Death and Desecration of Koran in Nigeria

Leo Igwe

Any one who says that Islam stands for peace should take a critical look at the recent killing of a schoolteacher by muslim pupils in Northern Nigeria
On March 21 Mrs. Oluwatoyin Oluwaseesin was attacked and murdered in cold blood by students of Government Day Secondary School Gandu in Gombe State for allegedly desecrating the Koran.

On this fateful day, Mrs Oluwaseesin was assigned to invigilate students writing an examination on Islamic Religious Studies. But in the course of that, she noticed that one of the students came into the Hall with her school bag. She took it from her and put it away. Some reports said she dumped the bag on the floor. Whatever the case, the teacher’s action was followed by chanting of Allah Akbar-God is Great-by the students who said the bag contained a Koran. They accused her of desecrating it.

First of all they set her car ablaze. And later they seized her, stripped her naked, stabbed her to death and burnt her corpse. They later dumped the remains at the back of her burning car.

The students went on to raze down three classes, the school’s administrative block, library, and the clinic. They also attacked and injured the school principal who tried to shield the woman during the rampage. As often the case whenever there is a religious uprising in Northern Nigeria, the state government has set up a panel of inquiry to look into the matter. And Mrs. Oluwaseesin has since been buried in her hometown- Abeokuta.

This is not the first time a non muslim has been murdered in Northern Nigeria for desecrating the Koran. In December 1996, a Christian Igbo trader, Mr Gideon Akaluka was beheaded by muslim youths in Northern city of Kano. According to the report, Mr Akaluka’s wife was said to have torn a piece of the Islamic holy book. But some muslim youths in the city went after the husband, who ran into a police station.

But these fanatics went there, overpowered the police, and took Mr. Akaluka. They cut off his head, which they spiked along the streets in Kano.

For us to have a better understanding of the maddening and twisted psyche of these youths and anyone else that believes in, aids or abets such atrocious crime, let us examine briefly the term desecration. To desecrate means to divest of holiness or sacredness. So any act that strips a person or an object-be it a book, bead, water, oil, image etc of its sacred character can be termed desecration.

By implication, sanctity is subjective and relative. What is sacred to one religious believer could be profane to another. Sacredness is not an attribute that belongs to a thing as such. Hence, holiness is conferred or invested on a thing or person. When Jews invest a house or a piece of land with ‘holiness’ they call it Synagogue, Christians call theirs a church, and Muslims a mosque etc.

The same is applicable to their books. The Jews call their holy book, Torah, the Christians, the Bible and the Muslims, the Koran. There are innumerable other things from the most absurd to the most stupid which religionists revere and regard as sacred.

In this case, the teacher’s action was interpreted by the students to have stripped the Koran of its sanctity. Other acts that could be equated to desecration by Muslims include sitting on the Koran, spitting on the Koran, tearing the Koran, defecating on the Koran, burning the Koran etc.

But many issues continue to burn in and boggle my mind.

First of all at what point does a thing- a Koran in this case- becomes sacred? Is it at the point of revelation? Definitely there was nothing like divine revelation. Or is it at the point of codification, transcription, editing, printing or binding? Is it the words contained in the Koran that make it holy-whatever that means- or the paper with which they are printed? If it is the words, does it mean that any paper, book or piece of publication where Koranic words are printed is holy? And how many Koranic injunctions printed on a piece of paper or in a publication can make it holy? And where was the sacredness of the Koran before the invention of papers, printing and writing?

Particularly I want to know- in what way does the teacher’s action –whether she kept or dumped the bag or the Koran itself on the floor- constitutes desecration? Did her action diminish or corrupt the words and message contained therein? What damage did it do to the book or the religion of Islam?

And let’s assume that someone for whatever reason tears the Koran or burns it. Definitely another Koran can be purchased. And even if all the Koran in this world were to be defiled and destroyed, is it that Muslims do not believe that their almighty Allah could reveal and send down more and better copies of the divine message in indefilable, indestructible and indesecrable form? I think this incident of religious bloodletting and savagery like other instances in the past is a clear demonstration of lack of faith on the part of these Muslims. (And Allah will punish them severely for that!)

Apart from the fact that the so-called desecration makes no sense; death is often handed down to any person who is alleged to have committed the offence. And the question I put to all Muslims who uphold this outrageous belief is this- if a rat eats up some parts of the Koran, will the same punishment be visited on it? What happens if a goat urinates on the Koran or if in the course of printing some pages of the Koranic pages are mutilated by the machine? Will they kill the goat? Will they destroy the machine?

But I am aware that the primary motive behind the murderous action of these muslim pupils is the quest to inherit paradise especially the 72 virgins. Surely these young murderers regard their action as a sacred duty. They believe Allah will reward them abundantly in the hereafter. But at the end of the day, they would be disappointed to realize (unfortunately they will never) that there is no Allah, no paradise, and no 72 virgins to inherit. And that they have been deceived and misled by the Koran and by their religion.

Meanwhile the question I put to them and those who think Allah would reward such gruesome act is this: If Allah will reward you for killing a human being who desecrates the Koran, will he or she reward you for killing a rat, a goat or an insect who defiles your holy book? If not, why not?

Personally I think if there is anything that is sacred, it is life- in this case the human life including the lives of religious believers and non believers- not the Koran or the Bible, not the image of any prophet-great or small. And if there is any thing that constitutes desecration it is not the dumping or destruction of the Koran or the cartooning of a prophet who died long ago. But the mindless wasting and destruction of human lives as in this case.

A Koran that is defiled can be 'cleansed'. A Koran that is mutilated can be amended. A Koran that is destroyed can be replaced. In fact a Koran that is desecrated can invested with “higher” sacredness! But a human life once snuffed out cannot be replaced.
But I know that these young Muslims who murdered their teacher do not- and cannot reason this way. Because they have been brought up to accord more value to a book – an ordinary book- than to human lives. They have been taught to embrace violence and bloodletting as a sacred duty. Like their counterparts in the Middle East, these muslim pupils are hard-wired to islamic fanaticism, absolutism, irrationalism and bigotry.

Personally I see in their action another confirming evidence of the impotency and non-existence of the Islamic God and the enormous danger and harm Islamic religion, the primitive codifications in the Koran and the religious indoctrination of children and youths constitute to human civilization, development, enlightenment and progress in this 21st century.