The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned that millions of Muslim women are being disenfranchised through illegal, unconstitutional and parochial method during the ongoing voter registration exercise.

MURIC director, Dr Is-haq Akintola, in a statement, disclosed that Muslim women were being denied registration on the basis of their religious identity.

While noting that the exercise took off on a shaky note last Saturday with reports of irregularities and logistics problems, the group said that the most disturbing development was the avalanche of reports that Muslim women who were being denied registration on the basis of their religious identity.

According to the group, Muslim women in the South were being asked to remove their hijab (head-scarf) before their images could be captured as part of the registration process.

“Those who refused to do so were sent away without being registered. Those who compromised their religious identity by removing their hijab were the only ones allowed to register.”

It denounced this discriminatory practice in the strongest terms, adding that it contradicts the spirit of democracy.

“We are not in Soweto. Southern Nigeria is fast becoming another apartheid South Africa for Muslims,” MURIC stated, adding that forcing Muslim women to remove their hijab before participating in the registration exercise or before engaging in any legitimate exercise constituted an infringement on their Allah-given and fundamental human rights.

It added that such action violates the letter and spirit of Section 38 (i) and (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which guarantees freedom of religion, its practice and manifestation.

The group, therefore, alerted both the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the satanic manipulations of agents of chaos, saying that none but a fanatic would compel a Muslim woman to remove her hijab before registering as a bona fide Nigerian.