According to a report by Punch on Sunday, July 12, 2026, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, has condemned the religious profiling of bandits as Muslims, insisting that criminal activities should not be linked to Islam.
The monarch, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Alli, said individuals involved in banditry do not exhibit the practices expected of Muslims. He maintained that wearing turbans or bearing Arabic names should not be used as evidence of religious identity.
He said, “Real Muslims are not bandits. You cannot see a mosque in the den of bandits. The herdsmen don’t equally have mosques in their abode (Gaa). They have no identification of Muslims in all ramifications.”
Oba Akanbi also argued that turbans are worn by people of different faiths in desert regions, while Arabic is spoken by both Muslims and non-Muslims in several countries. He said these factors should not be used to identify bandits as Muslims.
The traditional ruler described the continued association of banditry with Islam as unfair, attributing the activities of some bandits to governance failures rather than religion. He urged Nigerians to stop linking banditry to Islam and called on the government to consider legislative measures against social media commentators he accused of using online platforms to discredit Muslims….See More