CAN Reacts to Islamic Cleric’s Muslim-Muslim Ticket, Calling Christians Infidels

Post created on 11:39 am

The Nigerian Christian community is in outrage over a viral video made by a popular northern Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yahya Jingir, urging northerners to vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He stated that if Christians, whom he referred to as infidels, do not want to accept this, they should leave Nigeria. Jingir’s statement has reignited another episode of what Christians have endured for years.

Reacting to the words of the Islamic cleric on Monday, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern States and the FCT, Joseph Hayab, condemned the acts, describing the derogatory words as an escalation of what Christians have been tolerating.

“We have always been tolerant of this, and I want to take us back.

“We have had the worst of these statements. But we have to be moderate. We have to be careful when we come to the public space.

“Honestly speaking, if Jingir had said, ‘Look, let’s vote for our Muslim brothers to show we are strong,’ it wouldn’t have been as offensive as adding the term ‘infidel.’
“The moment he went out of just campaigning and insulting, then it turns the story different.

“But we are saying this as Christians: we’ve had this for a long time, we’ve suffered this for a long time, we are familiar with this for a long time,” these were Hayab’s words on Channels TV.