Masussuka’s killing highlights Nigeria’s extremism, terrorism problem

For some Nigerian Muslim fundamentalists, the killing of Yahaya Masussuka prompted aid quite than grief. The response highlights a troubling problem in Nigeria’s spiritual and safety panorama: the rising tendency to rationalise or have a good time violence towards folks whose spiritual beliefs differ from these of their critics.

Over the previous 20 years, many outstanding Islamic clerics, together with Ja’afar Adam and Auwal Albani, have been assassinated in northern Nigeria. Some of their theological rivals celebrated or justified their deaths, arguing that the clerics had fallen sufferer to the identical model of extremism they’d helped nurture.

Auwal Rafsanjani, the chief director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), stated the rising confusion between extremism and terrorism is shaping Nigeria’s safety discourse.

“Extremist ideologies that promote hatred, justify violence and encourage recruitment into armed groups can create a pathway to terrorism,” he stated, noting not all extremists are terrorists.

Mr Masussuka, an Islamic cleric, was shot useless exterior his house in Katsina State on the night of 26 October. His good friend, Adamu Abubakar, was additionally killed within the assault, which the police stated was carried out by two assailants on a bike.

Given earlier reviews of assassination threats towards the cleric, a few of his supporters initially suspected supporters of rival Sunni or Izala students with whom he had engaged in on-line disputes. However, there isn’t any proof linking the teams to the killing. Some Izala students have additionally rejected the allegations, saying they’ve by no means been concerned in killings or advocated violence for the reason that group’s inception in 1978. 

The narrative shifted when Ansaru, a breakaway faction of Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the killing. Also often known as Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, the al-Qaeda-linked group, which operates across the Kainji corridors, stated it focused Mr Masussuka due to his rejection of hadiths and advocacy for peaceable coexistence amongst folks of various faiths.

Despite Ansaru claiming accountability, a few of Mr Masussuka’s supporters proceed to accuse rival spiritual students of complicity, dismissing Ansaru’s assertion as a calculated try and divert suspicion from the Izala motion. No established proof has linked the motion to the killing.

Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the assassination and known as for a radical investigation. President Bola Tinubu additionally condemned the killing and directed safety businesses to research the incident.

Maligning the useless

The terrorists who claimed accountability for killing Mr Masussuka branded him an “infidel”, a label suggesting he’s not a real Muslim.

Under the guise of criticising his controversial spiritual views, a few of Mr Masussuka’s critics proceed to brag over his killing. Their reactions illustrate how doctrinal variations and non secular intolerance can create an surroundings through which violence towards dissenting voices is rationalised, celebrated or ignored.

One critic linked Mr Masussuka to the dreadful Maitatsine movement, a declare contradicted by the timeline, given the truth that the slain cleric was a few yr outdated when the rebellion occurred. 

Another particular person posted that the risk posed by folks like Mr Masussuka was worse than the insecurity ravaging Nigeria. Similar feedback, some challenged and others left unanswered, have deepened divisions inside the nation’s Muslim neighborhood.

Takfirism: a legacy of hate

The hostility surrounding Mr Masussuka’s teachings didn’t emerge in isolation; quite, it’s woven into the broader historical past of non secular contestation amongst Muslims in Nigeria and throughout the globe.

Disagreements over spiritual interpretation have fuelled tensions and, at instances, violent confrontations amongst Muslim teams in northern Nigeria, together with the Tijaniyya, Qadiriyya and Sunni-Salafi or Izala actions.

In Sects & Social Disorder: Muslim Identities and Conflict in Northern Nigeria, a group edited by the late tutorial, Abdul Mustapha, students look at how competing interpretations of Islam have formed spiritual identities, sectarian divisions and battle within the area.

In the e book’s concluding chapter, Mr Mustapha traces the historical past of violent disagreements between Islamic teams, together with the disputes between Sufi and reformist Muslim actions. He argues that doctrinal variations turned significantly harmful when teams started to deal with their claims to spiritual authenticity as mutually unique.

The writer notes that the language used on either side of the Izala-Sufi dispute helped incite violence.

The disputes prolonged past theological debates, disrupting each day social life. They restricted entry to mosques, curbed the proper to evangelise or apply publicly, and strained relationships inside households and communities. In excessive instances, opposing members refused to hope collectively, alternate greetings, or attend one another’s funerals. 

This friction has prolonged to larger training in Nigeria, the place Muslim scholar organisations such because the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) and Tijanniya Muslim Students’ Association of Nigeria (TIMSAN) share an extended historical past of bitter rivalry.

Mr Mustapha additionally examines takfirism, the apply of declaring one other Muslim an unbeliever, infidel or apostate. Although the apply will not be unique to jihadi teams, violent Sunni jihadists have weaponised it to justify hostility and assaults towards folks they take into account religiously illegitimate.

He explains that distinctions between errors, sin and unbelief have usually been blurred in northern Nigeria, permitting accusations of apostasy to be directed at spiritual opponents and used to justify violence.

This historical past affords context for the reactions to Mr Masussuka’s killing. It reveals how disagreements over spiritual teachings can escalate from criticism to the denial of one other particular person’s spiritual legitimacy and, in excessive instances, the justification of violence towards them.

“Declaring someone as kafir is dangerous,” Ibrahim Makari, an imam on the National Mosque in Abuja, instructed PREMIUM TIMES, describing such a declaration as a “gate to assassination.”

The takfirism problem have to be stopped, Mr Makari stated, calling for the safety of each citizen. He added that regulation of non secular speeches, which frequently spur violence, is lengthy overdue.

Mr Masussuka was recognized for his “Quran-only” teachings and advocacy for peaceable coexistence amongst Muslims and Christians. His “rejection of the hadiths” as an authoritative supply of Islamic teachings, nonetheless, attracted opposition from different spiritual students and teams.

In one in every of his interviews, Mr Masussuka sought to make clear the various controversies surrounding his persona and teachings, noting that he didn’t blanketly reject all hadiths. The deceased scholar defined that he solely rejected hadiths that tarnish the picture of Prophet Muhammad, contradicted Quranic proof, or promoted and justified terrorism and violence.

In November 2025, the Katsina State Government acknowledged receiving complaints from the cleric that some members of the Izala motion had insulted him and threatened to assault him. The authorities additionally obtained complaints about his teachings and referred the matter to the Katsina Emirate Council.

There is not any established proof linking these earlier complaints or the folks accused of threatening him to his killing. Nor is there established proof implicating the Izala motion within the assault.

Nevertheless, the historical past of disagreements surrounding his teachings highlights the problem of accommodating divergent spiritual interpretations in an surroundings the place theological variations can turn out to be grounds for hostility.

A wider problem of non secular intolerance

While Mr Masussuka’s killing has as soon as once more drawn consideration to spiritual intolerance inside Muslim communities, the problem will not be unique to Islam or northern Nigeria. 

People throughout the nation have confronted intimidation, violence and discrimination due to their spiritual beliefs, together with Christians and adherents of conventional African religions.

In May 2022, Deborah Samuel, a Christian scholar at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, was crushed and burnt to dying by fellow college students after being accused of blasphemy towards Islam.

Another Christian, Rhoda Jatau, was arrested and charged with blasphemy after sharing a WhatsApp message condemning Deborah’s killing.

Traditional spiritual practitioners have additionally confronted hostility. In Kwara State, adherents of conventional religions have reported threats, discrimination and restrictions on their spiritual actions. 

In Delta State, a Christian prophet and members of his congregation destroyed a standard shrine and historic artefacts belonging to an Egbesu-worshipping neighborhood in December 2024. A Federal High Court subsequently dominated that the harassment of the standard worshippers was unconstitutional and ordered the church members to rebuild the shrine and pay damages.

Although these incidents differ of their circumstances and severity, they level to a recurring problem which authorities nonetheless wrestle to curb.

The problem past counterterrorism

Military authorities and safety consultants have repeatedly stated that response to terrorism can’t be restricted to navy operations, arrests and the disruption of armed teams.

While the navy’s ‘non-kinetic’ counterterrorism method is generally restricted to peace offers with terrorists, deliberate efforts have to be made to deal with the narratives that permit extremist organisations to painting folks with totally different beliefs as enemies deserving punishment.

“Religious and traditional leaders must play stronger roles in countering extremist narratives, promoting peaceful coexistence and protecting young people against religious manipulation, drug abuse and recruitment into violent organisations,” Mr Rafsanjani stated.

“He said the government must distinguish between criminal violence and legitimate religious beliefs, peaceful political expression and lawful dissent,” he added. 

“Fighting terrorism must never become an excuse for religious profiling, persecution or suppression of fundamental freedoms.”