By Harun Elbinawi
It is important to note that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) under the leadership of His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky is not a Shia organization in Nigeria and other West African counties.
Spreading Shia Islam is not among the goals and objectives of IMN as the Movement rejects sectarianism. The Movement accepted all the school of thoughts of Islam and believes that Muslims should be allow the freedom of choosing the school of thought they want to belong.
IMN is a Movement whose main objective is Islamic Awakening, the Awakening of dead souls from slumber from the Dream State to the Awaken State. And this Awakening is not only limited to Muslims as Islam is a message to humanity. The target audience of IMN is the whole of humanity and that is why IMN is the only Islamic organization in Nigeria that invites Christian leaders to its programs and activities. Even if a person is a non-Muslim Awakening is important as such a person should be conscious of the devilish schemes and machinations of the New World Order (NWO) that comprises Western imperialism and Global Zionism.
One unfortunate condition of some world oppressed is that they ended up been the tools of the NWO who are their wicked oppressors. This is why Islamic Awakening is very important. It is part of this Awakening that prompted the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei to write his first historic Letter to the youths of Europe and North America after the murderous Paris attacks. And when the need arised later he wrote a second Letter to those youths. I humbly wrote ten (10) footnotes to those two Letters of Ayatollah Khamenei and some of them were published in some Iranian websites after translating them to Persian.
Another objective of Awakening is to produce upright and righteous components of the society that will serve the cause of humanity. There are various currents in our societies today, one of those currents is driving people especially the youths towards murderous terrorism-enabled currents that turned slaughter into an art. Awakening prevents such currents from taken shape in the minds of people as such current pose existential threat to peaceful coexistence among the various shade of humanity. Another current is the Zombies of imperialism who assimilate and parrot the agenda of the imperialist by becoming consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously its agent. Awakening prevents such current from taking shape.
Another goal of Awakening is to produce balanced components of the society that do not suffer from both superiority and inferiority complexes. A product that have all the confidence that God in His infinite mercy bestowed on mankind and it is this confidence that drives this finished components of the society towards greater knowledgeable heights that included scientific and technological advancement. We saw that happened in Iran after the glorious Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Then we come to the Issue of Islamic government. Generally, Islam is a worldview that can not be imposed by brute force. In the Quran God categorically stated that "There is no compulsion in religion". Prophet Muhammad (sa) did not just migrated to Madina and then established the Islamic government. The overwhelming majority of the people of Madina accepted an Islamic government in the pact that they signed with the Prophet (sa). After the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Khomeini (ra) did not just imposed the Islamic government. A nation-wide referendum was held and more than 98% of Iranians voted for the Islamic government and considering the tremendous progress that Iran has recorded within a short time of its history after the Revolution despite more than 30 years of cruel debilitating sanctions that was engineered by wicked Western imperialist, that choice was right and correct. There are various types of governments in the world today and the Islamic government is one of them, there is no law or rule that banned one from advocating for any of these types of governments. It is a matter of choice and people should be allowed freedom of choice.
For the information of those Shia-Zio-Wahhabis in Nigeria who recently launched massive campaign of calumny and demonization against Sheikh Zakzaky and the IMN and in support of the Nigerian oppressors who last December murdered 1000+ defenseless and unarmed Shia Muslims and dumped their dead bodies in mass graves, I say to you that we do not follow Ayatollah Khamenei because he is a Marjii, no we follow him because he is the Wilayat ul-Faqih. There are more than 60 Marjiis in the world today but there is only one Wilayat ul-Faqih. When Ayatollah Khamenei was elevated to this position after the sad demise of Imam Khomeini (ra) he was not a Marjii but we followed and obeyed him then. There are millions of Shia Muslims who follow other Marjiis but politically follow Ayatollah Khamenei as the Wilayat ul-Faqih.
On a final note, I humbly make this declaration "Before I am Shia, I am a Muslim and before I am Muslim, I am human!". We are not slaves of sectarianism as sectarianism has today become a potent weapon in the hands of Islam’s greatest enemies. We should open our hearts and embrace the whole of humanity, that is the worldview of Islam and that is the message of Islamic Awakening.
Harun Elbinawi