The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has condemned proposed United States sanctions targeting prominent Muslim figures and organisations in Nigeria, describing the move as “lopsided, unjust and selective.”
Five US lawmakers last week introduced a bill seeking visa bans and asset freezes on former Kano State Governor and New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) leader, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as well as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, among others.
It was reported by newsmen in the early hours of today that MURIC Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola said, in a statement on its website that the sanctions fail to account for abuses by government officials in Southern Nigeria and leaders of Christian militia groups in North Central Nigeria, whose actions have harmed Muslim residents and travellers for decades.
He said: “We take the decision of the US Congress to sanction Muslims alone with a pinch of salt. It amounts to scapegoating, preconceived judgement and crusade-brandishing.
“Coming to Nigeria with the avowed aim of protecting Christians carries with it the implications of coming to promote Christianity, coming to deter the prosecution of Christian criminals who are behind the killing of hundreds of Muslim travellers in Plateau State, coming to undermine Islam, coming to persecute Muslims and coming to encourage Muslim haters.”
Akintola stressed that both Muslim and Christian extremists are responsible for acts of terror, and that any sanctions should be “comprehensive and unbiased, not selective and lopsided.”
It read, “As a Muslim human rights group that has been in operation for 32 years (since 1994), MURIC has records of proven acts of inhumanity, discrimination, marginalization, denial of religious freedom and other acts of violation of rights committed by individual Christian state actors in Southern Nigeria as well as criminal Christian militia groups, and we are prepared to present them to the US or the United Nations or any other international audience if given the opportunity.”
He further warned: “For the avoidance of doubts, we assert clearly, unequivocally and emphatically that Christian militia groups of North Central Nigeria who are well known by the state governments have killed thousands of Muslims in the past decades.
If, therefore, Northern Muslims are being marked for sanctions, present and past governors and government officials of North Central Nigeria who have funded, enabled and protected Christian terrorists in the zone deserve conspicuous spaces on the list.”
Akintola accused the US of preferentially listening to Christian voices from Nigeria, a practice he said undermines justice and fairness.
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