The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has alleged that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is using schools operated by Christian missionaries to enslave Muslim students following their rejection of the hijab as part of the school uniform.
MURIC made the claim in a statement signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, its Director, on Monday in reaction to the opposition of CAN to the use of hijab as part of the school uniform in Christian schools.
Following the approval of the Kwara State government to include hijab as part of the uniforms, the Kwara CAN chapter opposed, saying it will expose Christian students to terrorist attacks.
Reacting, MURIC said CAN wants to deprive female Muslim students of their right to education and identity and is not ready to accommodate diverse views.
The Islamic rights group called on the Kwara State government to be assertive and reclaim schools from Christian missionaries should they fail to implement the new policy.
The statement read: “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. CAN Kwara chapter is not ready to be his brother’s keeper.
“We call on the Kwara State Government (KWSG) 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.
“KWSG must not allow a situation where one religion disallows another from fully practising and ‘manifesting’. We are constrained to expose the motive of CAN for establishing schools, namely, to lure Muslim children into spiritual slavery. This explains why Muslims who sought admission into mission schools in the past were either forced to convert to Christianity or rejected.
“The wind has blown and we have seen the ruff of the hen. Now that it has become glaring that Christians establish schools for the purpose of entrapping Muslim children, KWSG and other state governments in the South-West must be ready to build new schools to create more space for Muslims who may opt out of the so-called missionary schools. That is the solution. Christian leaders have taught us a bitter lesson. Never again shall we kowtow to CAN’s pooh-pooh.
“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.”
