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Following the recent violent clash between the Nigerian security forces and members of the Islamic sect, Shiite, in Abuja, a professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Ishaq Akintola, has said that he is concerned by the deaths of members of the followers of El-Zakzaky. Akintola, while urging restraint on all sides, urge the government to conduct a thorough investigation of the events and to take appropriate action to hold accountable those responsible for violations of Nigerian law. The professor also said that it is curious that the Muslim community is not speaking out concerning the crisis. He said: “Definitely something is amiss somewhere.

It is quite unusual for anything to affect part of the Muslim community without the Muslims speaking up. “Perhaps, the necessary synergy may not be there, I mean if something like this is going on, if a Muslim group is protesting, what they are protesting about, how far have they carried the rest of the Muslim community along? “But I can assure you and I can tell Nigerians the leadership of the Muslim community has done a lot to ensuring that the Federal Government’s attention is drawn to the flight of El- Zakzaky, the leader of the Shiites group. They have made request for his release.

“They may not be doing so on the media or make any noise about it. They have requested to see Zakzaky physically to make sure he is safe and this request was granted. They visited him and of course some other things followed.” Another Muslim cleric, Sheik Daood Imran, also said that the unusual calm from the Muslim community could be as a result of the friction between other Muslims and the sect.

“The major reason why many Muslims are not supporting the Shiites is because of the differences between them. “There are different sects; we have the Sunnis, who are the majority around the world, and the Shiites for instance. “There are those who believe that the Shiites are the radical sect. So, whenever they are fighting the government, many Muslims do not support them. “They believe so much in attacking governments, not only in Nigeria, but all over the world.

So, they hardly have the sympathy of other Muslims when they do this. “Islam is a religion of peace and no true Muslim would promote violence no matter the justification. Having said we also believe in human rights, and we call on government to respect the member’s fundamental human rights.

“They have the right to peaceful protest but not violence and the Nigerian security forces should not see that as an excuse to kill any citizens. “Rather, they should be protecting them, and the territorial integrity of the nation. I’ll advise the government to handle this issue with care to avoid another dangerous rebellion in the country. “So, we do not support the Shiites attack on the government, the same way we condemn the killing of their members. Islam expects us to respect the government and any other constituted authority,” Imran said. Also, Prof Oladosu Abdulganiy Abdulsalam, the Iman of the University of Ilorin, said killing in Islam is haram and it is forbidden.

He said: “No Muslim is happy about the killings, it does not matter whether they are Muslims or Christians, it is condemnable and should be by all civilised beings. “But, we should not only be taking about the killings of Shiites mem-bers, we should be talking of killings in the four corners of the country; it has become one too many in recent time.

“The injunction in Quran is that a single soul lost is like terminating an entire nation. The Muslims are totally against killing.” Trouble started, according to reports, when security forces at a military checkpoint allegedly prevented the Shiite procession from moving deeper in the FCT. The members were said to have resisted the “push’’ by the police for them to retreat and that triggered the skirmish. El-Zakzaky was arrested in 2015 after his members had a confrontation with the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State.