Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has denounced alleged denial of some hijab-wearing muslim candidates from partaking in the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, examination held on Thursday by some invigilators and supervisors.
MURIC spoke in reaction to a tweet by a former broadcaster, Sulaiman Aladeh, that his daughter was not allowed to sit for the examination because of her hijab.
The tweet reads: “My daughter is writing her @JAMBHQ today but she just called me now that she’s been asked to remove her hijab before she’s allowed in at the center at New Ocean School, Megida, Ayobo. Is that the rule please? She’s NOT the only one cos they’re from a MUSLIM school.”
In a statement issued by the founder and director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, the group said the action of the invigilators and supervisors at the centre in question was “despicable, repugnant and barbaric.”
The statement by MURIC reads in part: “We are aware of the refusal of some JAMB invigilators and supervisors to allow female Muslim candidates who wore hijab to the centers to sit for the examinations. This action is despicable, repugnant and barbaric. It is also illegal, unlawful, illegitimate and unconstitutional. When will Muslim-haters grow up? When will they become democracy-compliant? When will they respect the rule of law?
“The law says hijab is constitutional (Section 38 (i) and (ii)) but they will rather follow their whims and caprices. The Muslims of the South West are being taken for granted. Our love for peaceful coexistence and our reluctance to take the law into our hands is being mistaken for cowardice. But we will like to warn that there is a limit to patience.
“We remind Muslim haters in the South West that there are no more ‘stupid monkeys’ in Idanre. The only remaining monkeys over there are smarter than homo sapiens. Every day may be for the oppressors and Muslim-haters but certainly there will be one day for the oppressed Muslims.”
MURIC added: “This profiling of Muslims particularly through the denial of hijab rights has been on for a long time. The Muslim victims cry out daily. Many cases of hijab denial are in the courts. Yet the various state governments pretend as if nothing is happening. Worse still, the Federal Government has ‘decided not to interfere’. The message is very clear. The authorities are telling us that the fate of Muslims is in the hands of Muslims.
“MURIC therefore calls on Muslims in the South West to prepare for a long, intellectual and nonviolent struggle. Female Muslim students are hereby instructed to carry recording gadgets on their persons. We want all provocations, victimisations and acts of stigmatisation to be secretly recorded wherever they occur because it will be impossible to get a conviction if there is no concrete evidence.
“We charge Islamic organisations, particularly the Muslim Lawyers Association (MULAN), the Muslim Teachers Association (MUTAN), the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisation (NACOMYO), the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), The Muslim Congress (TMC) to re-engineer their mobilisation strategies towards deflating this rising persecution ego among Muslim-haters in the sub-region. It is high time some fanatical Muslim-haters were made to face the full wrath of the law.”
