21st
September, 2017
Rev. Dr.
Samson Olasupo Ayokunle
The
President
Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN)
National
Christian Centre
Abuja.
FCT
Your
Eminence,
SUKKUK IS STEALTH JIHAD CONTRARY TO SECTIONS 1 AND 10 OF THE NIGERIAN
CONSTITUTION
We wish
to congratulate CAN for the incisive and impactful intervention (the Press
Statement) on the Federal Government sponsored Sukkuk financial system in
Nigeria. With this intervention, CAN has opened the way for more purposeful
Christian response on this issue.
Section 1
of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows:
(1) This
Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the
authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
(2) The
Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any persons or
group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof,
except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(3) If
any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this
Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the
inconsistency, be void
The
introduction of Sukkuk and other forms of Islamic financial systems in Nigeria
are not primarily for the financial benefits of the country but to entrench the
Islamization Agenda through financial inducement. Sukkuk should not be viewed
from the perspective of Government seeking to expand or strengthen the Nigerian
economy, rather, as another surreptitious method of making Sharia the source of
legislation and transmuting Nigeria into a full blown Islamic State. By now,
these facts should be clear to all and sundry.
While we
appreciate the contributions and suggestions coming from various Christian
groups and individuals, it is necessary to retain focus on what is actually at
stake. We are dealing with a gross violation of Sections 1 and 10 of the 1999
Constitution. Section 10 prohibits Federal/State Government’s adoption of
any religion. This is the focal point that all Christian efforts should be
directed with the intention of retaining the Supremacy of the Constitution as
the only source of legislation in Nigeria. If the Government is permitted to
succeed with this violation of the Constitution, then the secularity of the
Nigerian State may finally be abolished and a new source of legislation, which
is Sharia, could come into operation in full force.
The NCEF
appreciates the suggestion to visit notable Government financial institutions
like the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Debt Management Office for discussions
with Government officials on this issue. To our mind however, this would look
like reporting an intransigent Employer to his Employees. All the officials at
both CBN and DMO are Government employees and they must toe the line of their
employer which, in this case, is responsible for the violation of the
Constitution and subsequent introduction of Sharia.
The NCEF
therefore supports the call by CAN in its Press Statement to engage in
litigation on this issue. We have come to the point at which the Courts, up to
the Supreme Court, has to interpret Sections 1 and 10 of the 1999
Constitution. We must not forget that Sarkin Muslimi has said he
recognizes only the Quran. A lot of inhuman and outright unconstitutional
actions have taken place in Nigeria over the years, resulting in gross abuse of
human rights of Christians in the country. The marginalization of Christians in
the so-called “Sharia states”, the violation of the Principle of Federal
Character in appointments, the lopsided dismissal of Christian personnel in the
security agencies, and the recent introduction of Sukkuk Bond, to mention but a
few, demand holistic approach.
Sharia-compliant
finance (Sukkuk) is a category of investment or financial transactions that are
conducted or structured in such a way considered by Islamic authorities to be
“legal,” “authorized” or “pure” (halal) pursuant to Sharia. Whether a given transaction
is deemed “compliant” depends on the approval of one or more Islamic scholars –
men who are recognized by such authorities as possessing the requisite
knowledge of sharia and who are engaged to serve on a sharia advisory board for
the purpose of vetting each deal. (David Yerushalmi, Esq., “Sharia’s “Black
Box”: Civil Liability and Criminal Exposure Surrounding Sharia Compliant
Finance,” Utah Law Review, Vol. 2008, No. 3.)
Proponents
of sharia-compliant finance (SCF) often convey the impression that SCF is an
“ethical” financial system whose roots and practice are to be found in the
Quran, hadiths and traditions of early Islam. In fact, it was invented out of
whole cloth in the mid-20th Century by Muslim Brotherhood figures like Sayyid
Qutb and Sayyid AbulA'la Al-Mawdudi. Its purpose was to provide yet another
method to penetrate and undermine non-Sharia societies by stealthily
insinuating sharia into their free markets. To this end, the Ikhwan seized
upon what was, in fact, a biblical injunction against usury and transformed it
into a prohibition on charging or earning any interest.
According
to the SCF industry, other “impure” activities that must not be allowed to
sully financial transactions involve pork, gambling, tobacco, music, drugs,
pornography and non-Sharia countries defense. The sharia-compliant
finance industry did not amount to much until the beginning of the present
century, when – thanks to the increased price of oil – vast foreign reserves
created leverage for the oil exporting nations, their ruling elites and
sovereign wealth funds to demand increasingly SCF options in exchange for
recycling their petrodollars. The sharia-compliant finance industry
provides multiple benefits to the stealth jihadists. For starters, it
has created a new instrument for forcing non-sharia-adherent Muslims to conform
to their program.
Another
benefit to the Ikhwan and its allies: SCF enables the “sharia advisors” to
penetrate non-Sharia countries’ companies that retain their services, often
essentially at board level. Once installed as the arbiters of what is halal
(pure) and haram (impure), these champions of sharia are able to: gain insights
into investments under consideration, shape deals, and discourage those of
which they do not approve.
It stands
to reason that from such influential positions, the advisors may be able to
have a say not only over transactions involving Muslims, but others, as well.
Needless to say, playing such a role would greatly magnify the opportunities
sharia-compliant finance provides, in the words of Muslim Brotherhood’s
spiritual leader, Yousuf al-Qaradawi, to wage “jihad
with money”.
Qaradawi
and other Muslim Brotherhood operatives calculated that by building
automatically deducted zakat into their various deals, the advisors could
obtain and channel vast sums to approved “charities” in accordance with sharia.
In accordance with the Islamic obligation to perform zakat, promoters of
sharia-complaint finance seek to facilitate and control such charitable
donations.
Sharia
approved philanthropy involves supporting jihad and its perpetrator and SCF
amounts to a way to dress up for substantial zakat. The same can be said of
funds derived from the “purification” of financial transactions initially
deemed to be sharia-compliant but subsequently determined to be haram, instead.
By sluicing the profits in this way from investments, financial instruments,
etc., that were once deemed acceptable, the sharia advisors are able, at their
discretion, to increase still further the sum available for their favorite
“charities”.
Perhaps
it is time to emphasize the fact that Christians erected the solid pillars upon
which Nigeria attained its present height. Rather than be given their due
for this fact for the progress so far garnered in Nigeria, no matter however
this is viewed, Islamists and others proponents of Islam continue to device one
subterfuge or another to compromise the gains, all for the sake of promoting
the Islamist prime objective (Sultanate) geared towards compromising democracy
and rule of law. Sukkuk is one of these devices intended to slow down the
progress of Nigerians further by slowing down the progress of Christians.
We urge that Christians especially the leadership must be circumspect in
dealing with traps laid by Islamists to ensnare and compromise the cherished
ideals of Christianity.
These are Constitutional issues that require legal
interpretation by competent courts of law and the NCEF is willing to work with
the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON), and other well meaning
Christians and Christian Groups to legally pursue this issue to a logical
conclusion.
We shall
keep CAN abreast as we proceed and progress in this initiative.
Kindest
regards,
Yours
faithfully,
Solomon
Asemota, SAN
Chairman,
National
Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF)
21st
September, 2017
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