{"id":35299,"date":"2021-01-18T20:55:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T20:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=35299"},"modified":"2021-01-18T16:54:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T16:54:02","slug":"we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah","title":{"rendered":"We must reject religious extremism, Soyinka says in defence of Bishop Kukah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Nigeria\u2019s foremost playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the country must learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud.<\/p>\n

The Nobel laureate, who stated this on Monday, said the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, did not say anything denigrating to Islam as recently claimed by some Muslim groups.<\/p>\n

Kukah has remained in the news following his Christmas message where he noted that there could have been a coup or war in Nigeria if a non-Northerner and non-Muslim president had practised a fraction of President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s alleged \u201cnepotism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Different Muslim groups picked offence with the statement, describing it as an attack on Islam and Muslims.<\/p>\n

One of the groups, Muslim Solidarity Forum, called on Kukah to apologise to the Muslim Ummah or leave Sokoto State.<\/p>\n

But in his response to the vexed issue, Soyinka said the threat should not be condoned.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe timing of Rev Father Kukah\u2019s New Year message, and the ensuing offensives could not be more fortuitous, seeing that it comes at a time when a world powerful nation, still reeling from an unprecedented assault on her corporate definition, is now poised to set, at the very least, a symbolic seal on her commitment to the democratic ideal.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: \u2018Allow Kukah to practice his faith, politics,\u2019 Presidency cautions Islamic group<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cLet no one be in any doubt that some of the most extreme of the violent forces that recently assaulted her governance citadel are sprung from religious and quasi-religious affirmations, a condition that still enables many of them to be brainwashed into accepting literally, and uncritically, indeed as gospel truth, any pronouncement, however outrageous and improbable, that emerges from their leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs usual, we have not lacked, within our own distanced environment, advocates who, even till recently, claimed to have seen in their vision, the triumph of God\u2019s own anointed in the electoral contest of that same United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this nation we have learnt the painful way what such inbred loonies are capable of. Thus, extreme care, and historic awareness, should be taken in imputing any act or pronouncement as an attack on faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain and again, we have warned against succumbing to irrational demands of religionists, yet even the brutal lessons of past surrenders appear to exercise no traction on society\u2019s faculty of cause and effect, especially in that religious propensity for incremental demands. Surrender one inch, they demand a mile!\u201d<\/p>\n

He went further to say, \u201cIt should not come as a surprise that a section of our Islamic community, not only claims to have found offence in Father Kukah\u2019s New Year address, what is bothersome, even unwholesome, is the embedded threat to storm his \u2018Capitol\u2019 and eject him, simply for \u2018speaking in tongues\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny pluralistic society must emphatically declare such a response unacceptable. On a personal note, I have studied the transcript as reported in the media and found nothing in it that denigrates Islam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe furore over Father Kukah\u2019s statement offers us another instance of that domineering tendency, one whose consequences are guaranteed to spill over into the world of both believers and non-believers, unless checked and firmly contained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this nation of religious opportunism of the most destructive kind especially, fuelled again and again by failure to learn from past experience, we must at least learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Nigeria\u2019s foremost playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the country must learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud. The Nobel laureate, who stated this on Monday, said the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, did not say anything denigrating to Islam as recently claimed by some Muslim groups. Kukah has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":35298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14,26],"tags":[1570,2140,2197,254,2533,2074],"class_list":["post-35299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-bishop-kukah","tag-nigeria","tag-religious-extremism","tag-soyinka"],"yoast_head":"\nWe must reject religious extremism, Soyinka says in defence of Bishop Kukah - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nigeria\u2019s foremost playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the country must learn to nip extremist instigations in t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We must reject religious extremism, Soyinka says in defence of Bishop Kukah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigeria\u2019s foremost playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the country must learn to nip extremist instigations in t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-18T20:55:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/img-6005bd02d1f52.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"We must reject religious extremism, Soyinka says in defence of Bishop Kukah\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-18T20:55:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/img-6005bd02d1f52.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Bishop kukah\",\"Nigeria\",\"religious extremism\",\"Soyinka\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/we-must-reject-religious-extremism-soyinka-says-in-defence-of-bishop-kukah\",\"name\":\"We must reject religious extremism, Soyinka says in defence of Bishop Kukah - 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