‘No Court Order Will Stop Us From Practicing Our Religion’ – Shi’ites

Shiites Leader, el-zakzaky
IMN Leader, El-Zakzaky

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) better known as Shi’ites, have shared their thoughts on the recent court ruling which saw them been declared as a terrorist group by the Federal government.

Recall on Friday, July 26th, Justice Nkeonye Maha of the Federal High Court in Abuja, banned the group’s activities across the Federation.

This is coming after a youth Corper serving with Channels TV, Precious Owolabi, a deputy police commissioner Umar Bebel and 10 others, were killed during a clash recently.

Reacting to the ruling, the secretary to the group said;

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“Everybody is aware of their moves. All they want is to suppress the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) just to please Saudi Arabia. They want to kill Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky and silence all of us. When they were killing us, they didn’t get any court order. Now, they are talking of court order, does Buhari obey court orders?

I don’t think any court has the right to ban any religious group. The Islamic movement in Nigeria is not an organisation registered under the government, it is a religious group. Are they trying to stop us from saying our daily prayers?”

Do they want to stop us from participating in our Christian neighbour activities? Do they want to stop us from going to Mecca? The issue is that they have been killing and they want to continue the killings, they should go ahead with their killings, no need to wait for any court. We are practising religion and we will continue to practice our religion, there is no killing or act of intimidation that will stop us from practicing our religion.

The president or the governor of any state cannot force us to adopt their ideology, they want us to succumb to their own ideology and we have said no. This government is killing us because they feel that it this is time for Jihad. They should go ahead with their jihad, when they are through with us they will move to the Christians and other religious bodies.

You can’t just wake up and say you have proscribed the activities of IMN. It’s like saying you have banned the Catholic Church or any other church. Does that make any sense? Is there any constitution backing that? We are practising religion and we will continue practising the religion they have been killing us and we did not stop practising our religion, they should go ahead because we won’t stop.”

“Once they allow Zakzaky out of custody, we will leave the streets. If they release him today, they will not see us on the street tomorrow. “ he said.