Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, charged Muslim leaders on Friday to make the Islamic religion more open to both Muslims and non-Muslims in the country for better understanding and cohabitation.
The deputy governor gave this charge while receiving a delegate of the Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society (NASFAT), led by the National Missioner, Sheikh AbdulAzeez Onike, on a courtesy visit in his office at the Round House, Alausa-Ikeja.
Hamzat, while giving the charge, said that a lot of people do not know the Islamic religion, saying that making mosques accessible to everyone and explaining the religion to non-Muslims and even to Muslims was very important, expressing the belief that this approach remained “the biggest solution to some of our challenges in the country.”
“Opening our mosques to everyone and explaining the religion to non-Muslims and even to Muslims is very important because a lot of our Muslim brothers and sisters are extremely ignorant of the religion. This, I believe, is the biggest solution to some of our challenges in the country,” Hamzat said.
According to him, the “Open Mosque” initiative is very important and “in my view is very timely” as the country presently is religiously very toxic, saying that there was a need to calm down the temperature.
This was just as the deputy governor admonished Nigerians to speak positively about the country, saying that the blame should be on the citizens for the negative perceptions held about the country by foreigners and not otherwise.
“I don’t blame the outsiders; I blame us for the negative perception held about the country by the foreigners, and what should be our sermons in Majid these days should not be the exoteric things that we used to do but practical issues that are affecting us. There are practical issues that our Muslim brothers, sisters, and children need to know that they don’t know,” he said.
The National Missioner of NASFAT, Sheikh Abdul Azeez-Onike, earlier in his opening remarks, noted that Discover Islam, the organisation, had come to Nigeria to introduce the “Open the Mosque” concept to NASFAT in Nigeria and to set them on how to conduct non-Muslims around the mosque and teach them what Islam is all about without offending their sensibility.
Azeez-Onike further noted that a lot of people had been converted to the religion through the “Mosque Opening concept,” adding that if non-Muslims had more understanding of the Islamic religion and access to the mosque for more knowledge about the religion, it would enhance their confidence in relating more with Muslims.
“With this concept, we can invite non-Muslims to the mosque to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims and promote peace.
“This was the way our Prophet used the mosque; it was not only meant for prayer; it was used to address the differences amongst people of different views; it was to promote knowledge about Islam,” he said.
Also speaking, Sheikh Ahmed Kahooji, a volunteer with Discover Islam from Bahrain, while noting that the concept started 27 years ago and had yielded a lot of positive results, advised Muslims to live peacefully with everyone regardless of religion and based on the need to know each other.
He opined that no mosque should be closed to non-Muslims, saying that Muslims can share the knowledge they have with everyone as, according to him, “Allah’s basic command is to love others and live for others.”
“So, Islam is not only between man and God but must reflect the relationship between men,” he said.
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