The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on Kwara State government to protect rights and religious doctrine of female Muslims in the state.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Kwara chapter, had insisted that it would not allow female Muslim children to wear hijabs in its schools, after the state government granted its usage.
MURIC, in a statement by its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, told the state government to be assertive and to ‘possess your possession.’
Akintola said: “The situation in Kwara State calls for sober reflection. Here is a religious group, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), that is determined to use its schools to strip innocent Muslim girls naked in public, deprive them of their right to education and change their identity and their destiny forever. It is most unaccommodating and uncharitable. It is child abuse. It is unacceptable.
“We call on the Kwara State government to protect these young girls. They are in their impressionable age when anything inculcated in them sinks into their medulla oblongata, never to be forgotten or abandoned. They will never get used to using hijab again if they are stopped from using hijab either at junior or senior secondary school level. It will be hard for them to go back to it when they get to universities and polytechnics because they are already used to exposing their heads.
“This is the game CAN is playing. ‘Catch them young’ is a well-known gimmick of indoctrination in any society. But it becomes selfish and immoral when it is aimed at the children of other groups. CAN should shift its attention to Christian children and leave Muslim children alone. CAN is free to instruct Christian children to use backless, topless, tight-fitting, body-gripping body hugs and ‘dress-to-kill’ school uniforms capable of preparing girls for beauty pageants in future.”He urged Kwara State not to allow a situation where one religion disallows another from fully practising and manifesting.
“KWSG and other states in the South West must stop abdicating their responsibilities. Education is the right of every child and the state governments must show special interest in the girl child. More schools (where there will be freedom of religion) must be built by the government in order to accommodate Muslim girls.
“To the government of Kwara State, we say the time is ripe for you to be assertive and proactive, particularly in the education sector. All schools belong to the state government by virtue of declarations of courts of competent jurisdiction. Therefore, possess your possession,” he stated.
