By Paul Omo ObadanSunday, October 5, 2008
•Is-haq AkintolaPhoto by: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This SectionFurious over what seems a bourgeoning community of homosexuals in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric, Professor Is-haq Akintola, has suggested capital punishment for the practice, with recourse to the Holy Qu’ran, which he says prescribes death penalty. “Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same.
Homosexuals are to be condemned to death,” he told Sunday Sun in an interview in Lagos.But fresh from the Moslem holy ritual of Ramadan, Akintola, a Senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Lagos State University (LASU), however advocated flexibility - as a humanist – to give both the gays and lesbians another opportunity to change and lead normal sex lives.“I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them; to advise them what to do such that they would lead their normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So, instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism - rehabilitation center - that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.” As with several other religious leaders, Akintola’s unsparing remark is informed largely by the recent emergence of a church for homosexuals in Lagos. Only last month, House of Rainbow Metropolitan Church, a yet-to-be-registered church, publicly declared its exclusivity for professed homosexuals, as it organized the first ever conference for the practitioners. Ironically, the gathering, which observers described as debauchery, took place at the United Bible University, the same hall where the faithful of the Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM) conduct their services. On the heels of the gathering came a resounding condemnation from the public, following which security operatives reportedly launched a manhunt for the organizers. Nonetheless, the LASU don remained piqued last week that some Nigerians are copying the wrong values. His views on the issue are indeed no-holds-barred!Excerpts:
What is the stand of Islam on homosexuality?It is very unfortunate because Allah has created everything in the world and also made man and gave injunction that man should subject himself to the rules of Allah. Men continue to bend those rules because they claim to be wiser than Almighty God, and want to use their own wisdom. But Allah’s wisdom is both divine and immutable. Man can make mistakes but God doesn’t make mistakes. God’s wisdom is pervading and overwhelming.If we buy a car, the manufacturer will give you a manual. You look at the manual, you don’t want to do anything outside the manual; you don’t want to do anything the manufacturer says is wrong. This is the radiator, put water. You don’t want to put engine oil inside the radiator. This is the fuel tank, put petrol there; you don’t want to put water inside the fuel tank. So the way the manufacturer built the car and said you should use it, if you use it that way, you will enjoy the car.If you use it in any other way; if you break those rules and try to make your own, you will suffer for it. And that is what has caused all the sufferings in the world because we continue to break the laws of God and we think we are wiser; we think God cannot make laws for us whereas he made the world and he should make laws for them. Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same. Homosexuals are to be condemned to death. I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them, to advice them what to do such that they would lead normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism, rehabilitation center that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.People say it is rampant in the North?It is because the North is a kind of closed society. You don’t have other crimes that are as rampant. A man and a woman cannot just move about as they like, as we do here in Lagos. But when you find a man and a man moving together, nobody suspects. And so they believe they could do it without anybody suspecting. So when a man and his male partner go into an office or go inside a house, nobody suspects that they are going there for any dubious thing.
What should be the role of the family and church in curbing the trend?There should be education. Even within the home - from childhood - we should teach our children the right thing to do. We should let them know what is wrong and right. We should create a conducive atmosphere for them to separate right from wrong. In the Mosques, our clergymen, the Imams, should focus attention on sex education. You need to let teenagers know what is likely to be the result if they engage in amorous activities. You need to let those young boys know that it is heinous and condemned by the Qu’ran for them to engage in sexual activity with their male counterparts. Many of them don’t know, perhaps they think it’s a joke. I don’t agree that it is rampant only in the North; it is rampant all over the country.
Is the arrest of the man with 86 wives justifiable? It is justifiable under the law of Islam for him to be arrested. Chapter 4:3 of the Qu’ran says marry only two or three or four women. But if you feel that you will not be able to give justice to them, marry only one. God who said marry either two or three or four still says that you may not be able to give justice to them. So, how can he say you should marry 86?The man has transgressed and he is a heretic, a renegade and a rebel, and an enslaver of women, and an oppressor. It has exposed the hypocrisy of Western civilisation. It has also exposed many so-called freedom fighters, human right groups. They used to accuse us Muslims that we abuse the rights of women; that we enslave women; that we put them in puddah; that we marry more than one by marrying four, whereas this society in which we live - God himself created man as a polygamous person and many people who are ‘monogamous’ are privately and informally polygamous. We have seen public figures who are not Muslims, who have only one known wife, but whose other wives and children turned up immediately after their death.It is humanly and naturally impossible for him to physically and emotionally satisfy the 86 women. I find it funny that the Western Press should now be fronting for the right of this man, forgetting about the enslavement he has forced on the women. He has imprisoned them. It is denial of their fundamental human rights. Of course, when you marry, you marry for love, partnership, understanding and comfort. How many days in a week will he sleep with any of those wives? It is because the man is rich, you think the women are comfortable. Let them be his concubines or girlfriends. We know people who have more than 70 girlfriends and women will want to die on their neck because they know they can always get money from him. I expect our human rights groups in Nigeria to be fighting and condemning this man because he has enslaved 86 women.
Why is homosexuality spreading in Nigeria?It is spreading because our prison system is barbaric; it is archaic and belongs to the stone age. Our prisons here in Nigeria are not corrective. Our prisons are torture chambers. We have reports of how they are over-populated; how a room in the prison yard meant for five men is occupied by 35 and therein they cannot sleep but only stand and when they want to sleep, they have to sleep in turns and you have to be woken up every thirty minutes. Those who are crowded like that, make body contacts that stir up lust as their emotions, sentiments and sensibilities go hay-wire. So, many come out of the prison as homosexuals even though they did not know anything about homosexuality before being incarserated.
