Sensationalized headline sets Nigerian Muslims against Punch Newspapers – Hussaina Ahmed

Islamophobia, “an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against Islam or people who practice Islam”, has been ravaging a lot of countries.

The origin of Islamophobia in some western countries is linked to violence and terrorism carried out by people who are professedly Muslims. When such incidents are juxtaposed with the state of affairs in Nigeria and counter-violence on Muslims in some quarters, it becomes glaring that Islamophobia is a time bomb waiting to explode in Nigeria. It is however established that those that execute this violence actually do grave harm to the reputation of the Islamic religion. The consequences of Islamophobia in Nigeria as elsewhere are grossly undesirable and despicable. But this requires an urgent call to action to avert this impending psychological complex.

Let us take the updates over hours ago on PUNCH. The actions and updates as regards the Lagos state demolition have fuelled hate and unnecessary dismal between people in the country since its first news release.

Punch earlier today posted about the demolitions of buildings in Lagos state at FESTAC by the order of the government. However, in their headline, the news website only highlighted the demolition of churches whereas mosques were also demolished.

MuslimNews Nigeria highlighted the fueled hate and wrote about the prejudice of Punch news website.

Also, due to the criticism and backlash from some by Nigerians as regards the news website, there occurred a U-Turn followed by a swift update in the news. This time around tagging the headline to include “Mosques”.

The islamophobia does not end here.

In the updated news it was as good as nothing for the addition of “Mosques” in the updated version. This is because just as the demolished churches and locations were well detailed, interviews were granted to the church clerics. There was no single phrase that explained or talked about the mosques demolished.

This movement and practice by the punch is unprofessional and calls for a good check. This is because it encourages islamophobia and a healthy Nigeria needs not any agent towards the disunity between the two major religions or any tribe in the country.

In the real sense, field reports prove that two mosques on 2nd avenue if Festac Town, two mosques were demolished.
The details of this mosque will come in the updated version of this news when Nexus News field reporters get the full details.

Hussaina Ahmed is a reporter at Nexus News.