Saturday, March 12, 2016

THE EL-RUFAI SHARIA LAW ON PREACHERS – Comments by MOSES GBENU

For those not aware, Gov El Rufai of Kaduna state has already sent a controversial bill to the Kaduna State House of Assembly, seeking to regulate religion in the State, in what is widely understood as a testrun for the entire Northern Nigeria. Dr Tayo Babalobi has posted scanned copies of this Bill (provided by the Social Movement of Nigeria )  on the internet here
A newspaper report on CAN's reaction to the Bill can be found here
But our recommended reading on the subject would be the article by Moses Gbenu, pasted below. Happy reading.
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 THE EL-RUFAI SHARIA LAW ON PREACHERS   –  Matters Arising

I assume all those reading this note must have already read that proposed law by El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State. First, we must bear in mind that El-Rufai is a Muslim bigot. As many brethren on this forum have already noted, Rufai’s draft law is simply to stifle or ban Christian activities not only in Kaduna State but in the North.
To enact a law against preaching, El-Rufai knows that Muslims really don’t have any message to preach. It is Christians that really preach, and we don’t abuse people. We only ask people to repent of their sins. Any government that has commonsense should rather encourage Christian preaching, because as people repent of their sins, crime is drastically reduced and people are more productive. It is Islam that has no message than attacking Christian doctrines: “God has no Son; he is not begotten, he does not beget anyone. There is no trinity, the Bible is not the word of God, Jesus did not die on the cross, He did not resurrect, … etc” This is simply to counter the Gospel, abuse Jesus and denigrate Christianity. A Muslim cannot even pray any day without reciting Sura 112, which is directly a denial of the Gospel claim of the deity of Jesus. In fact, there would have been no Islam if there were no Christianity because much of the preaching of Islam is either to counter or pervert the Christian doctrines.
If the law of El-Rufai must hold, close to 50% of the Quran must also be expunged or be banned under the law. Most Islamic books must have to be banned because most of them denigrate the core Christian doctrines and blaspheme Jesus our Lord.  
In Law or Philosophy, you don’t start arguing until you do ‘conceptual analysis’. Any committee that would sit to examine the proposal law of Rufai must first of all define the terms properly. When for example el-Rufai says in that draft that anyone who uses “offensive language” against “a religious leader” both dead or alive, he would be prosecuted, he must tell us what constitutes “offensive language”; he must also tell us the meaning of “a religious leader dead or alive”.
This clause is simply to protect Mohammed, and to begin the so-called ‘blasphemy law’ as it is practiced in Pakistan and other Islamic nations under which Christians are murdered either by Muslim mobs or officially by government. A muslim may deliberately ask you whether or not you believe that Mohammed is the last prophet and the greatest. If you say you don’t believe this, he may accuse you of saying he is a false prophet. If you preach that Jesus is the ONLY Saviour, that also means that you are saying that Mohammed is a false prophet. The interpretation of ‘blasphemy’ knows no bounds when it comes to reference to Mohammed. That is the trap they are setting for Nigerian Christians.
Moreover, what does Rufai mean by “a religious leader”? Does that include a pastor or any evangelist or a founder of religion? If I found a new religion am I included in that? Do the founders of any traditional religion fall into this? The man certainly does not know all implications of any law about definition of terms. His bigotry won’t allow him to think since his real aim is to stop Christianity.
We must remember that in 2013, this Mallam El-Rufai abused and insulted Jesus on his tweeter page. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) responded to his insolence and blasphemy.
On a number of occasions, El-Rufai has also insulted His Eminence, Pastor Ayo Ortisejafor, the CAN chairman.
His own laws must be used to arrest and prosecute him first as a test-run, before the law is even debated upon.
What is the meaning of “preaching”? Does that include sharing the Gospel with a neighbor or friend in office or on the road or anywhere? Or does he mean open air preaching or preaching in church or any public place? It means EVERY Nigerian Christian must have to get that license in order to preach because the Bible commands us all to preach the Gospel everywhere!
His law is also talking about “abusive religious books”, “books that use derogatory remarks to describe any religion ….”
The first books that must be banned under this Rufai Law are the QURAN and the HADITH. This is because the Quran and the Hadith are the manuals for Islamic terrorism.
Christianity and Judaism are the major focus of Quranic abuses. For example, the Quran and Hadith describe the Jews who practice Judaism as pigs and monkeys! Hadith presents Jews as descendants of apes or mutated monkeys or that monkeys, pigs and apes are descendants of Jews.
Quran 62:5 and 2:65 specifically compare Jews to “a donkey laden with books”, what else can be more racist, abusive and a hate speech? This is also stated in Sura 7:166. Also Hadith Sahih Muslim No 7135 and 7136.
Even though Jews make up only 0.2% of the world's population and 2% of the population of the United States, they have received the highest academic awards in history. Between 1901 and 2014, at least 194 Jews or people of Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize in different areas of life. This accounts for 23% of all individual recipients worldwide and constitutes 36% of all recipients in the United States within that same time. The greatest Man in human history, Jesus Christ, came through them. Any ‘holy book’ that downgrades the Jews is satanic. Any religion or ‘god’ that calls the Jews (or any other set of human beings) descendants of swine, apes and monkeys have already labeled themselves to be so.
If El-Rufai wants to make a law that prohibits religious books that abuse a religion or religious leaders, the ‘holy books’ and leaders of Islam should be the first culprits. It is Islamic books that incite Muslims to attack non-Muslims. It is Islamic ‘holy book’ Quran that calls Christians and other non-Muslims as “diseased” (Sura 2:10, “perverse” (2:99) and “stupid” and “worst of creatures” (98:6) and “the vilest of animals” (Sura 8:55), “panting dogs” and “cattle” (7:176). That is why Muslims don’t feel any sense of guilt slaughtering a Christian. If a book is to be banned in Kaduna so that we can have peace, it must these ‘holy books’.
The Rufai proposed law talks about arresting people for “carrying of weapons to religious places with a view to using them to cause religious disturbances ….”
This is a trick. Christians don’t carry weapons to church. It is Muslims that do so in the North. But the clause “with a view to …” is the trick. What if weapons are seen in mosques  and the people who own the weapons say they are keeping them for DEFENCE? They can be exonerated from the clause stating that the weapons are not for “causing disturbance ...” but for defence. In any case, who will go to mosques to be searching to weapons?
 Christians all over the nation must speak out loudly by any means we have to expose the slyness and conspiracy of El-Rufai and his team of jihadists in Kaduna and the North generally.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

1st National Conference on Environment and Health coming

To the glory of God, the 1st National Conference on Environment and Health, powered by the LivingScience Foundation, Ile-Ife is scheduled to hold between May 17 and 18 this year.  Venue will be the Redemer's University, Ede.

Speakers already scheduled include Ambassador Ayo Oluknanni (recently retired Nigeria's Ambassador to Australia, and for many years the country's rep on United Nations Environment Program, etc); distinguished Professors such as Bode Asubiojo and Duro Oyedele (both from the OAU, Ile-Ife), and Africa's leading communicator and teacher on holistic and healthy lifestyle, Rev Tony Akinyemi.  The Vice Chancellor of the Redeemer's University, Prof Z.D. Adeyewa will be the chief host.

Details about the conference can be found at conferences.lsfnigeria.org.

Later, we shall be explaining the vital need for a Conference as this, where Environment and Health issues of primary concerns in the Country are evaluated and discussed by top experts from diverse fields and perspectives.

But, we wish to just draw your attention to the on-going hullabaloo on water in the city of Flint, Michigan, having elevated concentrations of the toxic element, lead.  Nigeria's situation, which is hardly discussed is several times worse! It is a shame if we really agree that we and our children are second-class humans whose mental health and general well-being is subordinate to other interests, driven largely by "foreign partners"

You can join the upcoming discussion of the situation at Flint, by CHE, at the link below:

Lead's Long Shadow: What the Story of Flint, Michigan, Means for All of Us
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Tuesday March 8, 2016
10:00 am Pacific/1:00 pm Eastern
This call will last for 90 minutes
RSVP for this call
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00101sL8Q8TUOCjqyE_Wgmd3_bnlW34olAyuZSty6j_DPtwvICn8mnEVUye1jKc2J2cLS_9GhI0Kp20tW0RlnYmUe1-QUrYRWJGuq8LRrdb0gxicWGzNu7ZlravVDQZ0MKzoy6V58k3FWDARAfPSZ6desFLXbT0npQ-sjpmIv_4rbdAYL8mNkMmWt5CaKBUgqOju0PFiI4o_9s9FKJTKDTJvvAI0KfutIJF&c=zQQLtX4_kI3D46C832xR8MUliY-R6DvfvoxT5CF1xFtI7t0UfQ83og==&ch=RtWaEJ5HuMkYyLRDASUZaCH9f6uilhUC1vaiKjc-LqFVPoE4LwEdKw==]
Lead is a confirmed neurotoxin. Children are the most vulnerable to  lead's health
effects, which can include a wide range of persistent and  costly challenges from
lower IQ levels to increased aggressive and  antisocial behaviors. It is now widely
recognized by researchers that  there is no "safe" level at which children can be
exposed to lead  without adverse effects on healthy neurodevelopment.
Lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, dominated the headlines  recently
 when it was confirmed that residents of Flint had been  drinking, bathing, and 
  washing in water contaminated with lead for over a  year. In many cases, lead 
levels were found to be multiple times over  the amount allowed under the Clean 
Water Act. Despite community members  voicing their concerns for months, no action
was taken to protect public  health until mid January. Finally, a state of emergency
in Flint was  declared, and the National Guard was brought in to assist in delivering
 bottled water and water filters to all residents. Yet, for many, the  damage has
already been done. Children in Flint, and their families,  will now live in the 
long shadow of lead for years to come.
Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to Flint. Many other  communities across
the nation - primarily low-income

Marc Edwards, PhD, MSc

communities where  lead can be found in paint in older homes and apartments - face
similar  issues. Even if landlords provide residents information about possible 
 lead exposure, it's simply not feasible for most tenants to pay for the  lead to
be removed or to move elsewhere. For some kids, this means  having a harder time
 learning in school. For others, lead exposures  early in life may predispose them
to juvenile delinquency or even  criminal activities. Lead is even thought to have
played a role in some  recent high profile cases such as Freddie Gray's tragic death
in Baltimore in 2015
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00101sL8Q8TUOCjqyE_Wgmd3_bnlW34olAyuZSty6j_DPtwvICn8mnEVSHZUisgHBc7gXMvCxB4d3oFaQ1lpQOjZjtCQywPIH2eQZClXxH-fLt1d8yjSTUqWq6VxKRvfBMJ7ZDIAFm3XXmNUMHuhn0oQkir6qKl97n1O53vsQyQXLRNbfGGcf-08jkleL4DiHXqhAMoC0SuntumfOzMfDwBojy8vTK6gNbwSFL2JWS6tcTv8Qr63Ukzmgu96nurApBPgQyy2-aK-gZ9ND5YPk6PxjdO0gy_eSyUfqTKrBumBaQDN2umEmDAOHxkscgEivUBCzGXvh7USfbM3-SrEKU2cNM-t_tgqEllqggMc6luKYu3Xr48ZoqwrEWPEBY4eiU7&c=zQQLtX4_kI3D46C832xR8MUliY-R6DvfvoxT5CF1xFtI7t0UfQ83og==&ch=RtWaEJ5HuMkYyLRDASUZaCH9f6uilhUC1vaiKjc-LqFVPoE4LwEdKw==].
This call will feature two of the remarkable people who helped

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP

bring the dire  situation in Flint to national attention: Dr. Mona
Hanna-Attisha,apediatrician
in Michigan, and Dr. Marc Edwards, a nationally renowned  expert on municipal water
quality and an engineering professor at  Virginia Tech. In addition Dr. Bruce Lanphear,
a professor at Simon  Fraser University and expert on the health impacts of lead
 exposure on  children, will provide an overview of the science on lead and why 
it  continues to be a major public health threat. Finally, Tracy Swinburn,  MSc,
 will speak to the economic impacts of lead exposure.
RSVP for this call
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00101sL8Q8TUOCjqyE_Wgmd3_bnlW34olAyuZSty6j_DPtwvICn8mnEVUye1jKc2J2cLS_9GhI0Kp20tW0RlnYmUe1-QUrYRWJGuq8LRrdb0gxicWGzNu7ZlravVDQZ0MKzoy6V58k3FWDARAfPSZ6desFLXbT0npQ-sjpmIv_4rbdAYL8mNkMmWt5CaKBUgqOju0PFiI4o_9s9FKJTKDTJvvAI0KfutIJF&c=zQQLtX4_kI3D46C832xR8MUliY-R6DvfvoxT5CF1xFtI7t0UfQ83og==&ch=RtWaEJ5HuMkYyLRDASUZaCH9f6uilhUC1vaiKjc-LqFVPoE4LwEdKw==]
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Little Things Matter: Children's Health and the Impact of Low-level Exposures to
 Toxins on the Developing Brain