Razika Adnani is a philosopher and Islamologist. She is a member of the Orientation Council of the Foundation of Islam in France and founding director of the International Philosophy Days of Algiers.
LE FIGARO. - In the federated state of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria, Muslim students killed and burned a Christian student accused of blasphemy. What is this horrible act the name of?
Razika ADNANI. -
It is a barbaric act that was committed by fanatics in the name of the Muslim religion.
The religious authorities have certainly reacted to condemn this assassination, but the question that arises - and which I also asked when there was the murder of Samuel Paty - is: why religious leaders are content to denounce the violence and do not offer another religious discourse capable of countering that of hatred and extremism.
We cannot content ourselves with saying that Islam is a religion of love and peace and that it is acts of extremists that harm even Islam.
This discourse, which we also hear a lot in France, is not the one that will solve the problems that Islam poses in our current societies.
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These extremists blamed this young girl for blaspheming the prophet.
The religious authorities could have said, for example, to these students but also to all Muslims that it is not up to them to defend the prophet and that it is God who protects him because it is precisely said in verse 196 of sura 7, the Walls:
“My protector (
walii
) is God
”
.
They could have reminded them of verse 105 of sura 5 recommending that every Muslim should mind his own business first: "
O believers, you are responsible for yourselves, he who goes astray will not harm you if you have taken the right path.
"Proposing another religious discourse is necessary if they want to effectively thwart that of the extremists, on condition that they do not lie to Muslims by denying the existence of the other verses that incite violence but demonstrate why it is no longer possible to consider them today.
They will explain to them why it is possible today but also necessary to proceed differently in order to live one's religion and be able to be at peace with others.
In Nigeria, since independence in 1960 and even before, Sharia has been the country's thorniest issue in a country where half the population is not Muslim and wants to modernize.
Razika Adnani
But several factors prevent them from doing so.
On the one hand, the first Muslims rightly chose the other verses such as verse 33 of sura 5, The Table Served which says that: "
The only reward for those who wage war against the religion of God and his prophet, and who cause disorder on earth, is that they be put to death...
" Verse 105 of sura 5, the vast majority of Muslims do not know it because it is one of those that Muslims have decided to neglect because it opposes the principle that is enshrined in the Koran according to which Muslims must denounce evil and order good.
On the other hand, the thought of Muslims is taken hostage by the elders or the salafs.
Salafism is based on the idea that only the salafs (the first Muslims) hold the truth and that all future generations must turn to their knowledge to know their religion.
Thought must therefore be limited to imitating their knowledge.
This epistemological and psychological obstacle prevents them from doing the necessary work within Islam, this reform of Islam which is today more than necessary.
In Sokoto, Nigeria, hundreds of people demonstrated this Saturday, May 14 to protest against the arrest of the two students suspected of the murder. What is the weight of religious extremists in this country?
They were not numerous to demonstrate, but it is enough to worry us because demonstrating to demand the release of the murderers of the young woman shows that these extremists do not see their murder as an evil.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa but also the most affected by Islamism.
In the north, and Sokoto is located in the north, the fundamentalists and in particular the members of the jihadist sect Boko Haram are strong and highlight the weakness of the state.
This explains why students not only convict a girl of blasphemy but also decide to execute her, in other words, that they take justice into their own hands.
In Nigeria, what is the place of Islamic law? Can we go so far as to say that it prevails over normative law?
In Nigeria, since independence in 1960 and even before, Sharia has been the country's thorniest issue in a country where half the population is not Muslim and wants to modernize.
In 2000, twelve states in the country where the majority of the population is Muslim declared to apply Sharia.
Today in Nigeria, there are two legal systems: one civil and the other religious.
Ambiguities in legal systems exist in all Muslim countries, except perhaps those that have ruled for Muslim law, to varying degrees.
Razika Adnani
Ambiguities in legal systems exist in all Muslim countries, except perhaps those that have ruled for Muslim law, to varying degrees.
The Maghreb countries upon their independence adopted a modern civil law, very inspired by European law, and at the same time they wanted to apply the rules of Islam, particularly in the area of the family.
However, the Sharia is a corpus of religious rules which, moreover, date back several centuries.
Rules that were designed for societies that are no longer ours by men who had their own cultures and their own values.
Algeria, for example, affirmed from its first constitution that all citizens of both sexes had the same rights and the same duties and, in 1976, it provided that any discrimination based on prejudices of sex, race or profession was prohibited but implemented a code for women from the Sharia.
While this grants privileges to men to the detriment of women because they are men.
In 2011, Algerian criminal law added article 144 bis 2 which provides for three to five years in prison for anyone who has offended the prophet and all the envoys of God or who has denigrated the dogma or the precepts of Islam. , while the Constitution in force provided the guarantee of freedom of conscience.
The latter was removed from the Constitution in December 2020.
civil equality
" between men and women in 2011, continues to subject women to the rules of the Sharia which discriminates against them and the same goes for Tunisia where equality between men and women is far from be respected.
Tunisia mentions in its Constitution its respect for human rights and the teachings of Islam at the same time.
This also poses a problem because Islam as it is conceived and practiced by Muslims recognizes neither equality nor freedom.
The reference to Islam in the constitutions of these countries has prevented these constitutions from being realized and has also made many laws not in accordance with the fundamental laws of the constitution.
In Nigeria, the Constitution, in its article 38, provides that "
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change religion or belief...
" Freedoms that Sharia, recognized in twelve states, does not recognize.
This opposition between the rules of civil law resulting from reason and those of Sharia is a source of great problems and in an accentuated way in Nigeria.
We are therefore witnessing judgments and convictions made by the religious tribunal which go against the civil.
The problem is more in Nigeria because they want a stricter implementation of Sharia.
Fundamentalism structured itself as a current and imposed itself with the defeat of creative and rational thought caused by the victory of the current which recognized no place for thought in the face of revelation.
Razika Adnani
Do the Islamist excesses only have to do with geopolitical factors or do they have to do with the principles inherent in Islam as some claim?
What happened in Nigeria reminds us once again of the problem posed by Islamic fundamentalism, especially in such a populous country.
There are certainly political and geopolitical factors to this phenomenon because Islamization has expanded recently.
It is a fundamentalist and Islamist Wahhabi Islamization.
However, fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon in Islam.
It dates back to the first centuries of Islam.
It structured itself as a current and imposed itself with the defeat of creative and rational thought caused by the victory of the current which recognized no place for thought in the face of revelation.
It was a defeat of the human against the divine.
It succeeded in imposing itself in the religious field and then spread to other fields of knowledge.
This defeat is manifested in several theories such as the
naql theory
which means literalism, the theory of the uncreated Quran, the theory of the salafs as well as the unveiling and the theory of the saints in Sufism.
All these theories aim to prevent Muslims from thinking or reasoning when it comes to Islam.
As for the principles, two particularly stood out: the one that says that “
religion is a matter of the heart and not of reason
” and the one that says that “
all innovation is a misguidance.
".
These theories and principles are still very present in religious discourse and their consequences are still very visible in the behavior of Muslims who want to be practicing.
All other problems in the field of religion stem from this defeat of thought and intelligence.
A large majority of Muslims thus repeat received ideas, comments and legal rules without ever questioning them.
All fundamentalism feeds on this lack of reflection of the critical spirit.
Fundamentalism begins where thought refuses to exercise its function: reflection.