[Deborah Samuel] Blasphemy: Femi Fani-Kayode reveals Christian redline that must not be crossed

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has revealed what the redline is for Christians which no one must cross.

Recently, Deborah Samuel, a Christian student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State, was lynched by angry Muslim students of the school.

The mob had accused her of disrespecting the Islamic prophet in a WhatsApp group for her class.

Deborah was beaten to death and her remains set ablaze in a gruesome manner, with the whole process captured in a video that went viral. The video also showed the perpetrators owning up to the action.

While many Christians condemned the action and called for justice, social media posts from many Muslims showed a support for it. Even those who condemned the action among them were bullied to delete their comment.

One former presidential aide, Adamu Garba, on Twitter, said insulting the Islamic prophet is Muslims’ redline.

He tweeted, ““There is no Muslim that don’t respect the sanctity and the divinity of Jesus Christ. And certainly, there is no Muslim that will ever tolerate denigrating our beloved Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W).

“Insulting him is our uncompromising REDLINE. Respect our sensibilities and avoid it.”

This was also the stance of many like him on social media.

However, in an apparent response to such stance, Femi Fani-Kayode reminded people that Christians, whom the Quran calls people of the scripture, also have a redline which gets cross everyday but doesn’t result in violence.

He said when people say Jesus is not God, which is a core belief in Christianity, they are crossing the redline of Christians.

His words apparently reflect Quran 4:171 which reads: “O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion1 or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs.”

Femi Fani-Kayode wrote on Facebook, “The greatest insult that you can give a Christian is to tell him that Jesus is not God.

“When you say that you are denying the very essence of His being and equating him to man.

“This is a red line for us but it is crossed every day yet we take it in our stride.

“We do not kill or threaten to kill because of it and neither do we show our pain when others deny Him.

“That does not mean that your lack of understanding of our faith or your denial of our beliefs does not hurt us. I assure you that it does.

“To the Christian, Jesus is not a Prophet but the second leg of the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

“He is God incarnate that came down in the flesh and He is the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the World.

“He is the rock of our salvation, our provider and our strong defender. He is our Shield, our glory and the lifter of our Heads.

“We adore Him, we worship Him, we love Him love him more than life itself and we regard Him as our EVERYTHING.

“To us He is far more than a mortal and it is to Him that we pray and make our supplications every day.

“I will never shy away from saying this and I would rather die than deny His grace, love, mercy, compassion and DEITY.

“He alone gives us courage, He alone gives us life, He alone gives us hope and to Him alone do we go when our work on earth is done.

“He is the Blood of the Sprinkling, the El Shaddai, the Adonai, the Elohim and the I AM, THAT I AM.

“He is the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley and the Man of War.

“He is the Ancient of Days, the Lord Hosts and the Prince of Peace.

“His power, His glory and His majesty stretches through the ages and into eternity.

“None can deny Him and none can stand beside Him.”