Western Resistance

« Guest Commentary: Islam; What Our Children Learn in Public Schools | | Tunisia: President Condemns Muslim Headscarf »

October 11, 2006

Nigeria: Cleric Of Violent Muslim Sect Is Sentenced To Hang

According to South Africa's Sunday Times and its Independent Online, a Muslim cleric, connected with a radical and violent Islamic sect, has been sentenced to hang. At a high court in Adamawa state (fuschia in map), 51-year old Musa Ali Suleiman was convicted on three counts of murder, conspiracy and incitement of public disturbance.

Judge Bamari Bansi, who is the state's chief judge, ordered the hanging for the first murder charge and additionally sentenced him to 21 years' prison, 12 strokes of the cane and fined Suleiman 100,000 naira ($770) for incitement of public disturbance.

Suleiman was also given a six month jail sentence for criminal conspiracy. Suleiman belonged to the Maitatsine sect, and had been a fugitive for 22 years. He had organized his followers to mount religious violence in Yola, capital of Adamawa state in 1984. Following this insurgency, Suleiman had gone on the run.

He was finally arrested in Abuja in March 2004, and then was sent to Yola in Adamawa to face retribution for his part in the violence in the state (Yola then was the capital of Gongola state, which no longer exists as an administrative entity). 2000 people had died in the violence carried out by him and his followers.

Suleiman declared through his lawyer that he intended to appeal.

The Maitatsine Sect

This sect was founded by Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine, who originally came from Cameroon. The name of the sect leader is probably a title he adopted, rather than a natural name. 'Marwa" refers to the town in Cameroon where he came from. In the early 1960s he settled in the northern state of Kano (green on the map), populated mainly by Fulani who speak the Hausa language. He was sent back to Cameroon but returned to Kano. Maitatsine also is called Alhajji Muhammadu Marwa.

From the 1960s to 1970s he established a following in Kano state. The name "Maitatsine" means in Hausa "he who curses others". His teachings were developing a militaristic and radical dimension. He accepted only the Koran and rejected all the Sunnah and Hadith, and rejected all Islamic theological teachings. Several of the adherents to his teachings were, like himself, migrants to Nigeria.

According to Onwar.com: "The cult had its own mosques and preached a doctrine antagonistic to established Islamic and societal leadership. Its main appeal was to marginal and poverty-stricken urban in-migrants, whose rejection by the more established urban groups fostered this religious opposition. These disaffected adherents ultimately lashed out at the more traditional mosques and congregations, resulting in violent outbreaks in several cities of the north."

There is a high possibility that Maitatsine modeled himself on Usman dan Fodio, who at the start of the 19th century had mounted a jihad against the Fulani. This jihad was aimed more at purifying the beliefs of existing Muslims. The Fulani, who had lived a nomadic lifestyle, migrating between Senegal, Cameroon, northern Nigeria and the southern Sahara since at least 1200 AD, became further united as a people as a result of this jihad. Non-Muslim Fulani tribes converted to Islam as this Fulani "empire" developed and many developed a settled lifestyle. Usman dan Fodio established his power-base at Sokoto. The Fulani empire was finally dissolved in 1903 as a result of British colonial activities.

Maitatsine and his followers (called sometimes "Yan Tatsine") was less discerning in his own jihad - he believed in converting Muslims and non-Muslims alike to his brand of Islam, and he chose to do this by force. His teachings are bizarre - bicycles were banned, because they were not mentioned in the Koran, but one commenter does not miss the irony that he did not ban the use of guns, even though these too were not mentioned in the Koran. Maitatsine's jihad was to cost thousands of lives in northern Nigeria, and would make many more homeless.

According to Rumours of Maitatsine: A Note on Political Culture in Northern Nigeria by Niels Kastfelt, from African Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 350 (Jan., 1989):

He denounced the use of radios, bicycles, watches and the possession of an absolute minimum of money. He apparently rejected the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad and eventually, in 1979, seems to have declared himself an annabi (Hausa for "prophet", especially the prophet Muhammad). Maitatsine and his followers, many of whom were Koranic students, constantly attacked what they saw as the corrupt religious practice of the established Islamic community of Kano.

Maitatsine claimed to have had divine revelations which superseded those of the Prophet. The main attempt at gaining power through force happened in Kano in late December 1980, when 3,000 of Maitatsine's followers rioted. Despising secular authority, and demanded that the population give absolute obedience to their leader. Police were unable to restore order, and over a period of 11 days between December 18 and December 29, 4,177 people died. The insurrection was finally put down by the army and the air force. Maitatsine was killed. There were 1,000 arrests, with 224 of these being foreigners.

Despite the death of the "annabi", his accolytes continued to mount insurrections, and in these cases, the police were unable to prevent the violence. In late October 1982, riots by Maitatsine's followers erupted in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state (brown on map) and then spread to Kaduna state (blue on map), where 39 of the Yan Tatsine were killed by vigilantes. At least 188 civilians and 18 police were killed in Maiduguri. 635 people were arrested. The real death toll was probably in excess of 500.

Maitatsine's sect was banned in November 1982, but the insurrections continued in at least two more major incidents. In February 1984, another set of rioting happened in Yola (which had been led by Suleiman), in which 700 people were killed, 2000 homes were destroyed entirely with 1,500 more damaged, and 30,000 people made homeless. According to SAPA/AFP, who provided the source on Suleiman's trial, 2,000 people died in the Yola insurrection.

In April 1985 in Gombe, the small state adjoining Adamawa (yellow on map), there were 100 people killed and 146 members of the Maitatsine sect were arrested.

It has been argued that these riots caused crackdowns on open-air preaching, and themselves triggered other Islamic and Christian tensions to erupt, such as those in 1987, where from March 6 to March 14, riots spread from Kaduna state and 150 churches were burned.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 11, 2006 4:19 PM

Comments

Post a comment