President Muhammadu Buhari, the Sultan of
Sokoto, Abubakar Saad; and Boko Haram leader,
Abubakar Shekau, have again been listed among
the most powerful Muslims in the world.
This is contained in a Muslim publication, The
Muslim 500 in its 2018 edition.
The publication noted that there were
approximately 1.84 billion Muslims in the world,
making up 24.38 per cent of the world’s
population.
Last year, the trio also made the list of most
influential Muslims in the world.
Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Saad
Abubakar’s daughter, Fatima
Abubakar recently graduated from a
university in the United Kingdom.
Her father and the Emir of Kano,
Sanusi Lamido, were present to
celebrate her graduation held at
Brighton, United Kingdom, on
Thursday 20th July, 2017.
The Sultan of Sokoto has played down reports
that the current administration is making
surreptitious plans to islamize Nigeria following
the alleged scrapping of C.R.K.
Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar
The Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar,
on Friday, rejected suggestions that there were
plans to Islamise the country.
He said Muslims had been canvassing to make
Islamic Religious Knowledge a compulsory
subject in schools.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Abubakar
spoke at a national symposium and launching of
2025 Vision by Da’awah Coordination Council of
Nigeria.
The Sultan said, “When Umar Yar’Adua was
President, Christians and Muslims leaders wrote,
asking him to make Islamic and Christian
Religious Knowledge core and compulsory
subjects in schools.
“When Goodluck Jonathan took over, we
presented a paper making the same demand,
which was approved, but the then minister of
education refused to implement it for reasons
best known to him.
“So, I wonder why a controversy suddenly
surfaced over alleged attempts by Muslims to
force Islam on Christians by compelling students
to learn Islamic religion in schools,” he said.
He urged the DCCN to propagate Islam to non-
Muslims in a non-combative manner.
“Tell people what Islam is; tell them why they
should be Muslims and what difference it could
make to their lives,” he stated.
The Sultan also said the recent crisis in Mambilla
Plateau, Taraba State was not targeted at any
tribe.
“The crisis was not planned by individuals or
groups to eliminate any tribe; as an ex-military
officer, I can only believe that the crisis was
planned when I see a document to confirm that,”
he said.
He said he had met with some leaders in Taraba
and cautioned them against playing politics with
the lives of the people.
“As leaders, we must study situations during any
crisis before commenting. We must avoid
comments that will worsen already bad
situations,” he said.
He urged government to strive to bring culprits of
the Mambilla violence to book, and warned
against derogatory terms like “Islamic
fundamentalists or extremists, Fulani attackers,
Berom or Mambilla terrorists.”
