Jamatul Nasirul Islam (JNI) and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also called Shiites, has disagree with each other over the bill passed by Kaduna Government to regulate religious activities in the State.
Kaduna State, on Friday passed the Religious Preaching Regulation law by Kaduna State House of assembly.
Three years after the religious bill were examined by different religious bodies and individuals, the Assembly finally took a step and passed the bill last Friday after public hearing and accented into law by Governor Nasir el-Rufai.
The purpose of the bill is to control religious preaching in the state, with a view to promote religious harmony and peaceful co-existence among the people living in the State.
Reacting to the passage of the bill, and signed into law, JNI said the passage of the bill and signed into law is a welcome development, while IMN said the Kaduna state government was only enacting laws to suit its personal interest.
Legal adviser to JNI, Muhammad Shamwilu, who speak on the issue said .“This will curb future occurrence of crises in the society. Some people are agitating that Shiites abuse the wife of the holy prophet and that is why they were after them. When we met at the State House, everybody that hate speeches should be included in the bill.”
National secretary of IMN, Abdulmumini Giwa, said the movement had always being at the receiving end of the state government’s stringent policies, describing the bill as a plan by government to deny individuals the right to practise their religion.
Giwa, who insisted that the movement is law-abiding, said: “What we understand constitutionally in Nigeria is that there is freedom of religion. This implies that everyone has the right to practise the faith of his choice. In a situation where the government will only license those it chooses, then freedom of religion has been violated. This is a breach of the Constitution itself.”
Asked how the law will affect activities of IMN, Giwa said: “What I know is that our activities are still within the ambit of the Constitution. We have the right to practise our religion and nobody can stop us. So, sponsoring a fake law and bill and putting them into practice for selfish interest will never stop us.”
Efforts to get the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to sick their view on the recent development Kaduna state was not successful , as both the state chairman, Rev. John Hayab, and his secretary, Rev. Sunday Ibrahim, did not pick phone calls put through to them, at the time of filing this report.
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