Ulama Forum in Nigeria, an umbrella body of Islamic scholars and leaders of Islamic organisations has petitioned the Secretary, United States Department of State, Mr. Antony Blinken demanding outright discountenance of the position of five American Senators on the crisis in the country.
The petition signed by the forum’s convener Aminu Inuwa Mohammad, and secretary, Bashir Adamu Aliyu, which was made available to journalists, yesterday, in Kano, observed that Mr. Blinken was wrongly informed by the US lawmakers to assume that the senseless killings in the country are particularly targeted at Christians.
The forum regretted that the senators in question, Messers Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio, Mike Braun, Tom Cotton, and James Inholfe, who dwelt on isolated incidences of interest, have deliberately failed to understand that a good number of victims of terrorist attacks are Muslims.

The Ulama equally declared that the distinguished legislators decided to “miss a momentous opportunity to rise to the highest expectations of their offices, duty, and responsibility to douse situation, quench fires of discord, not inflame them, and help confidence and peace-building process that they owe to Nigeria.”

According to the forum: “Wrongdoing anywhere, by whomever is condemnable, unacceptable, and intolerable, in all civilised societies without exception. Violence, wherever perpetrated is an offense to humanity and should be prevented and punished, irrespective of the ethnic background, creed, or religious affiliation of the perpetrators.

“In light of the foregoing reasons, we, therefore, object and reject the action of the senators and urge you to ignore their demand in the interest of justice, peace, and tranquility in Nigeria and the rest of the world.

“We urge the US government to lead the international community and all friends of Nigeria in assisting in all possible ways to strengthen the Government and people of Nigeria to effectively overcome the security challenges facing the country.

“ Uninformed positions, which promote hatred and religious conflict as championed by the five distinguished senators, would only complicate matters; deepen and prolong the crisis; cause greater harm and avoidable suffering, and render solution more intractable, a situation that true Christians would least wish or desire to any people at all”.

Copied in the petition were President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, American Embassy, British High Commission, and the European Union among others. (The Guardian)