Cardinal
Jibrin Ibrahim
RELIGION FOR PEACE Part One
Book Review
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy, Daily Trust, 2nd February 2024
This book was presented yesterday as part of the ceremonies for the 80th birthday of John Cardinal Onaiyekan. I am an Ahmadu Bello University brought up which meant in my earlier years, I spent a lot of time reading the collected works of Marx, Engels and Lenin for their commitment to creating the public good. Now in my twilight years, I find myself reading a lot of the collected works of Onaiyekan which I find educative, inspiring and useful pointers to the pathway to achieving the collective good. As we wait for the next volume, the current one composed of 15 chapters is his collected works between retirement in 2020 and 2023.
I like Bishop Kukah’s description of his retirement. When your name is John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, healthy, handsome, extraordinarily brilliant, well-educated, visible, silver-tongued, voluble, workaholic, avant-garde, a thoughtful and insightful scholar, then the word “retirement” is spelt differently for you.
The concerns His Eminence the Cardinal addresses in the collection is that Nigeria, and the world are tearing at the seams. Violent conflicts have emerged all over the world. has emerged in virtually all parts of the country. At the level of society, social cohesion is being undermined by hate and dangerous speech, a process that is deepening social, religious and ethnic divides. Successive leaderships have failed to provide an alternative discourse of hope and the value of staying together and building a Nation.
I am currently curating some of Cardinal’s work on Nigeria. He is concerned that public safety is spoken of as a national attribute that existed only in the past and that there is urgent need for the emergence of a leadership that can build the Nigeria that citizens seek. He believes that the pathway to a better future is already enunciated in our Grand Norm, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigeria needs a leadership that can place back on the table Nigeria’s national motto: “Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress”. We need to get the leadership with the commitment and the skills to give us a narrative on why unity is the way forward and provide content for the faith we say we have. We need a leadership that can provide the peace that would allow progress to return to Nigeria. The reality of our recent history however is that our political process, the modus operandum of our political parties and actors have so far blocked the emergence of such leadership. We must continue to struggle for such and as citizens with a commitment to civic engagement, the struggle must continue. Nigerians are a people with faith and part of that faith must lead us to continue to seek for a democratic system that serves the interests of all citizens.
Cardinal’s story of his origins is a treatise on pluralism. He explains he was born on 29th January 1944 into a community in Kabba Province in a family with Catholics. Anglicans, Muslims and practitioners of African Traditional Religions and his earliest memory is that they were all good people. His nuclear family was Catholic but as a boy, he could see all the others too were people of good faith. He was named Olorunfemi, God loves me and quickly learnt that God loves all the others too.
His Eminence recalls that in his Catholic Secondary School, there were Muslim students. He refers fondly to of them, Sabo Ago, who was a pious Muslim and had concerns that he would eat unclean meat. Sabo took it upon himself to slaughter the goats and rams provided for student meals in the kitchen. He had to do this so that he would not have to eat meat that had not been properly slaughtered: “If by any reason he was not available when the cooks needed to slaughter the animals and someone else did, it meant that my friend Sabo Ago would not eat from the common pot on that day because the meat had not been properly slaughtered.” This is the way people learn to leave together with their differences.
Cardinal was appointed to head the Church in Abuja in 1990 and became active in the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). He became the President of CAN and related extensively with the Islamic leadership of Nigeria under the umbrella of the Nigerian Interreligious Council (NIREC). It was in that context that he developed friendship and a good working relationship with Saad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto. They formed an Interfaith dialogue group for Abuja, which opened up the whole idea of Christian and Muslim leaders talking together. His philosophy is that such engagement should encourage actors to go beyond tolerance, and go into respecting the pluralism of religion. Onaiyekan admits that it is not always easy for people who are convinced about the truth of their religion to at the same time accept that the pluralism of religion may well be a God given reality. His own conviction is that pluralism of religion is all within the plan of the Almighty God who is greater than any religion.
Cardinal argues that in the past, the missionary was thought to be someone who will do everything to make everybody follow his religion: “As Catholics and Christians, we have for long interpreted the mandate of Jesus <Go to the whole world and preach the Gospel to All Nations> to mean that we. Must aim at making everybody Christian, in such a way that we find it difficult to have any positive discussion with anybody who is not ready to be converted.” Many within Islam have the same attitude. He argues that dialogue does not negate or is not incompatible with our mission mandate. We can continue with our missionary mandate and at the same time make room to listen to others.
Religious pluralism naturally stresses the fact that we have different religions. Onaiyekan’s concern is that unfortunately, we emphasise our differences to such an extent that we tend to identify ourselves on the basis of these differences. "I am a Christian because I am not a Muslim," and vice versa. In this way we are identifying ourselves not by what we are, but by what we are not, by how we differ from everyone else! There is therefore, the need to make the effort to seek, discover and celebrate the common grounds that exist between religions. The common grounds are many.
There are doctrinal common grounds. One of the most common elements of this common ground is the very belief in One God. We must insist that the Almighty God has made Himself known to the whole of humanity
Secondly, every religion talks about peace. Christianity believes in Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Islam says that the very word “Islam” means Peace. Therefore, one would expect that religion should bring peace.
To respect the fundamental human rights of Religious Freedom, we must accept the basic equality of every religion, even when it is a small minority. This is not an area where majority carries the day. Everybody must be allowed to follow God according to his/ her conscience.
The Cardinal is concerned about the spread of hate speech in the contemporary world. It is part of the long history of propaganda aimed at presenting others as enemies to avoid and/or to combat, to demonize, even to destroy and kill. In military jargon, the other side is called the “enemy” and treated as such. This is done for a variety of reasons, including to boost personal and group ego. It is prevalent in both politics and religion, and these elements often mutually reinforce each other. In the process, the priority place of TRUTH is lost. In religion, it becomes a problem when we absolutize our own access to God as the only true one, while all others are condemned as false. This is a major problem for the so-called Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam he believes. In Nigeria, we say in our Constitution that we are a Nation united in justice, peace and harmony “under God” but there is too much hate around. He argues that we have to find ways of making religion an asset to our nation, and not a liability.
To be concluded.
cornelius...@gmail.com
The second sentence arrested me and that’s why so far, I haven’t read past the second sentence but hope to do so because Professor Jibrin Ibrahim’s writing is always engaging and hopefully, futuristically or prophetically speaking "Religion For Peace " promises to at least unearth some signs of peace, from under rubble.
Well, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, you don’t get any better than that, nor is there anything better on offer in the Northern hemisphere of Nigeria, than Ahmadu Bello University. If there’s any truth in “ by their fruits shall you know them” then, let me say that
I have tasted some big grammar narcissism, a product of Johnny-come-lately (Bayero) and that was enough for me. On the other hand, one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch
You know the song that begins,
'Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue the road was full of mud”?
I don’t know, and I may be wrong, but in the McCarthy period, I suppose just this one sentence quoted below, could have sent shockwaves through the Conservative US Establishment with the likes of J Edgar Hoover and perhaps, Richard Helms too, sitting at the helm of affairs. It’s the kind of sentence that could have caused the author to have come under the purview of COINTELPRO and even earned a review and reprimand from the Committee UnAmerican Activities (Anti-American activities) and certainly necessitated extra scrutiny of his visa application for post-graduate studies at any US university of some repute or great renown, since the sentence gives more than just a little wrong impression that Ahmadu Bello University was or is a hotbed of intrigue/ a veritable recruiting and breeding ground and a training base for communist / left-wing indoctrination / third world revolution, a training base for products who cut their teeth on a diet of Marx, Engels and Lenin (no Trotsky ?) as their mother’s milk, and are weaned with the ambition of leading or fomenting the communist revolution in the United States of America.
As far as I may claim to know him, and to know of him, I daresay that the late radical Professor Björn Beckman himself couldn't have at all been a bad influence, and here, we have the sentence in question that could raise so many suspicions , enough to cause the head that wears the crown, some unease.
“I am an Ahmadu Bello University brought up which meant in my earlier years, I spent a lot of time reading the collected works of Marx, Engels and Lenin for their commitment to creating the public good.”
This of course is supposed totally with the motto of that university which is :
“The first duty of every university is the search for and the spread of knowledge and the establishment of the nation.”
cornelius...@gmail.com
Indeed, “Violent conflicts have emerged all over the world.”
A little further on, we are told that “Islam says that the very word “Islam” means Peace”.
Really?
I beg your pardon sir, and I beg to disagree.
Islam does not mean peace.
I suspect some latent, underhand, underlying Islamophobia when someone - anyone - even a cardinal says, “Islam says that the very word “Islam” means Peace. Therefore, one would expect that religion should bring peace.”
The Christian missionaries want to make Muslims a very pliant nation of "love your enemies"
turn-the-other-cheek house negroes and pacifists.
I like the way that Brother Malcolm put it :
Alhamdulillah and hallel-u-Jah, I’ve got past the second sentence, zapped through the rest and I’m now anxiously and patiently awaiting Part 2 of the unlikely proposition “ RELIGION FOR PEACE'' - quite a formidable proposition you must admit, even if it’s at the top of the agenda for the next summit of The World Council of Churches - for peace, the world councils currently sitting on their haunches, lackadaisically, as if oblivious or on some kind of sabbatical leave - a leave of absence from reality and Christly responsibility even as Christianity’s much-vaunted peace ethics gets buried under the rubble along with so many unburied corpses in Gaza.
It’s the world’s most pressing matter in both the Middle East and South Sudan. After all, about the massacre of the innocent children of Gaza and the starving children of South Sudan, the Jesus who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me”, the same Jesus said, and meant what he said when he said, “what you do for the least among you, you do for me” and words to this effect: “ whatever you do these children you 're also doing to me”
The very title “ RELIGION FOR PEACE” conjures up images from an unwilling mind, images and ill reports to be found here:
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
For balance we could add voices for peace from the rank and file of other religious communities, a few millennia before Abraham or Moses ever trod this earth, starting with the roots of compassion: Om Shanti Shanti Shanti , branching off to Compassionate Buddhism that seeks to eradicate all suffering - dukkha not in a future heaven or paradise but right here on earth - and among the As-salamu alaykum and the shalom aleichem people, Muslims for Justice, and hopefully, more Jews for Peace , more Rabbis for Peace , and always lovely,
the Sikhs, it’s the same prayerful cry :
“Peace is a united effort for co-ordinated control
Peace is the will of the people and the will of the land
With peace, we can move ahead together
We want you to join us this evening in this universal prayer”
About the starvation aspect, once upon a time, the world did get together as one, here :
Hopefully, when Peace comes Maestro Vumbi will be playing this sort of thing at the peace rally 👍
https://www.instagram.com/dekulaband/reel/C2r2gRZAeqX/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1155742175806486
cornelius...@gmail.com
I don’t remember so much about the role that the Popes, and his Cardinals - black and white in the Vatican, played in bringing down Apartheid, nor has it been prophesied when or if there’s ever going to be a Black Pope.
If he was still alive, hopefully, South Africa would have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the delegation to the Hague, to present the case of genocide - Tutu - occupying the higher moral ground, a veteran in the struggle against the evil forces of Apartheid.
cornelius...@gmail.com
This “Religion For Peace” business ojare
As Chairman Arafat used to say,
Sometimes, I ask myself, “Which God?”
God told him to make a nuclear bomb?
What for?
To defend his holy temple?
The Omnipotent can’t defend it Himself
by other means?
It’s time to save the planet, that’s why with an open mind
I’m patiently and hope-fully awaiting Jesus’ Return.
In the meantime let’s pray that if faithfully followed
the proposals in Jibrin Ibrahim’s Part Two
will contribute to averting World War Three
Which will send us all to the cemetery
As Malcolm told us, “ That’s a good religion”