Our attention has been drawn to the scandalous and defamatory script concocted by the Tell magazine of Monday 10/06/2013 and written by one Anayochukwu Agbo.
We are forced to believe that the content of the write-up was a deliberate attempt at defaming the image of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the character and person of the revered leader of the Movement.
In a display of lack of professionalism in the practice of journalism, distortion of facts and concoction of blatant lies against the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and its revered leader Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H), the Tell magazine has chosen to serve more as a tool of propaganda than its claim of Nigeria’s independent magazine.
It is indeed unfortunate that a magazine like that could reduce its self so low as to be used by mischief makers to ignite the flame of discontent among Nigerians, it is mere display of shamelessness and an embarrassment to the profession.
It is not surprising that such maliciousness could come from the Tell magazine as it is clear to everyone that the Nigerian media, as a replica of its mentors in Europe and America, has always nursed heavy bias against Islam and Muslims in its reports.
Contrary to the insinuations describing the Movement as a terrorist organization, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is a mass Movement of people calling for the establishment of fairness and justice in our immediate environment through peaceful means of enlightenment, awareness and education.
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has been in existence for the past 35 years during which millions of Nigerians have identified with the course of the Movement which is not based on armed insurgence and terrorism and does not identify with any group of such qualities.
It is clear from the malicious write-up that the intention was to create sympathy for America and Israel and to use the opportunity to promote the unpopular ideals of the Nigerian government of the day that is not only anti-Islamic but also spending the Nigerian resources financing a phobia against Islam and Muslims.
It is also the intention of the deceptive write-up to use the opportunity to link the political opponents of Goodluck Jonathan from northern Nigeria in particular, which has a majority Muslim population and the Islamic Movement with the Boko Haram.
It has since been revealed that the Boko Haram is not in any way different from other terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Taliban which are all covert operations of the CIA meant for the pursuit of the greedy interest of their creators as revealed by Williams Asange on Wikkileaks.
For some time now, the Nigerian security apparatus which, has clearly been infested by the Americans and Israelis who use it to promote their destructive projects in Nigeria, has been looking for ways to prove that the Islamic Movement is being financed by the Islamic Republic of Iran without success. This is because the Movement is not in any way financed by the Islamic Iran but by the simple handout contributions of its members.
Yes, the Islamic Movement receives inspiration from the Islamic Republic of Iran from its successful revolution led by the late Ayatullah Ruhulla Khumaini (QS) which emancipated them from the exploitative and oppressive West and America and set them along the track of development. It is such that today Iran is a free and independent entity and a Super-power in the Middle East.
It might interest you to know that, were Islamic Iran to detract from the path on which it was set by the late Imam Khumaini (QS), the Islamic Movement in Nigeria will cease to identify with it.
In this regard, the Islamic Movement does not require any military training from the Islamic Iran as insinuated by the Tell magazine.
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria deserves an immediate public apology from the Tell magazine for its defamatory statements against the revered leader of the Movement Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky(H). Contrary to its claim, Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) is a spiritual leader and not a perpetrator of a political ambition as maliciously mentioned by the Tell magazine. It is true that the poor and oppressed people, whom the Tell magazine described as ‘impoverished’ look up to the revered leader for hope because they have been neglected, suppressed and oppressed by the wicked and corrupt Nigeria leaders who have turned public resources in to their personal accounts.
It might relieve the Tell magazine of the compound ignorance it had displayed trying to defame the revered leader of the Islamic Movement as fighting for the full implementation of the Sharia law in Nigeria to mention that Islam is a complete system of life with its social, political, economic and judicial (called Shariah) aspects. Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) would never strive to enforce Shariah under a system of governance that is not Islamic for this will only tantamount to deception and chaos. For Shariah, which is the judicial wing of the Islamic system, to be implemented, the Islamic system has to be established first.
It is also an insinuation that in 2009 members of the Islamic Movement attacked the motorcade of the Emir of Zazzau. The motorcade of the Emir was attacked by miscreants as he approached a gathering of the Islamic Movement close to the Eid ground at Kofan Doka in Zaria. In this regard, the Emir’s palace issued a press release signed by the Emirs Secretary stating that it was not the members of the Islamic Movement that attacked the motorcade.
It is also true that the leadership of the Movement is made up of graduates of universities and it might interest you to also know that the revered leader Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) is a graduate of economics with first class honor from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. This contradicts the mischievous efforts of trying to link the Movement with Boko Haram which has an opposite opinion about Western form of Education and also displays the intellectual strength and might of the think-tank of the Islamic Movement.
In this regard, we hereby call on the Tell magazine to, as a matter of necessity retract its defamatory statements against the Islamic Movement and its revered leader and offer a public apology in the next edition of the magazine and in not less than two reputable national dailies.
Ibrahim Musa
President
Media Forum of Islamic Movement