Terrorism: University lecturer urges Muslims not to identify with violence

Oladosu, who teaches in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, made the call on Sunday at a lecture organised by Bodija Estate Muslims Forum (BOMYOF) in Ibadan.

An Islamic scholar, Dr Habeebah Oladosu, has urged Muslims to give their wards right education and orientation to enable them to propagate Islam positively in the country.

Oladosu, who teaches in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, made the call on Sunday at a lecture organised by Bodija Estate Muslims Forum (BOMYOF) in Ibadan.

She said that getting the right education would enable Muslims to preach the right words and behaviour to their wards, especially as it concerned violence or terrorism.

In her lecture entitled "Islam and Muslims’’, Oladosu said that there was difference between Islam and Muslims, pointing out that Muslims were practitioners of Islam.

She said: "There is laxity on the part of qualified clerics in Islam.

"These are the people that should save this generation but they are busy in their rooms saying their rosary thereby giving way to some unqualified ones to takeover.

"Muslims are suffering from Western phobia, meaning that anything that comes from the West is good and anything from the East is bad.

"Muslims also suffer from ‘’Islamaphobia’’, thinking that if Sharia is used as our way of life, we are not going to be free again.”

Oladosu decried a situation where some Muslims had double identity.

"Some Muslims want to have double identity; they are Muslims when they are with other Muslims and if they are somewhere else, they want to be part of wherever they are.

"There is no 50-50 in Islam,’’ she said, and advised Muslims to always preach the message of the Quaran which stood for peace.

She said that Muslims and Christians lived in harmony in the days of Prophet Mohammed, adding that such relationship was desirable and should continue.