The Director and Founder of the Muslim Rights Concern, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Monday urged Nigerians not to jump to conclusions over the viral video of some madrasa students being brutally flogged in Kwara State.

Although he noted that the punishment meted out to the students was ‘too harsh’, Akintola said that those condemning the brutal flogging encourage their children to participate in the Big Brother Naija show.

Akintola aired his views in a statement released on MURIC‘s website where he urged the public to allow the state government to investigate the matter.

The statement read in part, “While we regard the punishment meted out to the students as too harsh, we maintain that the action of the school authorities should not be judged in isolation. The fact that the parents requested the school to discipline their children must not be ignored.

“MURIC is also in possession of another video in which the students confessed that they engaged in shameful and unIslamic actions, namely; visiting a club, drinking alcohol, bathing themselves with alcohol, etc. These are horrible acts in which ordinary Muslims must not be involved.

“Arabic schools are the repository of morality and the vault of uprightness. They are the conscience of the Ummah. The offence committed by those students becomes more unacceptable when the actors are students of an Arabic school who are expected to be the epitome of morality and religiosity.”

He continued “The abyss of moral decadence into which the Nigerian society has fallen is responsible for most of the woes facing us in this country today. Nigerians now indulge their children. Family values and norms have been thrown to the winds. Parents allow their children to dictate to them. Instead of parents condemning waywardness in their children and punishing them for it, they now condone and collaborate.”

Akintola further commended the parents of the flogged students for instructing the school authorities to punish them.

The Islamic cleric further stated that people condemning the act allow their children to participate in ‘BBNaija’s shameful sex in public’.

He said, “This is not London where a five-year-old child can call the police to arrest his mum for spanking him and all London police units will come racing to the house, blaring siren. This is not New York where a mother must seek permission from her three-year-old baby before the latter’s nappy can be changed. This is Nigeria, the heartbeat of Africa.

“We commend the parents of those children who instructed the school authorities to punish their children. Posterity will count them among Nigeria’s puritans and disciplinarians. Those who are condemning the parents and the teachers today are those who will gladly encourage their own children and wards to participate in BBNaija’s shameful sex in public.”

Akintola further urged the state government to investigate the matter.

“In the light of the above, we urge Muslims in Kwara State and the general public to allow the Kwara State Government to investigate the incident. The government itself must adopt a middle road. We invite parents and guardians to discipline their children and wards promptly and proportionately,” he said.

PUNCH