How does one put into words the feeling of having your life threatened while fellow citizens cheer on?

Inflammatory Comments

This past week, the U.S. president Donald Trump has pushed a 'Christian genocide' narrative on my country and threatened an invasion all while fellow citizens have cheered it on.

All blissfully unaware or conveniently forgetting the fact that the largest group displaced by insurgency in this country is in the North, a Muslim majority part of the nation, a region I was born in and many others.

A region that has horror stories of killings, kidnappings, and destruction of property affecting both Muslims and Christians alike.

Friends and family escaping the violence imposed on their lives regardless of religion.

Millions displaced in a larger Sahel story of insurgency, but the messaging? "...terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!"

Not The First Time

Personally, this is not the first time I've felt alien to the people I live amongst. About 6 years back, there were clashes in Kaduna (one of the hotbeds of violence) and a childhood friend called out 'the Northerners' for not joining a social media campaign to seek justice for the killings.

Despite my attempts to reassure him that not joining a social media campaign is not indicative of a lack of support, especially among a largely offline and non-English speaking part of the country. I got what I later recognise to be my first encounter with Islamophobia, just labeled differently, 'you northerners' instead of 'you muslims', prefixed with the familiar context of being barbaric and averse to logic.

This as a whole should not surprise me, because despite the ongoing genocides in Palestine and Sudan, I live in a country where the English speaking and easily poll-able population maintains large support for Israel.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/03/most-people-across-24-surveyed-countries-have-negative-views-of-israel-and-netanyahu/ External Link • pewresearch.org

The Imperial Cannon

The U.S. is a metaphorical cannon, it's military, economy and culture dominate the world. It stands unmatched, and for so long the cannon was wielded by a competent global dictatorship. Everything goes well for you and your people as long as you don't oppose the dictator.

Now, that cannon is wielded by an incompetent global dictatorship, haphazardly waving it around and using Netanyahu tactics where local failures are painted over with imminent danger elsewhere that must be addressed to protect the glory of something or the other.

A cannon now pointed squarely at my face while people I looked up to and share a nation with cheer on from behind me, not realising how cannons work.

Being Muslim

The world has generally always been Islamophobic, I tend to forget that as I live my day-to-day life working and hanging out with colleagues, friends, and family.

Only something like the last two years can wake someone up to the reality. Alhamdulillah, I've woken up.

Despite all the flavours of discrimination that exist, I've realised that Islamophobia is a generally accepted form of it. Because even among black Africans, there are people who matter less.

I will not change who I am. I will continue to support Palestinian and Sudanese liberation, Uyghur self-determination, Yemeni freedom, Kashmiri autonomy, the Indonesian fight against dictatorship, restoring dignity to my brothers and sisters in Myanmar, the freedom of the Congolese from imperial forces, and all the other places I have forgotten or aren't widely known, not because their suffering means any less but because we have failed them.

I will continue to say 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger' peace and blessings be upon him. I will continue to stand firm upon my beliefs and world view no matter what tactics are used to justify my dehumanisation.

And God willing, I'll die on them.

My Fellow Nigerians

Unjust killings need to stop, nobody is dragging that with you. But should we treat it as a phenomenon that's purely religiously motivated? I don't think so, because it paints the millions of Muslims you live with as monsters who seek nothing but blood despite both sides experiencing violence.

https://www.amnesty.org.ng/2025/05/02/killing-of-chief-imam-is-a-tipping-point-of-widespread-insecurity/ External Link • amnesty.org.ng https://www.cfr.org/blog/ethnic-and-religious-violence-worsen-kaduna External Link • cfr.org https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/11/02/those-who-returned-are-suffering/impact-camp-shutdowns-people-displaced-boko#:~:text=As%20of%20July%202022%2C%20the,Cameroon%2C%20Chad%2C%20and%20Niger. External Link • hrw.org

If you have read all of this and you still support U.S. intervention, I won't necessarily stand in your way. Everyone has a right to believe and support something.

I have decided to look forward, move on, and live my life no matter what happens,

حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ