The world woke on 7th October 2023 to witness raw terror when Hamas militants invaded Israel from the Gaza strip and massacred 260 civilians, injured a greater number, and took an unknown number of hostages (figures vary between 160 and 300 people) at the “Supernova Sukkot Gathering”, an open-air psychedelic trance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot near the Re’im kibbutz.
We have seen and witnessed in the past, terror in more horrific dimensions than what happened on that early hours of Saturday in that border town of Israel and we will still witness more as we continue to live because the world we live in is filled with people with their hearts filled with pure and undiluted evil which they and their supporters, sadly, seem to have justification for.
Israel and Palestinians have a long history of violence, and the Gaza strip seems to be the epicentre of it. There is no need then to bore the reader with the long, sad and sordid history. So, what happened penultimate Saturday at the Israeli town of Re’im Kibbutz did not come to many as a surprise. When you have a violent neighbour that you have been having a running battle with, you should not leave your children at home unguarded. Sadly, Israel left her children at home that unfortunate day, unprotected. However, the gory incident has now degenerated into a full blown war.
Some minutes before this piece was written, CNN news showed Israeli forces gearing up for a ground offensive on Gaza after over a week of heavy aerial bombardments that have left Palestinian death toll at almost 3,000 while Israeli’s remains at about 1,300. Nations are throwing their supports for the warring parties. America, Israel’s most powerful ally has not hidden its support in terms of finance and military hardware. America is known for that anyway, they don’t pretend in matters like this. Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas’s strong backers have also made their stand known. The stage is now set for an escalation of violence in the region with Israel vowing to put an end to Hamas once and for all. It is long overdue if you asked me anyway. Nobody will pretend not to know that Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation and who will be comfortable having a deadly terror group living next door to him?
But the crux of this piece is not about what is happening in faraway Midlle East, no, it is not. It is what is happening right in our midst here in Nigeria.
Since fresh violence erupted between Israel and Hamas, I have noticed that a muffled non violent war has begun between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. It is pertinent to note that some Christians, naturally have taken sides with Israel while Muslims with Hamas even though they claim it is with the civilian Palestinians. Very convenient. And typical of some Muslims, they needed to remind Christians that Israel is not a Christian country. In fact, in a series of coordinated posts by different Muslims on Social media, they have been constantly reminding Christians in Nigeria backing Israel that the Christian population of Israel is 00.5 per cent. Yes, that is public knowledge. They reminded Christians too that Israel is a Jewish nation that hates Christianity and even persecutes anyone that publicly practised the religion. That is very true too. Done with that phase of the campaign, a video that was aired on Al Jazeera news television recently where some Christians were being spat upon by some Jewish people in an Israeli town was exhumed and made to look like it just happened even while the Israeli/Hamas war was going on.
And the age long argument of who owns the land Israel is occupying has come up once again. The campaign has been so well coordinated that it cannot be just a random thing. This thing is being coordinated from a ‘headquarter’ somewhere that releases this information for these individuals to run with. I will not be surprised that what we have been reading online is being preached in mosques and other religious gatherings of Muslims. A young Muslim friend who I never knew had this extremist tendencies sent me a very long piece on a WhatsApp broadcast. It must have taken the writer days if not weeks, to write and it was written in 2021. Written by Ibn Taofeek Abdu Azeez, it took the reader on a long, winding journey of how Israel came to occupy its present land and how Saudi Arabia was the betrayal that sold the Palestinians out to Israel. Britain and America were not spared too. So, like I said, this cannot be a random campaign; a well oiled propaganda machinery is in place driving it and I must commend the drivers for doing a great job no matter how divisive and dangerous their objectives are.
Now, let us bring us back to the reality of the situation on ground. Hamas, a terrorist organisation surreptitiously crossed the border from Gaza into Israel and murdered young and old people enjoying themselves at a music festival, 260 unarmed civilians. They did not stop there. These bloodsuckers went into neighbouring homes and killed families including little children numbering over a thousand. At the end, they took over 160 hostages back to Gaza after over seven hours of their murderous expedition on Israeli soil. One would think that all what is needed to condemn the murderous act is just to be a human being and not being a Muslim or Jewish or Christian or even a babalawo!
But here we have some people who have taken it upon themselves to, in a subtle manner, justify terrorism. I was forced to ask one of my Facebook ‘friends’, a Muslim, who posted an old Palestinian coin dating back centuries ago perhaps to drive home the point that they(Palestinians) have been on that land long before Israel, I asked him if he was trying to justify the action of Hamas. I wanted him to say something but he sensed the trap I had set for him, so he pretended not to read my comment on his post. Others I asked this same question after seeing one of their coordinated campaign posts, tried feebly to answer it. When they failed, they became aggressive and accused me of being a Christian, well, probably because of my name.
How many people will I explain to that I have not been to church since 1990 when the scale fell from my eyes and I realised that I had been blind all along? I think it was something similar that happened to Saul and he became Paul, in the bible. In my case, there was no change of name, I just became a new person who saw through the deceit and lies of Pastors and churchgoers. Did what happened to me in 1990 turned me into a saint? NO! It only helped me to unclad the hypocritical garb many others who call themselves Christians today, wear like a badge of honour and strut atound like a beautiful peacock. And it is important to say that in 1990, the present madness being witnessed in Christianity, especially in Nigeria, was just about 00.1 per cent. It is now over 180 per cent!
Why should any sane Nigerian be afraid of the scenario playing out from the outcome of the Israeli/Hamas war? Let me try to answer the question. Terrorists murdered in cold blood innocent people and all some people because the terrorists belong to their religious faith could do or say is to begin a subtle justification of the act of terror! Has religion so robbed us of our humanity? At this point, I am tempted to believe the conspiracy theory that all the Islamic linked terrorists groups are being supported largely by the people and that is why they will never go away.
Let us take ‘our own’ Boko Haram for instance, have you for once sat down to ponder what really is their staying power even with the daily onslaught against them by the military? They have the sympathy of a large population of civilian northerners. The Israeli/Hamas war has opened the eyes to know that some muslims only cry out when their terrorists attack Muslims. I have this feeling that most people up north celebrate quietly when Boko haram target non muslims. They only wail loudly when they strike and Muslims end up as collateral damage. If Boko Haram(God forbids) overrun the entire Southern region and make Nigeria a caliphate like the Taliban has done to Afghanistan, you will see the true colour of many Muslims that you thought had been against their evil act. You will witness firsthand total religious dominance. These closet terrorists and sympathisers of terror are so many, their real numbers will shock you in the event of a Boko haram rule over all of Nigeria.
By the way, some of the Muslims in Nigeria trying to justify Hamas’s evil action are very young people. They are in their late 20s and mid 40s. There was one, a medical doctor who has not for a day stopped posting these subtle justification of what Hamas did to Israeli civilians since October 7. His energy and consistency are frightening to say the least. That fella would not hesitate to give his Israeli or American patient a lethal injection because the hate for those two countries from his posts, is congenital. These young people are the next generation and you think with this extremist mindset, terrorists will lack sympathisers? One of them was so loud he accused some of us condemning his stand of seeking visas to America! Visa to America? What is the connection? It was another person who explained to me that most countries go through the Social Media posts of visa applicants these days. Really? I have not travelled out of this country in a long while, so I never knew about this latest development. Oh, so, in that fella’s mind, some of us are condemning the act of Hamas because we are likely going to submit our passports for visa issuance in the future! The line of reasoning of some people is frightening.
I make bold to say that the future, with so many of these people is dark and filled with evil. Humanity is dead. But I have a message for some of these Muslims in Nigeria supporting Hamas. Israel will overrun Gaza and dislodge Hamas if not totally obliterate them, and there is nothing they can do from faraway Nigeria here other than to cry and post all they can on Twitter(heard it is now X) and Facebook. There is no justification for terrorism, no matter how hard you try to do that.
When I hear people talk about civilian Palestinians living in Gaza and how they are innocent people caught in the middle of all of this, I tend to disagree. If Nigerian Muslims, thousands of kilometres away from Hamas could be supporting them, then I don’t think there is one Muslim living in Gaza who is not either publicly or quietly supporting Hamas. And that does not make them innocent. Israel has given them some time to evacuate before the ground offensive begins, the argument is that the Timeline is unrealistic. Well, they will have to work with it because I don’t think Israel is ready to budge. Hamas went to scatter the hornet’s nest, they must feel the deadly sting of the hornets, so the ‘innocent’ Palestinian civilian population should not be in the way. Israel is like the proverbial child snickering because of what his mother did to him. And then the mother, got tired of the child’s snickering and decided to nudge him gently on the head. The child’s heavy wailing would make it look like the mother used a pestle to hit his head. In Nigeria, there is a Pidgin English proverb that says: “Trouble dey sleep, yanga go wake am”.
Akpovi-Esade is a journalist, public affairs commentator and media lobbyist
