President Muhammadu Buhari met with the family members of Kano explosion victims for commiseration.
President Buhari who was reportedly in Kano for the Nogerian Air Force Week event, met with the victims family at the Kano State Emir Palace.
The president also commiserated with the Emir and the Kano state governor on the unfortunate incident that claimed the lives of innocent people.
The explosion which the police said was caused by a gas/chemical explosion, had also seriously injured dozens of people.
Speaking earlier, the governor of Kano said the government already gave N9million as compensation to the family of the deceased persons.
Ganduje added that N2million was also given to 10 persons seriously injured and N1million was given to those with minor injuries.
He stated: “A business centre, African Centre, affected by the explosion was given N2million while Winners Academy, which students suffered injuries from the explosion and the its glasses shattered got N1million.”
On his part, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, expressed gratitude over the president’s kind gesture.
The Governor of Borno State, Babagana Umara Zulum, said he was not desperate to be the running mate of anyone who emerges as the ruling party’s presidential flag bearer.
Zulum disclosed this on Saturday, May 21, while playing host to former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, who was in Borno to meet party delegates and canvass for their votes ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary election.
This is sequel to permutations that Zulum will be a likely running mate if the APC’s presidential flag bearer emerges from the Southern region of Nigeria. However, in refuting the rumour, Zulum said his primary concern at the moment was to see Borno regain her lost glory.
“I want everyone here and the people of Borno State to know that I have only one ambition which is to see that Borno state regains its lost glory. I am not begging anybody for the position of the Vice President of the federation. God gives power to whom he wants, and when it comes, nobody can say no,” he said.
Zulum applauded the impressive credentials of Amaechi but stated it is against his principle to endorse anyone, as God is the ultimate decider of who will emerge as the president and who will not.
“Many aspirants have come to us, and many more would come, but my prayers and wish are that Nigeria should always get a new president. I can’t mention the name of any particular or preferred person.” He added.
On the other hand, Amaechi made mouthwatering promises to delegates and the people of Borno State. He said he would secure lives and properties and improve and grow and grow agriculture, amongst other things, if they elect him.
I have never seen a liar like the guy who said his life was under threat for renouncing his scholarship as a PG student of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria over the killing of Deborah Samuel.
He allegedly feared what befell Deborah in Sokoto may happen to him in Zaria if care was not taken. He added that he faced the fiercest discrimination in Zaria, particularly in the Department of Political Science, where he studied comparative politics. Moreover, he was allegedly forced to dress like northerners, say Assalamu Alaikum and his rented apartment the off-campus always targeted!
The same Zaria we graduated from, oh! the same Zaria where you are likely to grasp more Igbo words than even the Hausa language? Political science where you have representatives of all tribes as lecturers and students! I have never seen a pugnacious liar like that dude.
People like this guy should be avoided at all costs. They are the triggers of the ethnic faultlines we have. They brew discord to sustain the mutual distrust. He is as toxic and barbaric as the mob that lynched Deborah in Sokoto, the mob that killed the four souls in Lekki and the so-called unknown gunmen that decapitated the lawmaker yesterday in Anambra State.
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria admission is the most sought after in Nigeria. People travel from far to study at ABU. All the departmental student heads in the social sciences faculty were Igbo, Yoruba, Idoma and all Christians during my time. You have all tribes as students. Zaria was a pilot ground and still a model of national cohesion. You have giant mosques and churches in the school with no one infringing on another person’s right.
Whoever comes to the media to paint a grotesque picture of ABU Zaria as a reflection of bigotry is nothing but a merchant of lies and fabricated mischief. People like that guy that a whole Punch newspaper is giving full page to spew his diatribe should be asked to shut up.
Stop the Islamophobia, stop your ethnocentrism and be human. There is more gain in being human than a purveyor of hate and bigotry.
Abdullahi O Haruna Haruspice wrote from Abuja. He can be reached via haruspicee@yahoo.com.
Dear Reverend, I wish to thank God for sparing your life during last week’s riot in Sokoto City because of the intrinsic value and sanctity of human life as shown to us by our beloved religion of Islam. I have to do that Father, because, rumors went round that a mob had allegedly attacked Sokoto Diocese and killed the bishop. Glory be to the Almighty, the most exalted, that you have not sustained any injury and that it was only windows of the church that were smashed and neither you nor any member of your congregation was injured.
I hope Father would not be angry with me for deciding to throw a letter addressed to him through a public domain, rather than sending it privately to his Most Reverend. Sir, I am only following your footsteps. I know you are used to writing public letters to many of our leaders, including late ones, as you did recently to his Eminence, the one and only Premier of the Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Sir. Ahmadu Bello Sardaunan Sokoto, whose ancestral home and the city established by his grandfather, Sultan Bello, is now serving as your abode.
Sir, you seem to have carved a niche for yourself for being blunt and outspoken; we know you talk to power in the Northern Region in the most audacious way or to put it differently in the words of Professor Edward Said that you speak “truth” to power and the powerful. Sir, your magnum opus, Religion, Power and Politics in Northern Nigeria have not spared any of the respected Northern leaders be he a politician, traditional ruler or religious leader. Sir, forgive us the younger ones if we speak to you in a similar tone because a Hausa have a proverb “mai kwaikwayon shan mai, ya fi mai koyan shafawa” loosely translated, a trainee learns more than what his trainer taught. The Hausa people might not be aware of the Biblical verse which says: a “disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant is above his lord.
Let me not digress from the topic of the letter. I am writing concerning the blasphemy case and the riot that followed it. It is unfortunate that this had happened while you are holding the “Most important Christian chair in the Sokoto Region. Sir, the aura you built around you is that you are a “Peace Crusader”, which is stated as one of the goals of Kukah Centre. One expects you to come out boldly to uphold justice, speak the truth and promote the peaceful resolution of the crisis. Alas, your voice was one-sided. You are well aware of the highly accommodating and peaceful nature of the Sokoto people. It is enough pointer to their tolerance that you could freely come and settle in the city built by the Shehu and establish an institution which aims at unwinding and uprooting all that the Shehu had built two hundred years ago. Even as this crisis was surging, Muslim political and traditional/religious leaders would have definitely assured you of your rights and the rights of all Christians to settle in Sokoto or any Muslim city without hindrance. Shouldn’t such tolerance be reciprocated by the Bishop and his followers? What the people of Sokoto demand, as you work to reduce the strength of Islam by spreading the mission of Christianity is to AT LEAST respect the sensibilities of the people; respect their religious sanctity and personalities, do not subject them to ridicule, teach your followers good manners and the spirit of togetherness. This, disgustingly enough, you have failed to do. You have poisoned the minds of the young Christians around you and charged them with hatred against the majority Muslim population amongst whom they live. By God, how can you then claim being a peace maker? I know that in the case of Deborah, you may not be the person who directly misguided her behaviour. Some zealous Pastors might have been responsible. You are, however, the highest Christian cleric. I may therefore, not be wrong for holding you accountable for the irresponsible utterances of Deborah. Your one-sided statement lends credence to this assumption. Your position cannot be compared with that of the Sultan, who in the spirit of peacebuilding condemned those who took the law into their hands and called for restraint, knowing fully that he himself was deeply hurt by the assault on the personality of the beloved Prophet. The Sultan called his people to order, you called mainly for punishing the killers, pretending that there is no problem, therefore, your silence on the abuse cann be interpreted as tacit approval to rain more abuses on Islam and Muslims and further instigate demonstration in Churches and CAN Secretariat.
For the avoidance of doubt, I stand vehemently against taking laws into ones hand by any group of people. While condemning the killing of any soul not approved by a court of law, I am strongly convinced that she (Deborah) had crossed the red line and it is her filthy action that instigated the unfortunate youth reaction. It was Newton’s law that says every action generates equal and opposite reaction.
Sir, the Sultan has done excellently well by not taking side with the killers; do the same Bishop, don’t just side with Deborah for the Muslims were insulted and enraged by her unprecedented foul words, therefore, remind your fellow Christians that Muslims hold their prophet in the most dearest way, let them teach their children never to insult our Prophet (peace upon him) again; after all we are not gaining anything by insults and curses, we gain by relating in the best of manners. In fact, no Muslim can be considered a true believer if he does not believe and respect Jesus. Your boldness is always against Muslim, this is the right time to probe yourself by showing it to Christians.
Before I bid you farewell Father, let me use this opportunity to call for peace between you and three eminent children of Sokoto. Since you are now in their home region and you are still alive, this is the best time to cease fire with the trio who formed the tripartite stones that hold the Caliphate. Sir, I am talking of Shehu Usman bn Fodio, his great-grandchild Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna and Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi. Sir, all of them were dead when you wrote your book, which I believed to be an extract of your PhD thesis, but the book is full of a sort of vengeance and hatred towards them. Sardauna, as you insinuated was/is sustaining the wishes of Shehu which is extending the boundary of the Caliphate to the shore of Niger and beyond. This completely counter your dream and the dream of your master Dr. Walter Miller which is to have a ‘civilized North’ which according to him as you quoted in your book is looking “forward to the time not far from hence, when educated Christianized pagans will lead the way… and even encircle the more obstinate and conservative Muslim emirate” (Religion, Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria, p4). I think this is the main reason for your fight with Sardauna, because of his zeal to spread Islam, particularly his engagement in mass conversion in Central Nigeria.
Finally, I wish you well as you will be celebrating your seventy year birthday in a few days to come. May we find peace in Nigeria, North, Sokoto and Southern Kaduna as well. Let us hope this will be the last time Sokoto will have this unfortunate incident. Thank you.
Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has demanded that the Imam of the National Mosque, Professor Ibrahim Maqari, be fired for his remarks on Deborah Samuel, a 200-level student at Sokoto’s Shehu Shagari College of Education, who was lynched for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Soyinka made this appeal in Abuja, Saturday, during the one-year commemoration of the late former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and the launch of Niran Adedokun’s biography of the late general.
Prof Soyinka claimed that the Islamic preacher directed his followers to take the law into their own hands.
Recall that the Imam of the National mosque Professor Maqari spoke strongly against the insulting comment made by the late college student, stressing that making such a comment was taboo.
The Nobel Laureate condemned religious lynching and demanded that the Imam be removed from office as an apostate of humanity’s credo
He was quoted as saying, “It is no longer sufficient for all to declaim that Islam is this and that, that the Sharia is thus and thus, that Prophet Mohammed set this or that example and made this or that humanistic pronouncement.
“We have gone beyond theocratic rhetoric that merely pays lip service to civilized norms. Let all pietistic denunciations be backed by affirmative action.”Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is the most beloved person to the
Sokoto blasphemy: Soyinka demands sack of Abuja National Mosque imam
Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has demanded that the Imam of the National Mosque, Professor Ibrahim Maqari, be fired for his remarks on Deborah Samuel, a 200-level student at Sokoto’s Shehu Shagari College of Education, who was lynched for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Recall that the imam spoke strongly against the insulting comment made by the Shehu Shagari student, stressing that making such a comment was taboo.
Mr. Soyinka claimed that the Islamic preacher directed his followers to take the law into their own hands.
On Saturday, he spoke in Abuja during the one-year commemoration of the late former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and the launch of Niran Adedokun’s biography of Attahiru.
The Nobel Laureate condemned religious lynching and demanded that Professor Maqari be removed from office as an apostate of humanity’s credo.
He was quoted as saying, “It is no longer sufficient for all to declaim that Islam is this and that, that the Sharia is thus and thus, that Prophet Mohammed set this or that example and made this or that humanistic pronouncement.
“We have gone beyond theocratic rhetoric that merely pays lip service to civilized norms. Let all pietistic denunciations be backed by affirmative action.”
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is the most beloved person to the Muslim faithful, who have the view that on no account should anybody make a derogatory or disrespectful remark against him.
When President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida created Katsina State in 1987, we were full of hopes and euphoria that this fledgeling state would fastly grow and prosper from the grips of a complex Kaduna State. The late singer Mamman Shata aptly captured this mood in his popular song “Allah raya JiharKatsina.” Fortunately, successive military administrations of Governors Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar (1987/88), Lawrence Onoja (1988/89), and John Madaki (1989/92) gave us the belief as Katsina became the envy of its neighbouring states. But then the curse of anointment sets in.
During the 1991 general elections, Alhaji Sa’idu Barda of NRC (who controversially became the governor) contested against Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua of SDP. The latter was so popular that no candidate could beat him in a free and fair poll, thanks to the social leverage his older brother, Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar’adua, wielded.
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua was about to win the contest when President Babangida intervened and asked the electoral commission to declare Sa’idu Barda the winner.
President Babangida had a grudge against Shehu Musa ‘Ya’adua. Hence the annulment of the first presidential election in which the late ‘Yar’dua of SDP was leading. The rest, they say, is history. Even though Governor Sa’idu Barda was anointed, he was a gentleman though he lacked ideas and focus.
From November 1993 to May 1999, during the rules of General Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalam Abubakar, there were three military governors: Emmanuel Acholono (1993/1996), Sama’ila Chama (1996/1998) and Joseph Akaagerger (1998/1999). They ruled but performed less than the first three crops of the military.
Governor Umaru Musa Yar’adua (1999/2007) was the only unanointed governor Katsina has had yet. Although he had his weak links, he was the people’s darling. Public service was politicised as PDP membership guaranteed the executives, political appointees and thugs to go beyond the ethical and the conventional.
Governor ‘Yar’adua (un)knowingly nurtured those politicians who introduced political brigandage in Katsina political space; late Abba Sayyadi Rumah, the immediate past secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa, etc., were his political disciples.
However, Governor Yar’adua spearheaded the transformation of the modern Katsina State. He built the famous Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, the new Katsina master plan, College of Legal, Daura, State Secretariat, Katsina Eye Center, Turai Hospital, etc. His legacies are numerous to mention.
Around 2014 when President Obasanjo singlehandedly anointed Late Governor ‘Yar’dua to contest the presidential seat during the 2015 General Election, he further asked ‘Yar’adua to field an unknown figure in the person of Alhaji Ibrahim Shema to contest the governorship seat. ‘Yar’adua had rooted for Alhaji Aminu Masari, the then speaker of the House of Representatives. Umaru had no choice but to oblige because he was also a product of anointment. Obasanjo was also settling a political score because, in 1999, Speaker Masari had vehemently opposed Obasanjo’s tenure elongation.
Though Governor Shema too performed miracles, it was during his term that corruption was institutionalised. His subsequent trials under the EFCC concerning the Local Government Joint Account fund are a testimony. Shema was so arrogant and daring that he called those outside the PDP cockroaches who deserved to be killed if they interfered with election matters.
Governor Masari was also a product of anointment though he was also a victim of anointment. During the 2014 APC primaries, the late Senator Kanti Bello was about to win the governorship ticket when the exercise was hijacked in favour of Masari by the so-called Abuja politicians. These people pressurised then General (retd.) Muhammadu Buhari to intervene. Subsequently, the election was skewed in favour of Masari. Late Senator Kanti could not forgive Masari until his sudden death in 2017.
Legacies are hard to point out in the seven years of the current APC government. So many people taunt the government that its only legacies are the refurbished traffic circles (roundabouts) in Katsina and the painting of schools in APC colours. Katsina State is today indebted to the World Bank and the IMF.
However, one salient advantage of Masari’s government is political tolerance. The government has given the people the right to political affiliation, which was lacking during the PDP.
For Katsina, the anointment curse continues as Governor Masari points to Alhaji Abba Masanawa, the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, Abuja as his anointed successor.
Only time will tell when Katsina will be free from the grips of anointment.
A former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, has blamed Nigeria’s security crises on the death of former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Aondoakaa, who is among the Benue governorship aspirants set to contest for the ruling party’s ticket, disclosed this at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Friday, May 20, 2022.
According to him, the security situation bedevilling the country started during President Yar’adua’s time and aftermath of the death of Gaddafi.
“After Gaddafi was overthrown, there was no strong government in Libya, and there was a kind of persecution, and most of the soldiers ran away with light weapons and came in.” He said
He added that the problem would go away with time.
“The insecurity is an external aggression that is spreading within the country, but it is something that will go after some years. We also had the great Wild Wild West in America that was so frightening that we thought America will break. But what happened? It evolved,” he stated.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has stated that an unidentified corpse was on Thursday discovered on the runway of Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed Airport.
FAAN stated the remains were discovered in the night by a motorized cleaner cleared to clean the runway, according to Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, FAAN’s interim corporate relations general manager.
“The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria wishes to inform the general public of an incident in which an unidentified human remains were found on Runway 18R/36L on Thursday, May 19, 2022,” the statement said.
FAAN, therefore, announced that the runway was temporarily shut between 1:10 am and 3:43 am to allow for the immediate evacuation of the remains.
“Flight operations resumed at 0343 hours,” it added.
Investigations are ongoing as the outcome will be made public accordingly.
Going through my newsfeed, I came across a letter dated the 7th of May 2021. Onukwubiri Ifeanyi Kingsley allegedly renounced his position as the first son in the family, because (as he said in the letter) the position increased his problems, increased his liability, and was a thorn in his flesh.
I wonder if he graciously relinquishes his position out of fear of responsibilities. If this is the case, he is wrong to flee from his duties. This life is nothing but a set of examinations, tribulations and challenges, running from the one you may likely encounter superior challenges along your way. So the best solution is to face your challenges and try your best to conquer them.
Historically, in a patriarchal society like ours, the firstborn child’s role has been socially significant, particularly for a firstborn son. As a result, there are sets of expected do’s and don’ts in the lives of firstborns.
As the firstborns, our parents expect us to be 101% good. We have to set the example for other siblings; we have to be brilliant, extra careful, perfect, intelligent, great administrators, toppers in any exam, good athletes and the list goes on. The level of expectation on us is very high, and the burden on our shoulders is quite heavy.
Being the eldest son was never our choice nor our intention, but nature has its way of imposing things on us, and here we are as the firstborns, a position we will hold for our entire life.
Moreover, our darling parents never see us the same as our fellow siblings but rather as alpha children moulded into hardworking gentlemen responsible for steering various homes’ wheels. This blend of expectation and motives sometimes stressed us, resulting in anxiety, which overclouded our verdicts. We fall prey to superfluous fear of the future, which affects our existence, dwindling our efforts in conquering dilemmas.
My advice to all the firstborns is never to see this position as a burden but rather as a blessing. Do your very best in all facets of life, and always look to the Mighty Lord for guidance. If by any chance you feel like losing hope, remember the Quran 26:62 “إنَّ مَعِیَ رَبِّی سَیَھدِ ینِ” “Indeed my Lord is with me, and He is going to guide me”. So when the lord is in control, we have to trust Him and play our part by doing our very best.
To all the firstborns, hold your head high up. You have been endowed with qualities such as strength, struggle and some considered leadership characteristics.
May God bless our hustle, amin. God bless Nigeria, amin.
Fatihu Ibrahim sent this article via fisabbankudi123@gmail.com.
I was at a park yesterday with a couple of friends (other homeschooling moms) and our kids. A fellow Muslim woman passed by where we were sitting and we exchanged salams. She approached me and asked, “بتحكي عربي؟” (“Do you speak Arabic?”) “Yes, I’m Egyptian,” I told her in Arabic, shaking her hand and gesturing for her to sit and join us. The rest of the conversation flowed in Arabic, her Jordanian dialect and my Egyptian one.
She gave me many important things to think about in this exchange. She sat down next to me and looked around curiously at the large group of kids playing rowdily around us. “Are these all your children?” she asked. “Yes, it’s the three of us moms here and these are our kids,” I replied.” Are you guys related? Are you all Arabs? How did you get together/find each other?” she asked. “We’re all friends,” I explained. I gestured at my two non-Arab companions nearby, an African American mom and a Latina mom: “My friends here are not Arabs. This sister is American, a convert actually, and this other sister is Hispanic.” She was surprised and seemed riveted. “To be honest, I was so fascinated when I saw you guys from a distance and all your kids playing together so well. Black and white. I didn’t know there was a third ethnicity in there too!” She told me a bit about herself and her background. She was a Jordanian young woman, 24 years old. Just arrived in America last year from Jordan. She didn’t know the system here yet and was especially confused by the school system. She looked again at the kids, who were now piled on top of one another (there are masha Allah ten boys total, so there tends to be a lot of wrestling).
“Are they in school? Is today an American holiday?” she asked, probably wondering why all these school-aged children were roaming around at a park instead of seated at desks in a classroom somewhere.” No, it’s not a holiday today. We home-school (in Arabic: تعليم منزلي ).” She gave me an intrigued look, fascinated. “What does that mean? I don’t know anything about this. Is homeschooling allowed? So your kids are not associated with *any* school at all? Who teaches them?” “Me,” I said simply. “I teach them. No, they are not associated with any school at all. It’s not necessary. Homeschooling is allowed and many families home-school. I know that it’s not really a thing in our Arab countries. We don’t hear about homeschooling in Egypt, or in Jordan either. But here, homeschooling is a perfectly legal option and there are lots of homeschooling families, alhamdulillah.” She nodded, interested. “What do you teach them in your homeschool?” “Qur’an mostly,” I answered. “We spend most of our class time memorizing Qur’an, then learning Tafseer, some hadith, and Arabic class, in that order. Then we also have an English class, Math, science, and Art. Some of these other classes are weekly, not daily. We also work on projects that the kids are interested in.”
“Why do you homeschool?” she asked the question I get asked the most.” I don’t want my kids to be raised by people I don’t know and don’t share core values with. That’s how it is in American public schools. I know because I went to American public schools. And it’s only gotten worse since I was in school. It used to be that you’d see boys and girls doing all kinds of things in the hallway at school, or sometimes hear kids swearing or using foul language. Nowadays, it’s escalated like crazy. Now it’s two girls or two boys doing all kind of things in the hallway at school, and kids looking at porn on their phones and teaching one another immoral things. Not only is it the kids, but this over-sexualized and LGBT+- stuff has made its way into the school curriculum itself! It’s not just the kids, it’s in the textbook, the teachers! This is what they teach kids in school now. And this is only *one* of the reasons,” I told her.
She nodded, understanding dawning on her face. “Yes, I did notice that the LGBT thing is big in America. That’s actually one of the first things I noticed immediately upon coming to this country. It’s one of the things I still haven’t gotten used to even though I’ve been here a whole year now,” she said. I asked her, “I know! It’s a huge culture shock. What were some of the biggest things that have shocked you, coming from Jordan to America? “She thought for a second, then replied, “I’ve been shocked by the number of concessions ( تنازلات ) Muslims make in living here in this country. I hadn’t been aware of that in Jordan, and it caught me by surprise and I still haven’t gotten over it. I have two brothers in high school here, and they see all kinds of things in school and tell me about it. They are both forced to shake the hands of females, but it’s hard not to, because of the culture. We met some Jordanians here who told us that they use riba (interest). We can’t look around without our eyes falling on some haram thing. It’s concession after concession. And I’m shocked at the Muslims here who seem totally fine with it, even though none of this is part of Islam!” I shook my head, acutely aware of her pain. I feel it too, but it was different to hear such clear, honest words coming from a Muslim who was freshly arrived from a Muslim, Arab country and confronting the reality of “American Islam.”
What would this Jordanian girl say if she found out that there are American Muslim “shaykhs” who encourage Muslims to hold hands with gay activists? How would she react if she heard that famous American Muslims keep insisting that as Muslims, we support “the right” of people to engage freely in haram acts? How much more shocked would she feel when she heard that popular American “imams” and “shaykhaz” were pushing feminism like it was candy to the Muslim population? So I simply told her, “You are absolutely right. I am still shocked at the same exact things, and I’ve been here for decades. It is just shocking. I hope I never get used to any of this or start thinking any of these things are normal. And this is another reason why I don’t allow my kids to enter these schools; I don’t want any of this to be normal for them, either.”
“Going to American schools every day will definitely normalize a lot of things,” she agreed. “I worry about my brothers. But alhamdulillah, they are older going into it. At least they were raised in Jordan and know enough not to be too swayed by the stuff they see here in these schools. I’d be frantic with worry if my brothers were in elementary school here, for example.” “Yes, younger kids are more vulnerable. The first years of a child’s life are for building a foundation (تأسيس ), and it needs to be done right, especially for us Muslims. Unfortunately, what sometimes happens in this country is that Muslim parents aren’t paying attention, and their kids enter non-Muslim schools from age 4 or 5 until age 18, and the change they undergo is drastic. It’s like entering a machine: you go into it a Muslim on the fitra, and come out the other end either barely still Muslim with warped views, or just an atheist or an agnost, والعياذ بالله.
For me, homeschooling is not optional. It’s mandatory. I have no other choice. If it’s a choice between the Deen of my kids and literally any other thing, there is no choice in the matter. They are my amana (أمانة), my responsibility before Allah.” She surprised me by saying, “You know, you are the minority here. You are not like the rest of the Muslims I’ve met so far in America. None of them do this homeschool thing. They send their kids to regular American schools and think nothing of it. They’re even a little proud maybe, that their kids are going to be Americans and learn to act and dress and speak like Americans. They care about the material (الماديات) and don’t seem too concerned about the effect of this society on their kids. They worry about things like if their kids will be able to fit in or not, if their kids will get good jobs or not, etc.” Long after the conversation ended and the sister left, I sat pondering her words, her assessment of the American Islam she was confronted with upon her arrival to America.
