The former presidential assistant, Reno Omokri, has argued that Sunday’s notion as a holy day is not based on Scriptures, but comes from European cultural practices.
Reacting to the criticisms that followed their viral video calling for greater equity for Muslims in the official work week of Nigeria, omokri dismissed the claims that he was supporting a religion perceived by some as oppressive for women.
He explained that in Israel, a country that many Nigerian Christians consider a model of religious devotion, Sunday is a working day. He added that Sunday’s association with holiness originated from the worship of the Sun in Europe instead of biblical teaching.
In a statement about his verified X account on Saturday, he wrote in part: “I have been in Israel, a country of Nigerian Christians admire as a place of religious excellence, and in Israel, Sunday is a working day.
“I hope these religious continue shouting: ‘God of Israel!’
“The idea of ​​Sunday as a holy day is not biblical and comes completely from European culture. Historically, it was a day to worship the god of the Sun. It was incorporated as a day of worship in Europe for a desire not to alter its work week already established.”
Omokri rejected the claim that Islam oppresses inherently women, emphasizing that oppression arises only from bad interpretations and wrong practices of faith.
He argued that women in Islam enjoy the clearest inheritance rights than in many cultural systems in Nigeria, noting that the Qur’an explicitly encodes women’s rights to inheritance, even when a man only has daughters.
“Now, for those who say that Islam oppresses women. That is simply ignorance. Yes, some people, who have an incorrect interpretation and, therefore, a wrong practice of Islam, oppressions of women.
“We have such elements in all Abrahamic religions. However, women are more empowered in Islam than in many Western Christian nations.
“In the first place, let’s talk about the rights of inheritance. Even in Nigeria, there are so -called ethnic nationalities of the South civilized under whose culture, women have few or no right of inheritance.
“This thing is unthinkable in Islam. The rights inherited from women are coded in Fons et Orvo of that religion, Al-Quran.
“The inheritance of women is so well defined in Islam that even if a man only has daughters, they still inherit. They have daughters in some places in southern Nigeria that ’empower’ women and on the night of the day they die, your brothers will throw your daughters and their mother outside your own home.”
Citing global examples, he said that several Muslim majority countries have produced female leaders.
Omokri also argued that Muslim women in northern Nigeria have been more successful in electoral policy than many of their counterparts in other parts of the country, insisting that, due to political leadership statistics, Muslim societies are ahead to empower women.
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