CAN To Buhari: Nigeria Not Islamic State…Stop Siding Palestine

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has rejected the Organization of Islamic Conference’s call for Nigeria to join other Islamic countries to punish Israel for launching rockets into Gaza, Palestine, in retaliation to rockets fired into the country by the Islamic Resistance Movement popularly known as Hamas.

CAN’s reaction came after the OIC, whose Nigeria membership is being opposed by Christians in the country, summoned an emergency meeting of Islamic countries, where resolutions were passed against Israel in favour of Hamas and Palestine.

THE WHISTLER reported that at the virtual meeting on Sunday, the OIC threatened that there won’t be “security and stability” until Islam’s “first qibla and third holiest sanctuary” are fully liberated and returned to Palestine and the Islamic community.

CAN, which is the apex umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, specifically frowned at the Turkish President’s alleged call on President Muhammadu Buhari to join the Arab world in fighting Israel.

It quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as calling on, “the international community to teach the necessary lesson to unlawful, unjust and unscrupulous Israel due to its attacks against Palestine,” adding that “President Erdogan voiced his belief that Nigeria would show solidarity with the Palestinians in this rightful cause.”

In a statement by its National Secretary, Daramola Joseph Bade, CAN said: “We are worried that Nigeria which was wrongly labelled an Islamic State because of her unlawful membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has been taking side with the Palestinians since the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari. Hence why the Turkish President asked Nigeria to identify with the Palestinians.”

THE WHISTLER recalls that President Buhari had in 2016 declared total support for the Palestinian State in its longstanding conflict with Israel.

“I want to assure you that we will stand side by side with you, until our brothers and sisters in Palestine achieve their desired objectives,” Buhari was quoted by his senior media adviser, Femi Adesina, as telling the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Bin Hammad Al-Thani, during their 2016 meeting in Qatar.

But CAN said, “On behalf of every Nigerian Christian, we call on the Federal government to reverse itself on the support that has been given to the Palestinians to date. For the record, millions of Nigerian Christians are in support of Israel against the position of the government. We once again remind the Federal government and the National Assembly that Nigeria is not an Islamic State.

“We call on the International community to intervene in the ongoing bloody actions in the Middle East without taking side if they truly wanted an enduring peace. We agree with the United States that Israel has the right to defend herself against external aggression. We see no reason why Nigeria should take side with either of the warring factions.”

The renewed Israeli–Palestinian crisis started on May 6 following Palestinian protests that erupted into violence.

The Palestinians were protesting an anticipated Israeli Supreme Court judgment on the eviction of six Palestinian families from a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Two Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were said to have began firing rockets into Israel from Gaza after Israel ignored their call to withdraw the country’s troops from the neighborhood.

Israel had retaliated the rocket attacks, resulting in at least 140 Palestinians and 10 Israelis’ deaths