Mubarak Bala’s Illegal Arrest And Imprisonment -By Chibuike Obi

“Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce. “Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī أبو العلاء المعري‎‎(973-1057)

“Religion does three things quite effectively: divides people, controls people, and deludes people”. Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney

It is tragic and disgraceful that in the 21^st century a person can be subject to extrajudicial arrest and imprisonment for criticizing a 7^th century Arabic religious belief system.

It s even more tragic for those of us who are referred to as sub-Saharan Africans because more than any other contemporary ethnic and racial group we seem to be willing prisoners in the mental dungeon of religious belief systems originating from the Asian Middle-East.

Mental, cultural, religious, political and economic servitude to North Americans, Western Europeans and Middle-Eastern Asians appear to be embedded in our DNA and it seems as if we have collectively agreed not to think for ourselves, believe in ourselves or even like ourselves. Any ideology or religious belief, so long as it is foreign, we instantly embrace and assiduously hold on to even when the originators of that idea or belief may have long abandoned or modified it. We seem to find it impossible to discriminate in adopting and adapting to foreign ideas and customs so we invariably copy the worst that has ever come out of both the Occident and the Orient.

It should then be heartwarming when some of us begin to show signs of waking up from our long nightmare of perpetual servility to foreigners-first the Europeans and Arabs and now it seems the Chinese.

Mr. Mubarak Bala had woken up and decided to think for himself. In thinking for himself he rejected the Islam that he was raised in which he had the right to do as an autonomous entity .This caused him no end of grief at the time he did so. Now he is being persecuted and tormented again for his free thinking and his criticism of the Islamic religion. According to Amnesty International he was arrested on the 28^th of April in Kaduna, taken to Kano on the 30^th of April and has been in solitary confinement since then.

I do not know nor particularly care to know what Mr. Bala said or wrote about prophet Mohamed or Islam. If he said or wrote something false about a person-the person if he or she is alive should counter openly Mr. Bala’s falsehood in any of the numerous print, electronic or social media available in the 21^st century or the person can go further and sue Mr. Bala in a court of Law. If the person is dead, that person’s relatives, acolytes, friends or indeed anybody who hates another person being maligned or traduced can also counter Mr. Bala’s assertions. In fact since I equally hate anybody being maligned or traduced I am quite willing to challenge Mr. Bala’s assertions if the person’s acolytes or devotees can provide me with the rational evidence of Mr.Bala’s falsehoods regarding the person. If it is the person’s ideas or the religion that he founded that was falsely presented or unfairly critiqued, again the person’s followers should present their counter-arguments confuting the false presentation or the unfair critique. It is only when you know that your arguments are weak or unjustifiable that you resort to violence and intimidation to argue your case. It is only then that you resort to hijacking and perverting the security apparatus of a supposedly secular state to brow-beat your opponent in a religious issue.

For those people who were offended, hurt, infuriated or maddened beyond endurance by what Mubarak Bala said or wrote, there is really no reason to threaten or harass him. Just try and calm down, take several deep breaths and try to make the case why you think he is wrong about your religion or prophet and if that does not satisfy you then leave the matter to your god and his prophet both of whom should be able to deal with Mr. Bala, if they at all have the extraordinarily wide-ranging powers you claim they have.

Because it is only very little children who when they are offended or their strongly-held beliefs are shattered cry, scream, thrash about and throw tantrums which only subsides when they are either pacified with sweets or a shiny toy, disciplined or when they eventually become tired and fall asleep. It is perhaps this attitude which made Robert A Heinlein an American science-fiction writer and engineer to say that “Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child”.

The precondition for living harmoniously in a secular space with people who may have different or no religious beliefs is that no particular belief or lack of it is privileged over the others and all should equally be subject to open debate and criticism.

However if your religious belief is deeply held that it has become the only basis for your existence then it is indeed possible that any criticism of your beliefs no matter how valid may cause you such acute or excruciating existential anguish that you can only kill or maim people in order to gain respite, then there may be two courses of action available to you. One is to see a mental health practitioner who may help you embark on an extensive programme of deprogramming and deradicalization (this might may be necessary to wean you of extreme indoctrination in a religion which for thousands of years before the first Muslim trader/missionary/slaver/invader ever set foot in Africa, your ancestors lived very happily without and your descendants thousands of years hence, barring nuclear Armageddon or climate change catastrophe, will in all probability also live very happily without). The other is to build a time machine that will transport you to 7th century Arabia where you can build a community of consenting adults and in which the price of admission will be total and willing submission to your dogmas and beliefs.

For we atheists, agnostics, freethinkers will not yield our right to be free of the dogmas, superstitions and shackles of foreign religions be it Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism etc and the dogmas, superstitions and shackles of indigenous African religions.

For the so-called secular or progressive religionists, in my opinion a contradiction in terms if ever there was one, NOW is time to speak up for Mubarak Bala. Those of you are Nigerians or familiar with Nigeria know that General Buhari is already well on his way down the path of tyranny and repression and should realize not only the harrowing ordeal Mr. Bala is going through but the vey danger and precariousness of his position. In particular the secular or progressive Muslims who may be keeping quite perhaps because they too think Mubarak Bala maligned their prophet may do well to remember the quote by Evelyn Hall summarizing the deist Voltaire (one of the major 18^th century enlightenment figures who fought to make Europe secular) on free speech “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

There may even be those who think criticism of religion should take second place to criticizing Buhari’s regressive, inept and disastrous economic and political policies. Those people should realize that in the first place a man’s life is at stake and in the second place religious freedom is inextricable from the social, economic and political freedoms which together make a just and humane society.

I may as well end with words of the German theologian and Lutheran pastor who regretted his initial acquiescence and silence when the Nazis persecuted people he considered his ideological enemies; atheists, social democrats and communists.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Nigeria is an unwieldy artificial contraption originally welded together for ease of British political administration and economic exploitation and maintained thereafter for those same interests with the help of local comprador northern elites and their southern hangers-on. In recent times the fault lines indicating disintegration have become more obvious and it is anybody’s guess when the entire rotten structure will collapse.

But while Nigeria is still a country Buhari (to the extent that he is sentient) and his henchmen are slowly but inexorably transforming Nigeria into a religious and ethnic autocracy and this has emboldened and strengthened the vilest and most reactionary religious and ethnic supremacists in the country especially those in Northern Nigeria.

If we do not speak out and act now to arrest this creeping totalitarianism we will all be consumed before we can peacefully go our separate ways or collectively work out conditions for our continued stay together.

Free Mubarak Bala Now.

He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. – William Drummond