MAY 14, 2014 BY SODIQ OYELEKE
The Muslim Right Concern and Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Area Council, have condemned the reported conversion of abducted girls into Islam by the Boko Haram sect.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, on Monday released a video showing some of the girls kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.
In the video, Shekau announced that the kidnapped girls had been converted to Islam.
But the groups condemned both the abduction and the forceful conversion of the girls to Islam by the violent sect, stating that there was no compulsion in making people accept Islam.
Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, in a statement on Tuesday, described the acts as baseless, urging the Federal Government not to accept releasing arrested terrorists in exchange for the girls as demanded by Shekau.
He said, “We reject the purported conversion of the kidnapped girls. It is cowardly, shameful, ridiculous and preposterous. It is sacriledge. We affirm authoritatively that such conversion does not hold water in Islam because a non-Muslim can only be converted on his or her own free will. We have no iota of doubt that the girls ‘converted’ under duress. Such ‘conversion’ is null and void under the Shari’ah.
“The so-called conversion is therefore baseless, unfounded and of no validity whatsoever. It exists only in the hallucinated imageries in Shekau’s demented mind.
“We urge the Federal Government to dismiss Shekau’s offer of exchange of Boko Haram prisoners for the kidnapped girls. A man who orders the invasion and kidnap of innocent young girls is honour-blind. Shame on Boko Haram. Shekau has no modicum of integrity left in his anatomy. He has no intention of honouring this deal. He is trying to buy time. He is digging in.”
On its part, the MSSN in a statement by its President, Kaamil Kalejaiye, said it could not understand the ascription of killings of innocent people in the name of religious conviction.
Kalejaiye said, “The spate of unjustified killings in our country is getting unbearable and Islam is always at the receiving end. We condemn these killings, abductions and all forms of attack on citizens. We unequivocally condemn its perpetrators. Islam is a religion of peace and does not in any way have a confluence with killing, bombing, kidnapping and forcing people of other faiths into its fold.
CULLED FROM: http://www.punchng.com/news/muslim-groups-reject-conversion-of-abducted-girls/
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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