Being an avid reader of your (Festus Adedayo) weekly column in the Sunday Tribune, your last bombshell on the Islamic religion was no surprise, afterall you once protested against your God for allegedly being unfair to you in the death of your brother which prompted you to threaten to stop going to church. Your last year derogatory remarks on Islam was met with simultaneous condemnations. But since you have failed to repent and with your recent comment on Islamic pilgrimage, I am compelled to correct the erroneous impression you may have given to the gullible public.
If because there were incidents in Mecca, you recommended interdiction of the spiritual exercise, then football matches in Europe which routinely witness many deaths in the name of hooliganism, should be proscribed. If because of the death of less than 400 people in a span of five years, you concluded that the injunction is ripe for the dustbin, then Reverend Bonnke whose visit to Benin in three days resulted in more than 20 deaths, must be forbidden from pastoring. His crusade witnessed injury and death to adherents. In fact, boarding schools should be cancelled based on the recent incident in Jos.
If your advice to Muslim that pilgrimages should be held here in Nigeria is based on patriotism then, the government must stop outright Nigerian academics travelling abroad for further studies, same with Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem, which are not even recognized in the Holy Bible. Foreign trips by government officials and businessmen must be confined to Nigeria, afterall travelling by airplane which is noted for massive deaths through air crashes, cannot be acceptable, a la Festuslogy!
You need to realize that your sociological views, Marxist ideology and whimsical brouhaha against religious faiths are detrimental to your professional calling as many who cannot reply you may respond with spiritual missiles and even can invoke Fatwa or Intifadah against your person. I hope you know what I mean. It is better to concentrate your energies on fighting against societal ills, moral decadence and public corruption than taking arms against religious practices and acceptable norms.
This rejoinder by Yushau A. Shuaib was originally published in Tribune March 25, 2001
