Bandits Have No Religion, Don’t Call Them Muslims — Oluwo of Iwo

The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, has criticised the practice of identifying bandits as Muslims, insisting that criminality should never be associated with any religion.

In a statement issued on Saturday by his Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Alli, the monarch maintained that bandits do not exhibit the values or religious obligations expected of practising Muslims.

According to him, the fact that some criminals bear Arabic names or wear turbans should not be taken as proof that they are followers of Islam.

“Real Muslims are not bandits,” the traditional ruler said, stressing that those involved in violent crimes neither observe Islamic prayers nor practise the basic tenets of the faith.

“I condemn in totality the religious profiling of bandits as Muslims. Real Muslims are not bandits. You cannot see a mosque in the den of bandits. The herdsmen do not equally have mosques in their abode (Gaa). They have no identification of Muslims in all ramifications,” he said.

Oba Akanbi further explained that turbans are not exclusive to Muslims, noting that many non-Muslims living in desert regions also wear them for cultural and environmental reasons.

He also dismissed the notion that speaking Arabic automatically makes someone a Muslim, pointing out that Arabic is widely spoken by people of different faiths across the Middle East.

“Bandits have no religion. Have you ever seen where bandits observe solat (Islamic mandatory prayers)? They might be wearing turbans, but not only Muslims wear turbans. People in the desert who are not Muslims also wear turbans.

“Many churches in Arab countries use the Arabic language to preach. We have people in all Islamic-populated countries who are not Muslims but speak Arabic,” he added.

The monarch described the continued association of banditry with Islam as unfair and misleading, arguing that the roots of the country’s security challenges lie more in governance failures than in religious beliefs.

He urged Nigerians to refrain from linking criminal acts to Islam and called on the government to introduce laws to curb what he described as the deliberate use of social media platforms to malign Muslims through religious stereotyping.