Dont get it twisted, The fight is against Terrorism!

I had an extensive chat with a Muslim friend of mine this morning, trying to understand the fundamentals of Islam. The chat was very enlightening but he told me in a simple sentence, Islam is a religion of Peace.

This desire to enlighten myself about Islam was prompted after I heard a couple of people discussing about boko haram and the Chibok girls. Before now, I haven’t really been involved in the #BringBackOurGirls movement, simply because I had my reservations. Don't blame me, I’m from a country where almost everything is political...the few issues that aren't political, are believed to be spiritual, so to me, this was just one of those political antics that will fizzle out with time, or so I believed, up until I saw the video of the abducted girls chanting something from the Qur’an in what appeared to be under duress.

At that instant, I felt so much rage, that a group of young girls could be held captive by a group of uncivilized men with no human feeling whatsoever.

It was in my emotional state, that someone said "all these Muslims sef". Right after that statement, I asked myself, have we become so narrow minded as humans? Or do we prefer to have something/someone to blame rather than tackle our core issues?

Still with this thought in mind, I was going to tweet about it before I saw someone's tweet which read "Hausa people, make suya and not bombs".  Just then did it hit me, we would rather wage war against humanity rather than deal with our differences.

We get so angry at any racist comment but in tribalism, we find solace. Take the topic of Marriage for instance, you hear things like "you want to marry Ibo? Ajeokuta mamomi? He will just use you for money rituals!!!"  Or something like "you want to marry Yoruba? Ofe mmanu? She will just leave you in times of trouble to go party somewhere!" So the child is thinking, ok...let me look for someone from my tribe to marry, not knowing that even within the same tribe, there is still war! Ijebu is too stingy, Imo is too lazy, Ah Ekiti is too far from us oh, abeg Anambra people are too proud, and the list is endless. Sigh!

In the light of the current happenings in our nation, I’ll like us to focus on what’s important. The fight for these chibok girls is not against the religion of Islam, neither is it against the Hausa tribe, it's against man's inhumanity towards man, it's against terrorism, it's against those who trample on our free-will and human rights!!!

Boko-Haram means war against western education, but how do we show we are more enlightened than they are if we still point fingers in the wrong direction?

To the Christians pointing fingers at Muslims, haven't you heard of pastors who make their members eat grass? Haven’t you heard of the naked church where everyone present must be naked? I’m a believing Christian but trust me, I’ve heard a lot of crazy stories and what does this tell me? It tells me that there will always be fanatics, people who twist the gospel to suit their own beliefs. But I still hold my religion dear and I respect others because the truth is humanity is about variety, just like the popular saying "variety is the spice of life". To fight variety is to neglect the spice, to fight diversity is to wage war against humanity.

Let’s not give these men the privilege of calling them Muslims, Hausas or whatever, they are simply terrorists and our fight is, should be, and will always be against Terrorism not against Humanity!

#BringBackOurGirls

#PrayForNigeria

#LiveAndLetLive

#RespectMyDifference!!!