Nigeria’s Persecuted Shi’a Muslims Continue Peaceful Mission

By: Kayhan Int’l

With the start of the month of Muharram the life-inspiring mourning ceremonies for the Immortal Martyrs of Karbala are being observed in several parts of Nigeria where people of ages – men, women, children, and the elderly – are chanting in rhythm “Ya Husain”.          

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its constitution ensures freedom of religion but surprisingly, of the roughly 125 million Muslims out of a total national population of 230 million, the 14 million followers of the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, despite their growing numbers, face persecution.

In other words, compared to the Animists who freely practice their weird rites and rituals, the Shi’a Muslims who outnumber them are treated as stepchildren – not by the 90 million Nigerian Christians but by the presidents who are Muslim themselves.

Why? Because of mostly outside pressures, especially the Zionist influence on the Salafi Muslim minority, one of whose offshoots is the notorious Boko Haraam terrorist outfit.

The overwhelming majority of Sunni Muslims in Nigeria follows the Sufi path, abhors the hate-mongering Takfiris, and shares many commonalities with the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (INM) led by the venerable Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, such as love and affection for the Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).

As a matter of fact, Shi’a Muslims are not converts to Islam from Christianity or Animism, but have emerged from among the educated classes of Sunni Sufi Muslims. 

This is the main reason for the persecution of the followers of the School of Ahl al-Bayt by political elites in the northern states and in the federal capital, who fear the loss of their outdated tribal privileges and the unscrupulous economic power accumulated through corruption, if more and more Muslims were to adopt Ja’fari jurisprudence.

The Shi’a Muslims of Nigeria are thus the sons of the soil and not migrants from other countries. They consider it their national, religious, and constitutional right to hold peaceful rallies, whether observing the tragic martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain (AS) in the current month of Muharram, or expression of support for liberation of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Palestine from the Zionist yoke.

They also call for end to the flawed system of government “inherited from the British colonial rule”, which is the main cause of inequality, oppression, nepotism, corruption, backwardness in oil-rich Nigeria.

This enlightened attitude of the growing number of Shi’a Muslims in Nigeria seems to have alarmed the US and Israel, which instigate the unprincipled political authorities to persecute and brutally attack peaceful gatherings, resulting in mass massacres that occurred in the town of Zaria on 23rd July 2024 and 15th December 2015.

Last Sunday, the 9th anniversary of the 2014 massacre was observed by INM and attended by a large number of people, including conscientious Sunni Muslims and Christians.

The speakers lauded the peaceful efforts of Sheikh Zakzaky who as a follower of Imam Husain (AS) has endured with patience the martyrdom of six of his sons by the military during the massacres of 2014 and 2015.

Yet he and the rest of Shi’a Muslims have never lost hope in their mission to spread the message of peace, justice, and universal brotherhood of the Immortal Martyrs of Karbala to deliver Nigeria and the Nigerian people from the prevailing darkness.