TheMuslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rescinded in its decision to institute a court case before Folarin Falana, better known as Falz, to court over his musical video, 'This is Nigeria'.
It will be recalled that the Muslim group had given Falz seven days to withdraw the video or risk being sued for the “offensive” scenes in the video.
However, in a statement on Sunday by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC said its new decision was “not a U-turn but a sudden change in tactics”. It said the new line of action would “have a more enduring impact not only on Falz but the entire entertainment industry.
"It will also make the agencies sit up to their responsibilities and inject a huge dose of discipline in the music and film industries in general," read the statement.
"Although he stopped short of apologizing, the artiste has tried to clear himself in published interviews made available to us. According to him, he did not intend to ridicule Muslims. He said his intention was to call attention to the plight of the Chibok girls although we think he has done that the wrong way.
“A scene in the video in which the ‘Chibok girls’ are in pensive mood would have been more representative of the reality on ground because kidnapped girls cannot be dancing like people under the influence of drugs. They are in captivity and so they have no cause under the sun for jubilating.
“Again, the Fulani (Muslims) were painted as killers while Benue militia (Christians) who rustle Fulani cattles and slaughter their wives and children were not featured. This is grossly unfair. Falz should find a way of balancing his video. The kidnappers of the South East (also Christians) were spared while the oil saboteurs of the Niger Delta (Christians too) were ignored. Falz's video is loaded with Islamophobia. That video should be titled ‘This is not Nigeria’. It is Islam-bashing. Nigeria’s video regulatory agency should therefore ban the video or ask the artist to edit it properly."
The group therefore called for action from government agencies “who are supposed to do their jobs in the first place. Instead of creating media tension and granting cheap popularity, this matter will now be handled by professionals who know what to do"
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MY PERSONAL OPINION
I honestly never knew anything like "Muric" existed until now.
The association apparently feels that the video should be taken down and I am strongly against them.
I'm still yet to understand how these people are reasoning. They are literarily picking up a fight with a person that is/was trying to fight for them.
From articles I've read the association believes that the girls were dancing like people under the influence of drugs and it didn't /doesn't potray a good image which to me isn't true.
If you take a good look at the video, none of the girls dancing the shaku shaku dance were smiling(which obviously shows that they are unhappy).
The crossed hands could be said to depict bondage/captivity
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Picking up a fight with Falz is like picking up a fight with 90% of Nigeria and it's music industry.
I believe the MURIC association consist of old men and women who believe shaku shaku dance is a club dance that should not be done by muslims... and I want to believe that's a ridiculous ideology because youths see things differently, that's why the oldies in churches can't stop Christian youths from doing these club like dance moves in churches.
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Mind you, practically the entire family of the man they are about to sue (I.e Falz) are Lawyers. So he has every legal backing needed and also the support of both Muslims and Christian in Nigeria.
The young artist has nothing against muslims and technically, after considering the time between the original version and Falz version, he made a video within a very short period of time.
We should all look on the bright side and accept the pure undiluted nature of the message passed.
