer adequate for everyone to proclaim that Islam is this and that, that Sharia is this and that, that Prophet Mohammed set this and that example and made this and that humanistic proclamation.
“We have progressed beyond theocratic rhetoric that pays lip service to civilised norms. Let affirmative action back up all pietistic condemnations.”
He also called for the immediate dismissal of Ibrahim Maqari, Imam of the National Mosque in Abuja, for his comments on the killing and lynching of Deborah Samuel.
He accused the Islamic preacher of directing his Muslim followers to take the law into their hands under the guise of protecting their religion.
He also demanded that Maqari be removed from office as an “apostate of humanity’s credo”, and observed that what the Islamic cleric has done with his message is to incite his followers to kill anyone who again, allegedly,blasphemes prophet Muhammad.
