By: OnIslam & Newspapers
Source: http://www.onislam.net/
Assisting new Muslim reverts, a Nigerian center for new Muslims have announced plans to arrange mass weddings for reverts to Islam, to help them start a stabilized family life in Islam.
“Before the wedding the center will arrange for a screening exercise for prospective grooms and brides in order to ensure that they are not HIV/ AIDS careers among other ailments,” Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a stakeholder at the Rehabilitation Centre for New Muslims in Kaduna State, told the Daily Trust on Monday, February 10.
Sheikh Gumi plans were revealed during the 8th graduation ceremony of 50 new Muslims who have concluded a three month basic training about Islam.
He asserted that the wedding would help new reverts to get married and establish a new Muslim family, encouraging Muslims to marry new reverts without discriminating against their old wives.
Shiekh Gumi has also warned that the attitude of some Muslims is responsible for discouraging non-Muslims from embracing Islam, urging Muslims to present a good example and serve as ambassadors of Islam for non-Muslims.
Nigeria, one of the world’s most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south.
Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria’s 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.
Last November, eighteen Igbo men from Nigeria’s mainly Christian southeast region embraced Islam at the National mosque Abuja, in Nigeria’s capital.
A Christian monarch and then a daughter of a pastor had earlier this year reverted to Islam, the latter drawing widespread controversy over claims that she was hypnotized by a Muslim monarch in the country’s north central city Bida, Niger state.
The Pastor’s daughter, Aisha, denied being hypnotized, insisting her choice of Islam was strictly a personal decision driven by conducts of Muslims around her.