MDadmin
GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM is the title of Mahmood Mamdani’s very seminal study of the attitude to Islam in the imperialist world. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended a form of challenge to imperialist hegemony; Islam became the new enemy, under the canopy of a ‘clash of civilizations’. So Muslims became segmented into ‘good’ or ‘bad’, on the basis of attitude to the interests of imperialism.
This heightened with 9-11 and the launch of a ‘war on terror’. Well, from within the certainties of the lunatic fringe of the Nigerian socio-political space, Femi Fani-Kayode has also launched a local variant of the ‘good Muslim’ ‘bad Muslim’ narrative, in an article: ‘Difference Between A Muslim And An Islamist’, published in THE GUARDIAN, Sunday, June 24, 2012.
Fani-Kayode’s thesis is related to the Boko Haram insurgency. For Femi, “the solution to the Boko Haram problem is simple. They must be utterly crushed by the Nigerian State and certainly not negotiated with…there can never be dialogue, compromise or any form of negotiation with terrorists…There can be no compromise with those that seek to forcefully establish a 17th Century Islamic fundamentalist caliphate in our country (17th Century?!)”.
And there is a handy template to deal with Fani-Kayode’s ‘simple’ matter: “President Olusegun Obasanjo did this decisively and with ruthless efficiency in the town of Odi in the Niger Delta area…with remarkable success…The casualties in terms of human life were extremely high but the point was made…Why can’t the same solution not be applied to the Boko Haram problem by the Jonathan administration? What is the fear?
Why should the same treatment not be meted out to any city or community in our country that grants the foot soldiers of Boko Haram covert support, safe haven, sanctuary or shelter?” The ‘Odi treatment’ should be visited upon Maiduguri, Damaturu, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano and Kaduna! But if these cities will not be leveled like Odi, Femi Fani-Kayode said “we should reject the concept of a united Nigeria and begin to renegotiate the terms of our union”.
This clown was a minister under Obasanjo and still has a case to answer about funds which disappeared under his watch. But away from power, he has discovered that Nigeria is an “unworkable union”! Thank God that Nigeria’s fate will not be decided on the lunatic fringe wherein Femi Fani-Kayode resides!
