We would have achieved more if Islamic scholars preached to bandits – Gumi
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, stated that a more extensive deployment of Islamic scholars to engage with bandits in northwestern Nigeria could have yielded significant results. He expressed this view in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Gumi suggested that sustained religious engagement might complement, and in some instances, lessen the reliance on primarily military responses to the ongoing crisis. He pointed out that many of these bandits emerge from the same conditions of ignorance, deprivation, and social neglect that have contributed to the escalating violence in the region.
“Since 2021, nearly six years since we commenced our outreach to bandits, one can only speculate on the progress that could have been made if a greater number of credible Islamic scholars had been systematically deployed to engage with them across the North-West,” Gumi remarked.
He emphasized the importance of educating these individuals about the sanctity of human life, the protection of property, and the Islamic prohibitions against killing and oppression. “People are the victims of their own prejudice,” he concluded.
