Nigeria: Muslim Cooperation Group Backs Qaradawi’s Call

Nigerian Muslim Cooperation Group on Monday September 18, 2006, released a statement in which it said it backs the call posted by Sheikh Yousuf el Qaradawi marking next Friday as Day of Peaceful Anger. The statement, undersigned by Chairman of the Group Sheikh Dawood Omar Malassa, who is also the head of the Nigerian Committee for Protecting Palestine and Aqsa Mosque, said that the group calls all Islamic societies and organizations, as well as all the Muslim masses worldwide to participate in this protest march to express rejection of the Pope’s statements which were regarded as offending to Islam and Prophet Mohamed( PBUH). The group in its statement also called on the Nigerian government to expel the ambassador of the Vatican to Nigeria and pressure the Pope to apologize. It urged the Muslim scholars and thinkers as well the educated elite to hold an international rally to refute the Pope’s derogatory remarks on Islam and Muslims.