Oyo Muslims threaten to sue over use of Hijab in public schools

The Muslim Community of Oyo State has threatened to pursue the usage of hijab by willing female students in public schools with legal action.

Chairman of the organisation, Alhaji Kunle Sanni, stated this while speaking at a summit organised by the community with theme ‘Unity of Muslims in Oyo State: An inevitable option’ held at the University of Ibadan Central Mosque.

Alhaji Sanni was speaking against the backdrop of cases of harassment of Muslim girls and women who wear the hijab in basic schools, secondary and higher institutions of learning.

He said the idea of denying Muslim students using hijab in government schools under the pretence that they were Christian named schools would no longer be tolerated as the community had concluded to go to court to seek legal action on the situation.

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He said, “With this persecution of our children in the so-called Christian schools where they even remove Hijab from their head, we are no more comfortable with the situation.

“What Section 32:2 of the constitution says is that a Muslim is entitled not only to freedom of religion but freedom to manifest his religion. The use of the Hijab is a manifestation of Islam.”

The chairman noted that there was no state where Muslim communities lost their case in the use of Hijab because the constitution is clear about it.

“When my friend Christopher Alao-Akala was the governor, some Muslim teachers started using Niqab in Kishi and they were dismissed, they went to court. The Christian judge not only adjudicated that the teachers have right to put on their Niqab as their religious right, she said their three years backlog of salaries should be paid.

“We would Insha Allah go back to court because we want Hijab for all women in Oyo State.”

Speaking at the event, the Chief Host and Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta, Alhaji Daud Akinola, said love of one another among the Muslim Ummah was essential, emphasising that the tenet of unity remained love.

Chief Mustafa Bayo Oyero, in his goodwill message, said unity remained paramount and a veritable instrument to development which, he added, Muslims urgently needed at the moment.

In his lecture, Sheikh Habeebullah Buhari enjoined the Ummah to hold onto the rope of Allah and shun tendencies capable of igniting conflict among the Muslims.

The summit drew representatives from different parts of Oyo State who came to deliberate on the unity of the Ummah in the state.