نيجيريا: استنكار إزالة مسجد مؤقت بجامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا

خبر من مصادر إنجليزية.

أعرب العديد من الطلاب المسلمين بـ"جامعة ولاية ريفرز" النيجيرية عن استيائهم لقيام الإدارة بإزالة المسجد المؤقت الذي كان يصلي به مئات الطلاب بالجامعة؛ مما اعتبره الطلاب تمييزًا واضطهادًا دينيًّا، وذلك بعد استمرار بقاء المسجد لخدمة الطلاب على مدار 11 عامًا.

وقد بُني المسجد بعد أن كان الطلاب يصلون على الأرض؛ ثم قامت جمعية الطلاب المسلمين بجمع تبرعات والتعاون في بناء خيمة ثابتة لأداء الصلاة في ظلها بعد 8 سنوات، إلى أن قامت الجامعة بإزالة موقع الصلاة بزعم أنه تم بناؤه على مكان غير حاصل على موافقة، وبعد مطالبة إدارة الجامعة بمكان مخصص للصلاة، لم تلق المطالبات استجابة، وتم إزالة المسجد المؤقت لاعتباره غير قانوني، وتم تسوية المكان بالأرض وإلقاء متعلقات الطلاب المسلمين؛ المصدر: شبكة الألوكة.

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Nigeria: No Place to Worship

In the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, for hundreds of Muslim students freedom of worship and lawful assembly have taken on the character of an illusion.

There is mounting disquiet in the university community. The Muslim community has accused the management of religious intolerance, following the demolition of a makeshift Mosque where some students and staff of the university worship. Daily Trust investigations revealed that the Mosque was acquired about eleven years ago, but there was no structure built there. The worshippers used to observe their prayers on the floor. However, eight years later when the population of the students increased, the local chapter of the Muslim students society of Nigeria put resources together to erect a tent on the site. "But the management of the university used security operatives to remove the tent" said Sulaiman Abdul Awwal, an executive member of the Muslim students society of Nigeria, MSSN. According to him "thereafter, notable people from the state gave us money to construct another makeshift shelter. But we decided to lay a few blocks to separate the site from other facilities." After the structure was raised, the management was said to have told the students that the Mosque was built on an unapproved site. "This prompted us to apply for a piece of land to build the Mosque," Sulaiman added.

Daily Trust obtained a series of letters written to the management of the university to allocate a permanent site for the construction of a new Mosque, but their efforts met a brick wall as none of the letters were acknowledged by the university authority. When the structure was renovated on December 3 2011 to make the Mosque more conducive for worshippers, the university authority, through its director of works, directed that the work should stop. The works director argued that the Mosque was the only illegal structure that was erected in the campus, and threatened to demolish the structures two days after. A threat he carried out to the letter. However, the works director on January 25, 2012, brought in a bulldozer to flatten the structures. Despite pleas by the students to the demolition team, their properties were thrown away as the building was reduced to a rubble. Since then hundreds of Muslims in the university have had no place of worship.