But, first, how did the controversy about Pantami’s past preachments come to the forefront of national conversation? In a series of reports, complete with audiographic accompaniments, the Peoples Gazette has unearthed sermons by Pantami that amounted to unvarnished homiletic endorsements of terrorism and intolerance of non-Muslims. In the aftermath of the religious crisis in Shendam in Plateau State in 2004 in which Christian militiamen murdered scores of Hausa Muslims, Pantami was livid and tearful. The speech, which is about twenty minutes long, concludes with the prayer: ‘Oh God, give victory to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda’ (Allahumma ’nṣurṬālibānwa-tanẓīm al-Qā‘ida).”There are many more indefensible rhetorical endorsements of extremism that can be found in Pantami’s past preaching. After all, in December 2020, Sheikh Aminu Daurawa who, like Pantami, countenanced Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the early to mid-2000s, released an audiotape renouncing his past.

Source: Nigerian Tribune April 17, 2021 03:45 UTC