Nigeria’s presidency says it “stands behind” an embattled minister facing requires his resignation after severe islamist views he held within the past recently came to light. Isa Pantani, minister of communications and digital economy, and additionally a renowned muslim cleric, expressed perspectives sympathetic to organizations consisting of al-qaeda and boko haram.
In one sermon from the 2000s he said he considered al-qaeda founder, osama bin weighted down, a better muslim than himself, and in any other, he stated he turned into glad while infidels were massacred. Recordings of him expressing these perspectives started circulating on social media last week, main to requires his resignation or sacking by using president muhammadu buhari.
The minister also attempted to give up his past perspectives on the weekend, telling a local newspaper that some of the remarks have been based on his “expertise of non secular troubles at the time” and that he has changed several positions “based on new evidence and adulthood”.
But that has not stopped calls for his sacking or resignation with many the use of the #pantamimustgo hashtag on twitter to explicit concerns over his get entry to to sensitive data as the minister of communications. He has additionally been defended beneath the #pantamimuststay hashtag as the problem exposed the non secular and ethnic strains on this multi-ethnic usa.
What exactly did mr pantami say?
There has been a constant movement of recent proof of the perspectives he held in the beyond and the modern are files that seemed online on wednesday.
The documents are purportedly from a 2010 meeting he chaired at the jama’atu nasril islam (jni), a pinnacle islamic body, wherein it become agreed that christians ought to be prohibited from constructing church buildings in metropolis centres throughout northern nigeria, which has a majority muslim population although thousands and thousands of christians also live there.
Audio and video recordings have additionally emerged of mr pantami’s fiery prayers and sermons at different degrees of his profession as an imam. In one sermon he volunteered to guide a pressure of the sharia police, hisbah, to shendam in plateau country, in which there had been a lethal spiritual warfare, to fight in defence of the muslims.