Former Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday challenged Nigeria’s Muslim community to take a leading role in confronting and sanctioning clerics who promote violent teachings, stressing that such ideologies have no place in Islam.
Speaking during a Senate plenary session, he highlighted the growing threat of violent extremism across the country, and rejected any justification for killing on religious grounds, regardless of the victim’s faith.
“In Islam, how can you kill anyone? Whether that person is a Muslim or a non-Muslim, it is never justified. We must therefore ensure that people preach what is right and what is acceptable in the teachings,” Lawan stated.
The lawmaker from Yobe State insisted that the responsibility for tackling extremist narratives rests primarily with the Islamic community, rather than the government, which may not fully grasp the nuances of religious life.
“Those who preach what is not Islam need to be dealt with by the Muslim community,” he said, warning that allowing distorted interpretations of Islamic teachings to spread would only perpetuate violence and instability.
TopSociety had reported United States Congressman Riley Moore, as describing the past week as “some of the most horrifically bloody days in recent history for Christians across Nigeria” following the kidnapping of a Catholic priest and the killing of three parishioners in Kaduna State by Islamic jihadists.
Lawan’s comments come amid growing national concern over terrorism, religious extremism and communal violence, with increasing calls for religious leaders and communities to play a more active role in countering radicalisation.
According to Lawan, he was deliberately directing the appeal at Muslims because adherents of the faith are better positioned to identify and counter dangerous indoctrination.
“That is why I am particularly addressing the Islamic community itself, not the government, because not everybody in government understands what happens within the faith. But we do, those of us who practise it. We should therefore work to ensure that people are protected from being unnecessarily indoctrinated,” he said.
The ex-Senate President insisted that violence and terrorism are fundamentally incompatible with Islamic principles, describing those who engage in such acts as having no place in the religion.
“Those who cause mayhem have no place in Islam. We all know that if you kill one person unjustifiably, it is as if you have killed the whole world. That is the judgment,” he said.
