From Mob Executions for Blasphemy to Intellectual Discourse: The Complex World of Islam

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

    From Mob Executions for Blasphemy 

                             to 

              Intellectual Discourse

         The Complex World of Islam

        Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

                           Abstract

This essay explores the complex and often contradictory nature of Islam, as observed in Northern Nigeria.

 It begins with the stark reality of mob violence, specifically a recent lynching for blasphemy, which reflects a perception of the region as a hotbed of religious extremism. 

However, the narrative shifts to reveal a vibrant, intellectual life within the same community, though largely unknown outside the region.

Through personal observations of online discourse by Northern Nigerian Muslim thinkers, the author discovers a world of sophisticated debate and scholarly critique on foundational Islamic ideas.

The essay juxtaposes these two extremes, drawing a parallel to the historical complexity of classical African spiritualities while ultimately highlighting a key distinction: the preservation of human life as a universally accepted principle.

This journey of discovery transforms the author's understanding of Islam from a monolithic and intimidating force to a diverse and intellectually rich tradition, inspiring a personal quest for deeper knowledge and a more nuanced spiritual engagement.

Two Realities: The External Gaze and the Internal Cosmos

In the last few days, a Muslim woman was reportedly lynched for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad by a mob in Northern Nigeria, the latest in a sequence of such reports over the decades, where a formal and legally constituted trial in an Islamic court could also condemn a person to death for blasphemy. 

Yesterday,  I opended Facebook to see a post by Northern Nigerian Muslim thinker Ahmad Sadiq critiquing the idea of seeing blasphemy as a crime, thereby igniting a rich debate (1).

The same day I saw another post ( 2) by another Northern Nigerian Muslim thinker Muhammad S. Balogun exquisitely critiquing the work of Sayyid Qutb, an Islamic thinker hanged to death in Egypt, a post to which Ahmad Sadiq enthusiastically contributed, situating his study of Qutb's work in his own journey as a Muslim thinker orienting himself to the cultural contexts at the root of Islam represented by learning Arabic.

Balogun's post was based on another  by Shamsudeen Sanni whose page is a magnificent, encyclopedic tapestry of knowledge of Islamic and secular cultures from different parts of the world. (3)

A Different Lens: Comparing Faiths and Finding Nuance

The equivalence to such extremes in classical African spiritualities, of which I am a practitioner, would be the open, generally accepted and officically canonized practice of human sacrifice, which was once the case in some of those spiritualities and related cultures,  coexisting with erudite discourse on the philosophical,  legal and spiritual implications of human sacrifice and of other, lofty aspects of those spiritualities and cultures.

Such a situation is an impossible juxtaposition for those African religions beceause classical African religions belong to the global consensus that the preservation of human life is superior to the preservation of religious reverence.

 This consensus, however, has not taken universal root in Islam, even as many Muslims do not identify with the idea of killing people beceause of Islamic faith. 

Most of the information about Muslim life that filters from Northern to Southern Nigeria is uninspiring, a lot of it sensational, focused on such extremes as blasphemy lynchings, Islam inspired riots, blasphemy court rulings, mob political murders, Islamic terrorism, Fulani militia and Fulani herdsmen terrorism reinforced by political manipulations by prominent Fulani, child marriage,  political manipulation through religion, etc so little emerges that could make one curious about the religion and culture or inspire one to seek inspiration from it, at least in my experience. 

But reading the writings of Northern Muslims on Facebook I observed that region embodies a rich spiritual and cognitive life, but a spiritual life that seems so wrapped in its own uniqueness its participants seem to communicate only with each other, the depth and complexity of their engagement with the universe of faith and ideas locked in their own cosmos, no light shining to the outside world, the luminaries they celebrate unknown beyond their sphere and opaque to understanding of their significance by others beyond that cultural zone.

But, is this not the same religion I encountered in Ijebu-Ode, where it is clearly dominant, possibly escalating even beyond Christianity while the ancestral Yoruba religion is a shadow in public space?

Is it not the same religion that is everywhere in Osogbo, where being a Muslim and a practitioner or enabler of ancestral Yoruba spirituality go together, high ranking Ogboni members being Muslims and Muslims being a significant demographic amongst those selling herbs and artefacts for traditional Yoruba healing and spiritual pursuits, a major industry in Osogbo?

A Personal Journey Toward Deeper Understanding

I know less about Muhammad than I do about  the comparably impactful figures Jesus, Buddha and Abraham.

I see Muhammad as embodying some of the absolutist and imperiaslistic orientations demonstrated by Abraham in the name of a divine mandate, an orientation also demonstrated by Usman Dan Fodio's Fulani jihad, in which religious and imperialistic, ethnically empowering vision were unified, creating the framework of Northern Nigerian Islam after the conquest of the Hausa states.

Even though he does not have the pacifist virtues I admire in Jesus and Buddha, clearly Muhammad inspired people I want to learn from and in some cases, emulate.

I will read up on Qutb, moved as I am by Sanni's, Balogun's and Sadiq's accounts of him. I will continue to read such social media writers so as to as better appreciate the details of the social universe they live in and hopefully encounter more of such shafts of light as to the intersection of their world,  of their ideational cosmos and those im familiar with, as in the discussion  on Qutb.

The Islam section of my physical library is also growing and I pray I make the most of it. My knowledge of the Bible is indispensable to my general cultural education. I hope to one day appreciate the Koran in the same spirit as one of its translators Marmaduke Pickthall who gave thanks to the spirit who inspired the work that had given him so much succour. 

I recently received a gift of volume one of Eric Winkel's translation of Ibn Arabi's Meccan Illuminations, one of the glories of human creativity, which I aspire to immerse myself in. Toyin Falola's forthcoming Malaika and the Seven Heavens : A Memoir of My Encounters with Islam promises to further open my eyes to the wealth of Islamic imagery and cosmology. 

Who knows, one day Islam could take a strategic role in my spiritual culture, alongside Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, all of which I practice or have practised and which are part of the pillars of my existence.

Links

1. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1RKenFrdht/

2. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17JdcAsfkz/

3. https://www.facebook.com/share/1ES13aEZRh/

Expanded References Developed by ChatGPT 

1. Ahmad Sadiq. Facebook post critiquing blasphemy as a crime. August 2025. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1RKenFrdht/

2. John Calvert. Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

3. Shamsudeen Sanni. Facebook writings on Islamic and global knowledge. August 2025. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ES13aEZRh/

4. Jacob K. Olupona. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

5. Jan Assmann. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Harvard University Press, 1997.

6. Murray Last. The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longman, 1967.

7. Marmaduke Pickthall. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1930.

8. Eric Winkel (trans.). The Openings Revealed in Makkah (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) of Muhyiddin Ibn al-ʿArabi. Pir Press, 2020–.

9. Toyin Falola. Malaika and the Seven Heavens: A Memoir of My Encounters with Islam. (Forthcoming)