DESECRATION OF THE SACRED TEMPLE
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Chief Adamu Egwa, the village
head of Irekpai, Uzairue in Edo State, Nigeria had prayed and wished that he
died in Mecca. He believed that Mecca is a holy land cleansed and consecrated
by Allah. This wish was actually realized. He died and was buried in Mecca
during his hajj on January 18, 1973. This
is an illustration of how the Muslims and those who love Islam believe in the
sacredness of Saudi Arabia as a holy land being the home of the Prophet
Muhammad.
The Jews also believe that
Jerusalem is a holy land because of the Sacred Temple that symbolized the
presence of God in Israel: “I rejoice
when I heard them say: Let us go to the house of God” (Psalm 122, 1).
Everywhere created by God ought to be holy but there are special places and
houses dedicated and consecrated as sacred places for the worship of God.
Today Churches and Mosques are
sacred houses where people experience the presence of God. It has been on record that some Christians
have prayed in the mosque and some Muslims have prayed in the Church because of
the belief that these are houses of God. The testimony of Deanhills [1]
is very touching and revealing. She said: “As a Roman Catholic who worked in
Somalia, I prayed inside a tiny mosque as a Christian. The imam at the local
mosque knew who I was and welcomed me…. I certainly would not be offended if a
Muslim walked inside my church and prayed”.
In Christian theology, the
sacredness of the temple goes beyond physical buildings. Human beings are
regarded as temples of God. Paul wrote
to the Corinthians: “Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If
anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him “(1 Corinthians 3, 16
-17).
In my previous article: “Islam
and the Blessed Virgin Mary,” I stated that the action of the Saudi government
for detaining and deporting some Nigerian Muslim women who went to Mecca to
perform the hajj calls for serious reflection. In fact, I was not happy hearing
and reading the terrible reports of woes and humiliation suffered by the women
who went to the holy land to perform the hajj which is a sacred duty for
Muslims. Sunday Sun News Paper of September 30, 2012 had on the front page
SHAMED IN SAUDI, Untold story of three ugly days in Medina. The full story was
reported on page 5 of that same paper but we can only indicate a few highlight
below:
A few others whose plane had
landed at the Prince Muhammad Ibn Abdulazeez International Airport, Medina
which was said to be a smaller airport were not even allowed to disembark from
their planes. They were simply flown back by the planes that brought them soon
after it was established that they were unqualified for entry into the
country”. “In all they chorused the same sad song. They lamented that it was a
shocking, painful and dehumanizing experience as they suffered untold hardship
in the hands of their religious host whom they list expected will visit them
with this kind of treatment”. “According to Hajia Aisha Ibrahim Mohammed from
Taraba State, they spent 3 ugly days held in custody in Medina, Saudi Arabia,
adding that they starved for the whole of the period. She lamented: It was very
cold out there. We were kept at a place all this while and denied entry into
Saudi Arabia; we did not eat anything, I tell you not even tea. They were that
wicked. It was a very difficult experience for all of us. We even asked for our
passports but they refused to give them to us”. “Hajia Medinatu Jalingo wept
openly and felt cheated by fate as she gave account of her experience. She
expressed disgust at the treatment that was meted to them adding that at some
point, we shouted, screamed and we were about to protest but they sent their
officers after us.”
From the reactions I got from
that article, It has become clear to me that the comportment of some Nigerian
women in Saudi Arabia is so disgraceful that one will be ashamed to identify
oneself as a Nigerian. Some other concerned Nigerians have reacted to the fact
that despite Nigeria’s high-level diplomatic talks with Saudi authorities,
about 1,376 Muslim women were deported as at October 2, 2012. This shows that
the Saudi government has no remorse, regrets and apologies for their
action.
A lot of people have overtly or
covertly speculated that the fault is not in Saudi Arabia. Some alleged that
some women had disappeared in Saudi during the lesser hajj hence the Saudi
government is careful not to allow any body to enter their country to desecrate
the holy land. Others have been courageous enough to say that the Saudi
government and the Western world are suspicious of Nigerians. I understand that
some women who live in Saudi illegally even go to the extent of desecrating
their bodies by sleeping under the bridges and public toilets only to resurface
as holy pilgrims during the hajj. In view of this the Saudi government has the
obligation and duty to protect their country and sustain the sanctity of the
holy land.
Some Muslim expressed the fact
that in Islam, there is an order even in worship. There are set rules and
regulations that must be followed. In the Church, there are also rules and
regulations that guide the liturgy which is a sacred and public worship. A
Church that is dedicated is highly respected. While I commend the Muslims for
the high reverence they have for their places of worship, I recommend that this
attitude should be extended to other religious sacred houses of worship. In
other words, let us mutually respect one another’s sacred buildings by not
attacking them and killing the innocent worshippers inside. Confidence in
Nigeria has fallen because the nation has added terrorism to her list of
iniquity. If some Nigerian religious fanatics can go to the extent of
desecrating the sacred places of worship in their own country, how can they be
trusted even in the sacred land of Prophet Muhammad!
Threat
Matrix Journal gave the chronology of bomb attacks on houses of
worship in 2012 as follows: June 17, 2012 - Kaduna; June 10, 2012
- Jos; June 8, 2012
- Maiduguri; June 3, 2012
- Bauchi; April 30, 2012
- Jalingo; April 8, 2012 –
Kaduna; March 11, 2012
- Jos; Feb. 26, 2012
- Jos; Jan. 21, 2012
- Kano. How can
we ever forget the ugliest desecration of the Church in Madalla, on December
25, 2011 where worshipers on Christmas day were roasted like chickens? A bomb
blast has also been reported in a mosque in Nigeria. All in God’s name!
Fighting for God indeed!
Wole Soyinka reflects on “the
precursors of Boko Haram” and affirmed that the signs of terrorism, which he
called the culture of homicide impunity, have been with us openly and
arrogantly.[2] He
traced the modern day terrorism to the intolerance of a minister of education
who ordered the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan in 1985 / 1986 to remove the cross in front
of the Church that has been in existence since the time he was a student in the
same university. Wole Soyinka questioned: “Is it really possible to deny that
the mentality of that western educated minister of education, and his kind, was
the precursor of Boko Haram? [3] He
also alluded to the purchase of 200 buses by a governor of Zamfara in order to
enforce the segregation of men and women as a precursor of “Boko Haramism” in
creed and deed.[4]
There are various ways and
manners of religious intolerance that can translate to inter-personal terrorism
and inter-religious terrorism. It is time for us to really rewrite our history
and save Nigerians from all forms of embarrassment outside the shore of our
nation. While we continue this conversation and enquiry into the causes of our
woes, let us not forget that any attack on a Church, a mosque or any house of
worship is a desecration of the temple of God. We must not also forget that the
human person is sacred given that he or she is created by God. In the name of
dialogue and corporate peace building, let us learn to respect one another as
human beings. Let us learn to respect one another’s religion as a people on
eternal pilgrimage to meet God on the last day. Let us respect our places of
worship where God waits for us to listen to our petitions, unite with our
hearts in contemplation and refresh our minds in meditation. We pray God to
forgive all the sins we have committed against his sacred temples.
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