NIGERIAN Muslims have been  told to have a firm grasp of their religion so that they will practise it better, even as they are told that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees them freedom to practise their religion unhindered.This was the submission of a legal practitioner, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, in Ibadan at a recent symposium organised by Al-Burhan Islamic Organisation on the crises in the Islamic world.

He charged Muslims not to be afraid of demanding for their rights, as far as practising Islam is concerned, whenever they are infringed upon.

Shittu, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, lamented that Muslims were afraid of practising Islam in the country as they often run away from being called names, submitting that the problem with most of them is that they do not really understand Islam as a way of life.

He emphatically declared that Nigeria was not a secular state as the constitution described the country as a multi-religious country, and as such, he said Nigerian Muslims could practise their religion as it was recognised by the constitution. 

“Every Muslim in Nigeria has the right to practise his religion. The problem with many Muslims here is understanding Islam. Nigeria is not a secular state; Section 38 of the constitution descibes Nigeria as a multi-religious country, meaning that the constitution allows Muslims to practise their religion., Shittu stated.