By Henry Oladele
Lagos – An Islamic group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has felicitated with President Muhammadu Buhari, Muslims as well as all Nigerians on the occasion of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration and called for an end to rape.
The MURIC Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, in Lagos on Friday, also felicitated with the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’d Abubakar on the occasion.
Akintola, however, advised Nigerians to emulate Prophets Ismail and Luqman, to find a lasting solution to the problem of rape, which had become rampant in modern societies, especially Nigeria.
”The focus of our Salah message this year is the panacea to rape as one of the problems facing our society.
“One of the major reasons for the preponderance of the incidents of rape is the failure of parents to guide their children.
“In particular, many parents fail to teach their male children how to respect the other sex. They, therefore, grow up treating women and girls like underdogs.
”Rape will reduce in society if all parents teach their male children about the sanctity of womanhood,” he said in a statement.
He added that most young boys committed rape without knowing the implications, saying that they needed to be tutored to respect women and to know the legal implication of such act.
”Nigerians should borrow a leaf from the lessons of Eid-el-Kabir and from Islam in general.
“If all Nigerian parents tutor their children the way Prophet Luqman (peace be upon him) did in Qur’an 31:13–19, our youths will be better guided.
“Luqman told his son to ‘enjoin righteousness and forbid evil’. Rape is evil; it is an act of wickedness; it is barbaric.
”In the same vein, Prophet Ismail (peace be upon him) obeyed his father, even when his father informed him that Allah had commanded him to sacrifice his son,” Akintola said.
He said that was the height of obedience, saying that this was exactly what children of today lacked.
“The phenomenon of rape will be drastically reduced with the combination of parents who tutored their children properly, like Prophet Luqman did,” he said.
(NAN)
