This is not a library sponsored event.
Description of Event
In December 2015 in Zaria, Nigeria, the Nigerian army opened fire on non-violent civilians who were engaging in a peaceful religious procession for the occasion of Arbaeen. An estimated 1,000 people were killed that day, along with human rights advocate and religious leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife being injured and arrested. Zakzaky and his wife have been indefinitely detained by the Nigerian government, despite court orders to release them. With deteriorating health, they face a litany of kangaroo courts who seek to charge them with crimes they didn't commit.
The Nigerian government's excuse for killing all those people was that they were "blocking traffic." But the Nigerian government has targeted the Islamic Movement of Nigeria before, despite its members being unarmed, non-violent, and being a Muslim group that is vocally against all forms of terrorism, including being anti-Boko Haram. Aside from being targeted by the Nigerian military, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria is also routinely targeted by the Boko Haram terrorist group. IMN leader Sheikh Zakzaky has pulled off something that the mainstream media chooses to ignore: he united Sunni Muslims, Shi'a Muslims, and Christians in a movement that comprises millions of Nigerians and they work together to better the society and help the needy. Why would such a luminary man be viewed as a threat by the Nigerian government when he hasn't harmed a fly?
A short documentary on the Zaria massacre and the history of Sheikh Zakzaky's movement will be shown at the Malcolm X Library on Friday, September 7th, 2018 in solidarity with the global Free Zakzaky protests.