Christians and Muslims across the country Monday reacted angrily to the tweet message posted by the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasiru el Refai that 'if Jesus Christ should criticize President Goodluck Jonathan that his aides will say that Jesus Christ slept with Mary Magdalene'.
Rufai's apology letter
His apology stated, “Hello friends. I have been travelling and trying to catch some sleep in between the last 24 hours and missed all the furore arising from my retweet of Ogunyemi Bukola’s (@zeebook) joke, Maku et al and Jesus. I must say I am taken aback by the extent of desperate misrepresentation of what was an innocuous attempt to show the godlessness of the Jonathanians to denigrate anyone that dares to ask them to be accountable.

“To those who were genuinely offended by the retweet, I apologise. I did not meant to offend anyone, neither did the @zeebook I know and featured as one of the Young Voices in my Friday Column. Jesus or Isa Alaihis Salaam is a respected prophet of Islam. Every Muslim accepts this in addition to his miraculous virgin birth. It is therefore absurd for any Muslim believer to disrespect Jesus Christ.

“I hope those in this class will see my point of view and accept my apologies for any offense or disappointment caused. And I advise everyone to read @zeebook’s timeline and mine to read exactly what was tweeted, rather than the second-hand reports of certain people who always twist whatever I write or not write to achieve their morally-repugnant objectives.”
THE Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the controversial statement about Jesus Christ made by the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, describing it as not only reckless but also indicative of deep-seated moral bankruptcy”.

El-Rufai had tweeted on Sunday, January 28, that: “If Jesus criticises Jonathan’s government, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say that he slept with Mary.”

Reacting to the issue, the Christian organisation warned El-Rufai that “if he persists in such matters, making such derogatory commentaries, he must prepare himself for a very forceful and vigorous reaction from the Church and Christian community in Nigeria”.

Speaking through its General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, CAN warned that the “maturity and dignified restraint of the Christian populace in the face of inflammatory and provocative statements should not be taken as licence for unbridled assault”.

“We urge his religious leaders and political associates to advise him to be far more sober and circumspect and put a padlock on his mouth before he lights the candle that sets our country on fire”, the body said.

“On our part, we urge the Christian community and our Christian youths to continue to be restrained and to always seek peace, love and harmony in spite of the provocation that they are facing from the likes of Nasir El-Rufai and those he represents”, he said.

In another development, the Chairman of South-West Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Magnus Adeyemi Atilade, has called for an end to the raging press war by some national leaders of the organisation.

In a statement in Lagos yesterday, Atilade said the war should stop without delay before any damage was done to the entire Christendom, adding it was capable of polarising its members nationwide.

According to Atilade, if the crisis was allowed to persist, it might erode the vision, mission and objectives of CAN’s founding fathers, stressing that what the current leadership should do was to dialogue instead of engaging in press war.

My own sincere opinion is that El-rufai should have left jesus out of this and use Muhammed because its true that any prophet could be criticised by any generation so using Jesus for the comment was bad because he is a public figure and his words carries powerful public opinion. Mean while we all understand English he had never lied on Jesus peace be upon him that he did what he didnt do just used the word "will" but where the problem lies is that the stayement is coming from a muslim
on the part of CAN i belief they are putting more fuel into quenching fire with the attack on El-rufai by calling him names after apologising

But if he had used Mohammed there would have been all out riots and fatwas declared on him etc.

All muslims know why he didnt use Mohammed. He is a hypocrite.

^
Are you too blind to see, he actually retweeted some one else's tweet, the Islamphobic atheists and their lackeys literally misrepresented reality to fool everybody, el rufia was wrong retweeting it but it is wronger to have distort reality and attributed another persons tweet to el rufia! Read, before rushing to your conclusion as his apology clearly expresses that!

I am a Muslim too what he had Said doesn't mean any offense on Jesus but to show how far Jonathan's cabinet can go to protect him but people are making things out of nothing

vedaxcool: ^
Are you too blind to see, he actually retweeted some one else's tweet, the Islamphobic atheists and their lackeys literally misrepresented reality to fool everybody, el rufia was wrong retweeting it but it is wronger to have distort reality and attributed another persons tweet to el rufia! Read, before rushing to your conclusion as his apology clearly expresses that!

Why didnt the clown retweet the Danish cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad?


You lot are the deluded fools not the atheists. So far no xtian has killed anyone because of this. So take note

lekibraky: I am a Muslim too what he had Said doesn't mean any offense on Jesus but to show how far Jonathan's cabinet can go to protect him but people are making things out of nothing

.


If it was the reverse and a xtian politician did such I assure you there would have been protests and riots in many countries as well as xtian blood being spilled.

lekibraky: I am a Muslim too what he had Said doesn't mean any offense on Jesus but to show how far Jonathan's cabinet can go to protect him but people are making things out of nothing

First and foremost he retweeted some else's tweet, second he was wrong to have retweeted even though the statement was never meant to be a joke nor an insult, he still shouldn't have retweeted such elucidation no matter the intention, as muslims we should never degenerate to the level of ahlul kitab, the kafirs etc in tolerating denigrating remarks about prophets etc as we this neither our way nor the sunnah of the prophet pbuh christian do make funny remarks about Jesus but that is them and this is us we; the believer and non believer are never alike when it comes to matter like this. You would notice the hypocrites that shouts freedom of speech are the same hypocrites making an issue out of it, that is because they live by no value nor are they rightly guided they simply post what suit their itch for that day just like idle men seeking ways of passing the time and by the heavens their condition is like that of blind man who guides other blind men and claims in his blindness to be the best of guides but we know they eventually herd each other into a pit!

vedaxcool:

First and foremost he retweeted some else's tweet, second he was wrong to have retweeted even though the statement was never meant to be a joke nor an insult, he still shouldn't have retweeted such elucidation no matter the intention, as muslims we should never degenerate to the level of ahlul kitab, the kafirs etc in tolerating denigrating remarks about prophets etc as we this neither our way nor the sunnah of the prophet pbuh christian do make funny remarks about Jesus but that is them and this is us we; the believer and non believer are never alike when it comes to matter like this. You would notice the hypocrites that shouts freedom of speech are the same hypocrites making an issue out of it, that is because they live by no value nor are they rightly guided they simply post what suit their itch for that day just like idle men seeking ways of passing the time and by the heavens their condition is like that of blind man who guides other blind men and claims in his blindness to be the best of guides but we know they eventually herd each other into a pit!

Typical Islamic rhetoric. No substance whatsoever.

The blind can lead the blind depending on the circumstances. What if the specific blind leader had been blind for much longer than the others and knew the places well or he/she had better hearing? Would he/she not be the best leader at that time. Hence that is a silly figure of speech.

You have to move away from this 1200AD ancient rhetoric. In the modern world ppl are more advanced and will require more detailed and intelligent analysis/discussion.

What El-Rufai did was wrong because muslims are very touchy when it comes to similar issues regarding the prophet. So it is ok for muslims to mock and "retweet" the mocking of Jesus because Xtians TOLERATE it but woe betide any KAFFIR who dares toock the profit.

The statement above is the definition of a HYPOCRITE.

^
Yawns at garbage ranting!

Whether he retweet or tweet its was absolutly wrong of him. Jokes with the name of jesus(as) or any prophets of God in tweets or anywhr is absurd. This is nt an atribute of a good muslim. We as muslims shdnt be caught or seen doing such. We shld stand up against any act of disrespect to any prophet of God let alone Jesus. The Qur’an tells us many wonderful things about Jesus. As a result, believers in the Qur’an love Jesus, honor n believe in him. In fact, no Muslim can be a Muslim unless he/she believes in Jesus,(as). Besides, El-rufai is a Nigerian politician/public figure for that matter, he shld lead by example. When fight come now, they will relocate wit their families n leave the poor masses behind in d hands of God, so we dnt need them to cause confusn for us..he shld be VERY careful next tym..

hadbak: Whether he retweet or tweet its was absolutly wrong of him. Jokes with the name of jesus(as) or any prophets of God in tweets or anywhr is absurd. This is nt an atribute of a good muslim. We as muslims shdnt be caught or seen doing such. We shld stand up against any act of disrespect to any prophet of God let alone Jesus. The Qur’an tells us many wonderful things about Jesus. As a result, believers in the Qur’an love Jesus, honor n believe in him. In fact, no Muslim can be a Muslim unless he/she believes in Jesus,(as). Besides, El-rufai is a Nigerian politician/public figure for that matter, he shld lead by example. When fight come now, they will relocate wit their families n leave the poor masses behind in d hands of God, so we dnt need them to cause confusn for us..he shld be VERY careful next tym..

As-salam alaykum to you sir,

Your post is so on point! Vedaxcool please read and learn.

vedaxcool:

First and foremost he retweeted some else's tweet, second he was wrong to have retweeted even though the statement was never meant to be a joke nor an insult, he still shouldn't have retweeted such elucidation no matter the intention, as muslims we should never degenerate to the level of ahlul kitab, the kafirs etc in tolerating denigrating remarks about prophets etc as we this neither our way nor the sunnah of the prophet pbuh christian do make funny remarks about Jesus but that is them and this is us we; the believer and non believer are never alike when it comes to matter like this. You would notice the hypocrites that shouts freedom of speech are the same hypocrites making an issue out of it, that is because they live by no value nor are they rightly guided they simply post what suit their itch for that day just like idle men seeking ways of passing the time and by the heavens their condition is like that of blind man who guides other blind men and claims in his blindness to be the best of guides but we know they eventually herd each other into a pit!

hadbak: Whether he retweet or tweet its was absolutly wrong of him. Jokes with the name of jesus(as) or any prophets of God in tweets or anywhr is absurd. This is nt an atribute of a good muslim. We as muslims shdnt be caught or seen doing such. We shld stand up against any act of disrespect to any prophet of God let alone Jesus. The Qur’an tells us many wonderful things about Jesus. As a result, believers in the Qur’an love Jesus, honor n believe in him. In fact, no Muslim can be a Muslim unless he/she believes in Jesus,(as). Besides, El-rufai is a Nigerian politician/public figure for that matter, he shld lead by example. When fight come now, they will relocate wit their families n leave the poor masses behind in d hands of God, so we dnt need them to cause confusn for us..he shld be VERY careful next tym..

Striklymi please read the bolded and learn!

Peace

vedaxcool:





Striklymi please read the bolded and learn!

Peace

Good afternoon vedaxcool,

Are you really serious that you do not notice the difference between the two posts?

Well if you don't, it will be a very big surprise.

Good after striklymi,

You can decide to learn or you may decide to be surprised, the choice is only yours to make, not mine to deliberate upon!
Thanks

Peace!

vedaxcool: ^
Yawns at garbage ranting!

Let us be honest, if el-Rufai had RT'd the tweet and it was Mohammed in place of Jesus, what do you think would have happend? Or do you think el-Rufai would have even RT'd it if it was Mohammed?

^
I don't live in el rufia brains to know how his thought pattern works, I see hypocrisy in all this chants, as why haven't christians condemn the christian who originally tweeted the comment? Secondly even if el rufia did retweeted it had it been about prophet Muhammad pbuh, it would have gone unnoticed just as a lot of insulting and blasphemous comments go unnoticed on NL, despite the 1 million users! So really my yawning still stands!

^^ I understand your stands. Nobody is talking about the originator of the tweets,a xtian who is to be blamed except d person who retweeted(a muslim). This is to tell us d level of hate dey got for d muslims n r looking/waiting for an opportunity to strike. What do we xpect?
What I will conclude on tis matter is, we really shld be careful n tis is y Elrufai or any muslim mst avoid anytin dat may cause d anger of God bcus its not of d muslims to blasphem be it a joke or whtever. God isn't a jokin/playing matter. we mst stand up n be mujahidun against blasphem be it a non-muslim/muslim dats involved in it. Salam!

Atheist:-D:


Why didnt the clown retweet the Danish cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad?


You lot are the deluded fools not the atheists. So far no xtian has killed anyone because of this. So take note


.


If it was the reverse and a xtian politician did such I assure you there would have been protests and riots in many countries as well as xtian blood being spilled.

l
Kill over a retweet , well that would have been the stup¡dest thing they couldve done.

Discordia:
l
Kill over a retweet , well that would have been the stup¡dest thing they couldve done.

stop encouraging evil
El-rufai was so wrong.

vedaxcool: ^
I don't live in el rufia brains to know how his thought pattern works, I see hypocrisy in all this chants, as why haven't christians condemn the christian who originally tweeted the comment? Secondly even if el rufia did retweeted it had it been about prophet Muhammad pbuh, it would have gone unnoticed just as a lot of insulting and blasphemous comments go unnoticed on NL, despite the 1 million users! So really my yawning still stands!

stop encouraging evil, you just killed one bar of respect in my radar.there is no justification to el-rufai's retweet.
if reverse were the case,there would have been more christian widows and orphans.

justaqad:

stop encouraging evil, you just killed one bar of respect in my radar.there is no justification to el-rufai's retweet.
if reverse were the case,there would have been more christian widows and orphans.

Learn to read and understand what people are saying before you cherry pick, as I CLEARLY pointed out that el rufia retweet is wrong, I really have no use for your respect!

vedaxcool:

Learn to read and understand what people are saying before you cherry pick, as I CLEARLY pointed out that el rufia retweet is wrong, I really have no use for your respect!

you said this

vedaxcool:

vedaxcool: ^
I don't live in el rufia brains to know how his thought pattern works, I see hypocrisy in all this chants, as why haven't christians condemn the christian who originally tweeted the comment? Secondly even if el rufia did retweeted it had it been about prophet Muhammad pbuh, it would have gone unnoticed just as a lot of insulting and blasphemous comments go unnoticed on NL, despite the 1 million users! So really my yawning still stands!

which is totally uncalled for.

Smh, poor you!