This week's column looks at how Tinubu's continuing public stumbles with the fatiha, the first chapter of the Qur'an, is shifting the conversation, among both Muslims and Christians, from the same-faith ticket he leads to his Muslim bona fides:

Not since 1993 when MKO Abiola chose Babagana Kingibe as his running mate has the religious complexion of a presidential ticket excited the passions of Nigerians as much as Bola Tinubu’s choice of Kashim Shettima as his running mate. It at once got some Christians enraged and some Muslims engaged.

For a long time, Muslim clerical investment in the Tinubu-Shettima ticket, at least in the Northwest, was proportional to the amount of Christian opposition to it. For instance, in late 2022, an audio recording of a northern Christian, which went viral on WhatsApp, said the victory or defeat of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket in 2023 would be a referendum on the numerical strength of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

Of course, that was a supremely shallow and simplistic, not to mention reductionist, religionization of voting behavior. Many people vote for reasons other than religion. Peter Obi, whom the audio touted as the “Christian” candidate, will get many Muslim votes, and both Tinubu and Atiku will get many Christian votes.

But that audio—and several others like it—inspired a backlash of reciprocal religious particularism from previously politically aloof Salafist Muslim clerics in the Hausaphone North who now preach that the success of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket—or, as they call it, Musilim-Musilim ticket—is a religious imperative and that Muslims should support it to signal the supremacy of Islam in Nigeria. That’s also silly, superficial drivel that ignores the complexity of voting behavior and the multiplicity of impulses that propel people to vote.

Anyway, the conversation about the same-faith character of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket appears to be shifting to questions about whether, in fact, Tinubu is a Muslim. This discursive shift is instigated by Tinubu’s multiple stumbles with reciting Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, the first chapter of the Qur’an. In one instance, he said “bismillahir rahmanir rahim” before saying “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem” instead of the other way around.

In another instance, he said “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim” and couldn’t proceed to the next verse. In confusion, he attempted to translate the verse from Arabic into English but bungled it and even ended up saying “God, the father of all,” which is both an incorrect translation of “Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin” (which actually translates as “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe”) and a doctrinal outrage in Islam.

Surat Al-Ikhlāṣ, the four-verse 112th chapter of the Quran considered by many Muslim traditions to be worth up to 33 percent of the Qur’an because of its theological centrality to Islam, specifically says Allah has not begotten (i.e., is not a father) nor was he begotten. It’s one of the major doctrinal differences between Christianity and Islam. That Tinubu called Allah “father” during an address to Muslims in Kaduna has caused many Muslims to question his Muslim faith.

The latest trending video shows him straining excessively hard—and failing— to recite “Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin,” the second verse of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, which he had erroneously translated as “God, the father of all” in a previous mishap. As they say, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern.

As I pointed out in my February 7, 2015, column titled, “Sambo: A Muslim Bigot Who Can’t Recite Qur’an’s First Chapter,” Muslims recite the Fatihah during prayers at least 17 times every single day, making it the most recited chapter in the Qur’an. That’s why it’s second nature to most Muslims. That’s also why people tend to question the faith of Muslims who can’t recite it.

But even Christians who had previously expressed righteous rage over what they said was Tinubu’s insensitivity in choosing a fellow Muslim as his running mate in our religiously plural country are having a pause. They are asking if Tinubu is indeed a Muslim—or if his choice of a Muslim running mate was, in retrospect, informed by the fact that he is actually not a Muslim.

Well, my own sense is that Tinubu is a cultural Muslim. His hometown of Iragbiji in Osun State is predominantly Muslim, particularly when he grew up there in the 1960s. Like most kids in the town, he attended ile kewu (which Hausa speakers call makarantar allo), that is, an informal school for Islamic learning. The way he says “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim” clearly shows that he was born into Islam and learned to say it from an impressionable age.

I suspect that after leaving Iragbiji for Lagos (and later for the United States), he ceased to be an observant Muslim, but hasn’t given up his Muslim identity. His trip-ups with reciting the Qur’an first chapter, in my opinion, don’t indicate that he isn’t a Muslim; they only indicate that he hasn’t been praying for most of his post-Iragbiji life.

My father, who formally taught Arabic and Islamic Studies in primary school and informally at home, used to warn me that if I stopped reciting the Qur’an for a day, the Qur’an would desert me for four days. Without realizing it, he was introducing me to Jean Lamarck’s law of use and disuse. What we use the most develops and endures. What we don’t use fades and atrophies over time.

Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar advised Tinubu’s handlers to dissuade him from trying to perform his Muslim bona fides in northern Nigeria by reciting Qur’anic verses he obviously can’t remember. In the Hausaphone Muslim north, it is better to be thought a Muslim, even an “inauthentic” Muslim, than to speak and remove all doubt.

The dominant chatter in northern Nigerian Muslim discursive spheres now, at least from my informal observation, revolves around the suspicion that Tinubu isn’t a Muslim. Or that if he’s one he doesn’t pray which, to many, is the same difference. Some are even saying he is probably a closet Christian because he said God is “father” and because his wife and children are Christians.

But identity, including religious identity, is complex and isn’t easily reducible to one measure. If Tinubu had wanted to be a Christian, he would have professed it publicly. In Yoruba land (including in Osun State, by far the most Muslim state in Yoruba land) change or ambiguity of faith isn’t a political death sentence. After all, Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, Osun’s governor, is both a Christian and a Muslim. I once called him a Chrislim.

Tinubu, as I pointed out in a previous article in 2022, is an effectively non-religious but nominal Muslim. He chose a northern Muslim running mate for precisely that reason. Until recently, Tinubu didn’t identify with Islam publicly, is married to a pastor, and all his children are Christians. He sees himself first as a Yoruba man before he is a nominal Muslim.

But Tinubu is not alone. Most political elites in both the North and the South profess religion only for public consumption and to live up to the tyranny of societal expectations. Nor is this exclusive to Nigeria. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, for example, are non-religious people, but they were compelled to subordinate their free thought and embrace open displays of religiosity to get elected.

Obama’s mother was an atheist and his maternal grandparents who raised him were non-religious. (Even his Harvard-educated Kenyan father, who didn’t raise him, was an atheist even though he was born a Muslim). He didn’t encounter religion until he started dating Michele Obama in the late 1980s.

Trump, too, isn’t a Christian, has ice-cold disdain for Christians, doesn’t go to church, and has not even the most basic familiarity with the doctrines of Christianity. But American evangelicals loved him because he told them what they wanted to hear.

Tinubu’s problem is that Islam’s performances and rituals have to be learned and internalized. They can’t be faked.

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2023/01/from-muslim-muslim-to-is-he-really.html])

Tinubu’s moral, physical and spiritual baggages? $460,000 heroine-drug running scandal in the US, identity theft crisis, dubious primary and secondary school certificates, bullion vans election cash scandal, multiple Alpha-Beta corruption, Burdillion connections to LASG coffers, Mudashiru Obasa frontman corruption@ the LASHA, hiring fake agbadorian bishops, and recently yarning trashy things under the influence of Heroine/Cocaine.

Even the Bola Ahmed Tinubu's koranic recitations were weird and aberrant forms leading to denunciation by prominent Islamic clerics across the country.

1. 2023: Sheikh Saifullah Lays Curses On Anyone Who Votes APC (Video).

2. Tinubu Can't Deceive Muslims With Fake Muslim-Muslim Ticket - Kano Sheikh.

3. How Tinubu Sponsored the Massacre of Northerners in Lagos.

4. "Any Muslim Who Votes Tinubu May Allah Destroy His Thumb" - Kano Sheikh (Video).

5. 'We Don't Trust Tinubu's Version Of Islam' - Sheikh Aminu Jetaun
https://www.nairaland.com/7261955/6-islamic-clerics-oppose-tinubu#115342635

Tinubu.. is an effectively non-religious but nominal Muslim. He chose a northern Muslim running mate for precisely that reason.

Until recently, Tinubu didn’t identify with Islam publicly, is married to a pastor, and all his children are Christians. He sees himself first as a Yoruba man before he is a nominal Muslim.

Tinubu’s problem is that Islam’s performances and rituals have to be learned and internalized. They can’t be faked.

Were dey disguise all along but desperation in his in ordinate ambition suddenly arose the hypocrisy in him.

The druggie and election bribery bullion vans cash criminal have to forge an aberrant form of the fathia after his double hypocrisy on the satanic Muslim Muslim combo.What Tinubu can not fake or forge does not exist.

cc: Sarrki, Afamed, Ihordspy Seunmsg
NgeneUkwenu

JAMO84:
It's just 42 days before you regain your home training

Urchins and miscreants without home training hyperventilating to lecture sane humanity on same. Continue the granduer delusion. Emilokan heroine and cocaine balabloo-blu-bulava It is a laughable and pitiable situation.

Old demented Iragbiji drug criminal

Say no to APC.

Reject gazelle gagaraga.

Tinubu is a cultural Muslim. His hometown of Iragbiji in Osun State is predominantly Muslim, particularly when he grew up there in the 1960s"...Tinubu also migrated to Lagos. .

Were is an immigrant in Lagos but claimed he built Lagos.

The drug lord urinating dispenser cum agbado master is not good in anything other than looting of public funds and sniffing hard drugs. Tinubu and his urchins are a curse to this generation.

If you see a Man with with pastor collar, or a man with a post in a church that commit unpardonable sin, will Media say "A man?" nope, they will give a really nice topic "Pastor Steal, Pastor Rape, Pastor did that"

If you identify with a church, we know you as a Christian, people wouldn't want to know the level of his faith in the church, same thing with A Muslim.

Shettima and Tinubu are Muslims...

There is no amount to twist in the topic or in the text that will convince us otherwise

auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim”

Blunder Tifnubu cannot make does not exist.

Dem don catch the drug lord
If he can fake his background, he can fake his religion

Okay

Tinubu is still the next President after Buhari...no matter your tears.

Watch apc sycophants invade this thread with their tears now

TheChameleon:
Tinubu is still the next President after Buhari...no matter your tears.

of irigbigbi balablue town hall I guess

Of course, everyone knows he is not a practicing Muslim... Just a nominal one

TheChameleon:
Tinubu is still the next President after Buhari...no matter your tears.

Next president of your village not Nigeria

Muslim Muslim Ticket is an insult to every reasonable Nigerian

Well, my own sense is that Tinubu is a cultural Muslim. His hometown of Iragbiji in Osun State is predominantly Muslim, particularly when he grew up there in the 1960s. Like most kids in the town, he attended ile kewu (which Hausa speakers call makarantar allo), that is, an informal school for Islamic learning. The way he says “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim” clearly shows that he was born into Islam and learned to say it from an impressionable age.

Who confirmed this? I thought it was just suspicions. Is Tinubu really from Irigbiji or Lagos State?

Racoon:

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2023/01/from-muslim-muslim-to-is-he-really.html]) Mynd44, nlfpmod, Lalasticlala, Seun

Tinubu that goes to Mosques to sit, kole ka falthia alubarika.

TheChameleon:
Tinubu is still the next President after Buhari...no matter your tears.

That bucket is for you.

Racoon:

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2023/01/from-muslim-muslim-to-is-he-really.html]) Mynd44, nlfpmod, Lalasticlala, Seun

Who cares if he can't recite any Surah of the Quran? We're not voting for a sheik or an imam to rule Nigeria.

And by the way, many of us are not supporting Tinubu because of his religion. For many muslims, his public association with muslims and islamic activities( like going to mosque, etc) is enough.

"Well, my own sense is that Tinubu is a cultural Muslim. His hometown of Iragbiji in Osun State is predominantly Muslim, particularly when he grew up there in the 1960s"...Tinubu also migrated to Lagos. .

Tinubu may be a terrible Muslim, but a Muslim nonetheless

All they want is competency, religion, ethnicity or region from which a candidate is coming has nothing to do.

What's even with my business with political business?


Meanwhile, the below submission is true.
But he is not alone. Most political elites in both the North and the South profess religion only for public consumption and to live up to the tyranny of societal expectations.

Farooq with campaign by Muslims of Nigeria for a president Hashim Shettima continues.
A President Shettima to emerge through support votes from Tinubu's SW region.
If it come to success, the Talibanization of Nigeria by Shettima shall pronounce the end to the unholy marriage called Nigeria.

Everything about BAT continues to be shrouded

Questionable health status
Questionable source of income
Questionable educational qualifications
Questionable parents
Questionable childhood
Questionable character
Questionable age


And now questionable faith




I'm afraid of being called a Nigerian if this kind of human being becomes the my country

God forbid bad thing

Just another delusional attention seeking MOFO working hard for possible appointment under Atiku.

A loser always a loser.

Interesting

Farooq is unwittingly marketing Tinubu rather than de-marketing with this piece.

If you say Tinubu is a non-practicing Muslim, it further de-legitimizes all the opposition to the same faith ticket since you're saying in effect, that it's an atheist-Muslim ticket.

Anyway, most Yoruba Muslims are already seen as fake by most Northern Muslims so there's nothing here. The cause for them is more political and emotional than merely religious credibility. If it succeeds, they can further it by simply choosing a Northern Muslim president to vie with a Southern Muslim vice and all will still be well.
Christians Beware!!

Farooq, leave stories. Is Tinubu a Christian?

OsunOriginal:


Who cares if he can't recite any Surah of the Quran? We're not voting for a sheik or an imam to rule Nigeria.

And by the way, many of us are not supporting Tinubu because of his religion. For many muslims, his public association with muslims and islamic activities( like going to mosque, etc) is enough.

The north cares.

tinubu is more of a Christian than obi