Religious Intolerance Research Articles

Metaphorising the Nigerian Space: A Critical Stylistic Study of Stephen Kekeghe’s Rumbling Sky

This paper examines the metaphorical representation of the socio-political and religious space, Nigeria, in Stephen Kekeghe’s award-winning collection of poems, Rumbling Sky (2020). Contemporary Nigerian space has been plagued with social, political, and religious vices such as election malpractices, corruption, religious intolerance, cyberspace crime, farmers-herders clash, secessionist claims, kidnapping, killings, and terrorist activities, just to name a few. Writers from different genres of literature have captured these vices in their creative output and critics have remained committed to such writings. This paper examines several vices that ravage the Nigerian space which are reflected and represented in Stephen Kekeghe’s Rumbling Sky, poems that received accolade by the 2020 Association of Nigerian Authors. The analysis of poems, therefore, employs critical stylistics and applies the conceptual metaphor approach as its framework, adopting Naming and Describing as its critical stylistic textual-conceptual function. The findings reveal that Stephen Kekeghe’s Rumbling Sky might better be considered as an adequate representation and reflection of the contemporary Nigerian space in poetry. It further reveals that the ills of the political ruling class and the tacit connivance of the Nigerian presidency are responsible for the perpetuation of social, political, and religious vices. Keywords: conceptual metaphor; critical stylistics; Nigerian space; socio-political vices; Rumbling Sky

Public diplomacy and Nigeria’s response to its internal political crises

Synonymous with Nigeria is a deep political cleavage, which causes major political issues to be violently contested along the lines of intricate ethnic, religious divisions. Although efforts have been made to change these narratives through political reengineering and public policy process, but all have failed to achieve the desired goal of national unity and security. Of what degree is the threats of internal crises to the existentiality of Nigeria? How best can the use of public diplomacy help mitigate the danger of Nigeria’s internal crises? Fundamentally, public diplomacy has the capability to transform a country’s socio-political and economic assets, while reversing the negative attitude of people towards these assets if handled very well. Using relational theory, the conflicts and hostility towards others is explained in relation to socio-economic, political, cultural, and religious intolerance amongst the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. The findings shows that the inability of Nigeria leaders to put the interests of the diversity of Nigeria first and respect the sensibilities of a fragile nation grasping for survival is the worst political crime, ever committed against the country. Concluding that inclusive collaboration and not unhealthy socio-economic and political competition would bring the ethnic groups in Nigerians closer than ever before.

The Understanding of Religious Moderation and Attitudes Students of Religious Sociology for Social Intolerance Iain Parepare

Issue religious intolerance is one of the challenges in the life of Indonesian society today which is based on diversity both in terms of religion, race, culture, language. Of course there are differences in perspectives. Moreover, as a student who is equipped with knowledge, of course, he has critical power to convey a perception or view to others. Students are expected to be a strategic tool to internalize the values ​​of religious moderation in building tolerance. This study discusses the understanding of religious moderation and students' attitudes towards intolerance. This study uses descriptive qualitative research, namely research that describes the results of interviews in the field. Researchers took data with the method of observation, interviews, and documentation. The theory used is the theory of religious pluralism in which the understanding being taught that all religions have relative truth. Meanwhile, multiculturalism theory provides an understanding of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. The results of this study indicate that students of the sociology of religion have understood religious moderation within the scope of the campus and within the community. They generally reject all forms of social intolerance that harm individuals or groups in the name of religion. This research can serve as a comparison to the phenomena and issues of intolerance in Islamic religious universities today.

Independence Day in a would-be Christian nation

When the West African nation of Ghana attained its independence from colonial rule in 1957, its traditional culture was to be promoted in all sectors of public life. Similarly, what was construed as Ghanaian traditional religion was to be treated equally with Christianity and Islam. The ritual offering of libations to ancestral spirits and deities was considered the Ghanaian equivalent to Christian and Muslim prayers, and it has been performed side by side with them in all sorts of national events. Later on, the libation ritual became a symbol of both Ghana’s religious diversity and its national culture, transcending religious divisions. Many Christian groups, especially from the Pentecostal-charismatic movement, have refused to accept the public status of the libation ritual in view of its alleged immoral ‘pagan’ associations. When the pouring of libations was removed from the Independence Day ceremonies held at the state capital in 2011, the public debate soon turned to the relationship between the government and Pentecostal churches, and accusations of religious intolerance were levelled. This article discusses how the arguments about the status of the ritual boil down to differences in semiotic ideology and notions about proper agency – namely, how forms of agency pertaining to words, objects, persons and spiritual beings involved in the ritual are understood differently by the disputants.

The Earthspinner by Anuradha Roy

Reviewed by: The Earthspinner by Anuradha Roy Yagnishsing Dawoor Anuradha Roy The Earthspinner New York. HarperVia. 2022. 224 pages. SOME NOVELS SHOUT their politics; others whisper them. Anuradha Roy's compelling fifth novel, The Earthspinner, belongs to the second clan. It is the story of Elango, a Hindu potter who falls in love with Zohra, a Muslim woman, in 1980s Kummarapet, India, and is punished for it. The violence-filled climax unfolds over a mere smear of pages. A terracotta horse inscribed with Urdu calligraphy is shattered by an angry mob. The reason: the "Hindu" horse is deemed defaced through Urdu, "the language of mullahs [Islamic leaders]." Its creator, Elango, is attacked and made to go into exile. The episode stays with Sara, Elango's apprentice, whom we meet as a student of literature in England at the start of the book. It also forever changes Chinna, Elango's foundling dog whose house-to-house visits around the neighborhood were like kintsugi scars holding the place together: "For several days after Elango vanished, Chinna wandered like a demented dog, not coming home even to eat, then turning up bloodied from dog fights, muddy and defeated, to collapse in a corner." For all the sadness at its heart, The Earthspinner is often a novel brimming with joy and tenderness. Much of it owes to Chinna and his relationship with Elango after he becomes separated from his owners. A video from Roy's Instagram page shows two of her dogs playing in the sun. "Call us what you will, we are made such by love," the caption reads. If the young Chinna could speak, he'd borrow these words to describe Elango's deep affection for him. The bond between them is instant and indelible. It gives the book some of its most moving passages. In order to protect Chinna from a truculent, dog-hating "old witch," Elango ties him up before leaving for work. His heart, though, "contracted to see an animal bursting with innocent energy imprisoned all day." The dog more than Zohra or the terracotta horse he comes to obsess over "unlocked something in him that unnerved him with its power." Through the attention Roy lavishes in fleshing out Chinna, she makes glaring the anthropocentric impulse in literature to privilege humans over animals. In her book, Chinna is as much a character as Elango, Sara, and Zohra are. Roy, in fact, devotes the last chapter to him. Chinna goes out on his daily stroll. He is briefly united with his past owner, a woman who never stops looking for him. Once he is home again, he takes "a deep sweet nap during which he would dream of the bushy-haired man who had long ago picked him up in a forest, bathed him in a pond, held him close, and fed him morsels from his own mouth." The Earthspinner is also about the art of pottery. The reckless, assiduous pursuit of it; the private consolations of it; the transmission of it and the wondrousness of it. It is a miracle to Elango that "fired clay did not melt back to earth again—it could be broken or weather-beaten but it had a life force that was inextinguishable." The blasphemous horse he builds is indeed never quite completely destroyed. It endures both physically and spiritually. Sara and her father repurpose some of its pieces: "two of the legs were planted by the guava tree and the tail served as an arch above the birdbath. Tia [Sara's sister] used one of the hooves as a doorstop." Parts of it travel to England where, like talismans, they help Sara face her circumstances. While making it, Elango cannot foresee his horse serving a utilitarian purpose. In a place of rampant religious intolerance like India, his horse is dangerous. Elango may even have suspected that it would land him in trouble, "inextricable [as it was] in his mind from Zohra." And yet he brings the horse to fruition, working on it day after day, with the help of Sara, and Zohra's grandfather, the blind calligrapher who embellishes the horse with Urdu. Art persists—whole or as fragments, Roy's novel tells...

Repositioning Nigeria Towards Sustainable National Integration Through National Orientation Agency

Threats of disunity keep ravaging Nigeria’s independence since 1960. The need for disintegration from the nation grows over time especially from the south-eastern and southsouthern regions of the country, and this eventually resulted in Nigeria’s civil war of 1967-1970. Hostilities promoted by ethnic tensions are also higher than ever before. Insurgency which started in the north-eastern region since 2009 has continued to claim several lives and properties till date. Herdsmen and farmers conflicts have also continue to escalate in the north-central region of the country. While, cattle rustling and armed banditry keeps growing in the northwestern region. Attacks and bombardments of oil facilities have been employed by aggrieved militants in the Niger Delta Region to get at the country. Religious intolerance has also continued to result in confrontations that often claim several lives across the northern region of the country. The thrust of this paper is hinged on these threats that have been confronting Nigeria’s national unity. The paper appraises efforts of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the task of promoting national integration in Nigeria. Descriptive analysis was adopted in this paper and data were sourced through secondary means from journal articles, magazines, newspapers, bulletins, lecture notes, diaries, and the internet. The paper revealed some of the impediments to national integration in Nigeria to include but not limited to: politics of identity, corruption among the political elites, power struggle and allocation of resources to the federating unions, religious intolerance, and internal conflicts as well as overcentralisation of power. Recommendations were then made towards repositioning the country’s sustainable national unity.

Religious Intolerance and Educational System in Nigeria

The study examines the implications of religious intolerance on the Educational system in Nigeria. Nigeria experienced a lot of religious intolerance due to its diversity of ethnic groups and religions. Due to the narrow-mindedness, misunderstanding, extremism, and zeal of religious devotees, religion, intended to be a unifying element among many ethnic groups in Nigeria, has instead turned out to be one of the triggers destroying lives and property. Several persons have suffered bodily and psychological harm due to intolerance based on religious beliefs and practices, which has caused rifts between Nigerians of various religious backgrounds. Nigerian educational system is under threat from this turmoil. Problems of religious intolerance has hampered Nigeria's efforts to establish a standard educational system.

Politics, Religion and Ideas in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Mark Goldie, ed. Justin Champion, John Coffey, Tim Harris and John Marshall

Few modern scholars deserve a Festschrift more than Mark Goldie. As the fifteen-page bibliography of his writings makes clear, his contribution to Restoration and eighteenth-century studies has been immense, and also highly varied. Although perhaps best known as a commentator on Locke, his work has also touched on Restoration clergymen and informers, the politics of office-holding, the Scottish Enlightenment, theories of religious intolerance, James Harrington, and even the architecture of Churchill College, Cambridge. It seems fitting that someone who has enjoyed a number of fruitful publishing collaborations with colleagues should be celebrated by a volume edited by no fewer than four of his former students, one of whom—Justin Champion—sadly died very shortly after the book’s appearance. Together they provide an eighteen-page introductory tribute discussing the honorand’s role as writer, teacher and mentor. But there seems to be little place for mere sentiment in the pitiless modern world of academic publishing. Is the book worth acquiring and reading in and of itself? The answer is a firm ‘yes’, partly because of the quality of the team of contributors that has been assembled—mostly Goldie’s own former students. More important is the fact that two clusters of essays offer riches for significant groups of scholars: those who are interested in John Locke, and those working on the intellectual culture of pre-modern Scotland. Sami Savonius-Wroth’s discussion of corruption makes a strong case for Locke’s main concern being the future of European civilisation, which was to be safeguarded by pursuing ‘a particular regenerative enterprise’ (p. 144). An appropriately educated ruling class would be ‘galvanised by revelation’ to persevere ‘in the constant struggle to reorder the psyche to a more rational, chastened and regulated, a less erratic and desire-driven, mode of life’ (p. 158). Delphine Soulard’s study of literary journals published in the Dutch Republic demonstrates the extent to which Locke’s ideas were received by Francophone readers. Jean Le Clerc in particular was ‘instrumental in erecting Locke as the epitome of toleration, truth and liberty’ (p. 217)—findings framed to complement Goldie’s own work on Locke’s wider reception in the anglophone world. Geoff Kemp fruitfully links together Locke’s time as a censor at Christ Church in 1664 and his writings against censorship in the 1690s. These are connected and understood through classical understandings of the role of censors in supervising and promoting the character and virtue of the people. Locke was against legislation censoring the press both because it was ‘ecclesiastical’ in its function, designed to shield ‘mother church’, and due to his loathing of the monopolistic oppression perpetrated against scholars by the Stationers’ Company (pp. 173, 176). For his part, John Marshall offers a timely piece linking together support for slavery overseas and forced labour at home in the context of the difficult economic circumstances of the 1690s. Locke’s position on the Board of Trade included support for the expansion of slavery in the Caribbean; his writings in the 1690s recommended ‘suppression’ of ‘begging drones’ who live ‘unnecessarily upon other people’s labour’ and ‘pretend they cannot get work’ (p. 194). Such an outlook fed into the expansion of workhouses in the capital.

Membudayakan Moderasi Melalui Program Penguatan Moderasi Beragama

The rise of religious and cultural intolerance, conflict between and among religious adherents, and even the nation's disintegration have given rise to a national program to strengthen religious moderation. Aims to examine and describe the culture of moderation in planning to strengthen religious moderation, describe the approach to the culture of moderation in program implementation, and analyze the monitoring and evaluation of program implementation carried out by the Hindu Community Guidance Sector work unit of West Nusa Tenggara Province. To answer these three objectives, 3 (three) theories are used: contingency approach, systems theory, and Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. This study uses a qualitative phenomenological paradigm. Technique for determining informants purposively with criteria, as participants, committee, planner, and person in charge. It can be concluded: 1) cultivating moderation in the planning of the program to strengthen religious moderation in the work unit of the Hindu Guidance Division of West Nusa Tenggara Province, targeting the strengthening of the Pancasila ideology in the nation and state and strengthening Hindu values that are inspired by religious moderation; 2) the implementation approach cultivates moderation, not yet innovative. The participants involved were still homogeneous. The program's target is still limited to understanding tolerance and not yet formulating a model of tolerance for a multicultural society; 3) monitoring and evaluating the cultivation of moderation in the Hindu Guidance Sector of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion of NTB Province using the Formative Summative Evaluation Model. It can be recommended: 1) the proposed program is expected to be more innovative, 2) religious moderation agencies (subjects) should involve a lot of leadership elements at the spearhead (close to the community), and be heterogeneous.

Need for Character Development Program Based on Islamic Doctrines as a Counter-Terrorism Approach at HEIs of Pakistan

The current paper addresses the crucial need for a revival in the curriculum taught at higher education institutions in Pakistan. Issues like an increase in hate crimes, racism, sectarianism, and religious intolerance are attributed to unfamiliarity with fundamental character-building doctrines of Islam, such as forgiveness, tolerance, equity, and peace. The paper further analyses the effectiveness of contemporary counter-terrorism approaches and conflict resolution theories to emphasize religion’s role in peace-building and conflict resolution. For grounding the research in empirical evidence, data was collected through structured interviews from a sample of 50 students selected using convenience sampling in higher education institutions. Findings from thematic content analysis suggested that research participants were unaware of the conflict resolution and peace-making doctrines governing an inclusive Islamic society. Therefore, the research proposes that Character Development Program (CDP) specifically aimed at Muslim students may be included in the basic curriculum taught at universities. The content of the CDP should be deduced from Quran and Sunnah for raising a religiously, morally, and spiritually aware youth. The paper concludes by proposing an intercultural sensitivity model to measure the effectiveness of workshops and training sessions conducted under CDP.

From Evangelization to Worship Restrictions: The Changing Characteristics of Threat Perception between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia

ABSTRACT This article is an examination of the sense of mutual threat felt by both Muslims and Christians in Indonesia from the colonial period to the reformasi era (following the collapse of the Soeharto regime in 1998), which has provoked tensions and stained the country’s motto of Unity in Diversity or Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. Adopting a historical-comparative methodology, it uses threat perception, restriction of worship and concepts of democracy to explain the dynamic relationship between Muslims and Christians, from their initial encounter to the present day. The study finds that Muslims have perceived evangelization in colonial times and Christianization missions under the Soeharto New Order as a threat, while to Christians the Muslim vision of establishing an Islamic state and the rise of radicalism at the end of the New Order have been perceived as a threat. It argues that, in the reformasi era, threat perception has continued and intensified into religious intolerance followed by worship restrictions, and shows that political dynamics significantly affect the quality of Indonesian Muslim–Christian relations.

THE ‘SACRED HEART’ OF ALICE: A READING OF MOHAMMED HANIF’S OUR LADY OF ALICE BHATTI

Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif’s second novel which was published in 2011. This novel again demonstrates the predilection of the author for satire in his critique of modern Pakistani society and manners. This paper looks at the manner in which Hanif uses the Catholic Alice Bhatti as a focalizer to critique the social, political and religious chaos he perceives as pervading Pakistan. Alice, who in many ways recalls Defoe’s Moll Flanders, is a junior nurse at the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments, a decaying hospital rampant with corruption. The fact that the protagonist of this novel belongs to a religious minority brings up the fault lines within Pakistan with great clarity. The hospital itself towers over the world of the novel, providing a context for most of the events in the novel and becomes a powerful image of the marginalization of religious minorities and religious intolerance in Pakistan, represented through attitudes towards Christians in the novel. In this scheme of things, Alice constantly attempts to de-link herself from reductive images in terms of religion, gender and caste as she continuously questions and challenges the dominant attitudes of not merely the majority Muslims but her Christians as well.

On the issue of criminal liability for crimes committed out of hatred

In this article the author is conducts the analysis of norms of the criminal legislation of Ukraine in the field of criminal legal counteraction to the violation of the constitutional principle of equality and tolerant attitude towards different social groups of people. It was determined that in order to effectively protect social relations in the sphere of ensuring full and unhindered implementation of the principle of equality, as well as tolerant relations of representatives of various social groups, the national legislation contains a system of criminal law norms in this sphere. However, the available analytical and statistical data indicate an annual increase in the number of both registered and latent criminal offenses committed out of hatred for representatives of certain social groups, at the same time, the number of criminal proceedings sent to the court and considered on the merits is insignificant, which is due, among other things, to the imperfection of the norms of criminal legislation. It is noted that the world community has developed a large number of normative legal acts in the field of ensuring equality and tolerance. The national mechanism for protection of equality and tolerant attitude towards different social groups includes the system of criminal law norms, which are located in the General and Special parts of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It was noted that in accordance with the content of the system of criminal legal norms, which ensure the protection of equality and tolerant attitude towards different social groups, the legislator uses different terms for the description in the text of the normative legal act. In particular, "on the basis of racial, national, religious enmity or discord or on the basis of sexual affiliation", "inciting national, regional, racial or religious enmity and hatred", "on the grounds of racial, national or religious intolerance", which, due to their synonymous the content does not quite meet the requirements for legal language and technique regarding legal certainty. It was concluded that a common term used, by the way, not only by the legal institutions of the European Union, but also of the United States of America, is the commission of a crime motivated by hatred of various social groups. Therefore, with the aim of harmonizing domestic legislation with the legal field of the European Union, improving the effectiveness of law enforcement, the terms: "enmity", "intolerance", "discord" in the relevant articles of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine should be changed to the term "hate".

Introduction to the Special Issue


 
 
 This special issue of The iJournal brings together nine articles from a group of authors with different professional and cultural backgrounds. The discussions here tackle a diverse range of geographies, approaches, and topics. They range from religious intolerance and body and gender to debates about trauma, war, and dictatorship. But, despite different histories and conjectures being analyzed, all nine articles examine issues on difficult memories in the museum and/or archives and discuss globalization and its politics and representations. Comparing different curatorial settings, analyzing the interaction between local and global contexts, and contemplating the development of memorialization projects in different spaces allows museum and archive professionals to better think about trauma, the erasure of memories, the politics (its struggles and possibilities) for healing, and the creation of democratic and decolonial spaces.
 
 

Review: Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks

Review: <i>Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks</i>

Analisis Resepsi dalam Film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika

The power and ability of film has become an audio-visual communication medium that reaches many social segments and is enjoyed by people of all ages and social backgrounds. It is from this basis that convinces experts that films have the potential to influence their audiences. There are various themes in a film's content, two of which are about race and religion. Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika, for example. After this film aired, there were pros and cons to the message in the film. Because Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika places more emphasis on contemporary Islamic issues that are currently in the world's spotlight, including Islamophobia. The film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika shows Islamophobia, which is a form of ignorance of Western society towards Islam. This film shows the treatment of American society that demeans Islam such as religious intolerance, suspicion and hatred towards Muslims and anti-pluralism attitudes towards other teachings. This research is about how the reception analysis in the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika is based on the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement and the Catholic Youth Movement. The purpose of this study is to describe the reception of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement and the Catholic Youth Generation to the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika. By using a descriptive qualitative approach, the researcher chose to conduct research in Jember Regency. The result, from the non-Muslim youth studied, namely the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement Youth and the Catholic Youth Movement, and both had the same results. Where both are in the dominant hegemonic or receive messages in the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika.

Integrasi, Komunikasi Komunitas Santri Batang dalam Pencegahan Intoleransi Beragama

The widespread spread of content of religious intolerance has threatened the unity of the nation's generation, so this condition was responded to by the Batang santri community by spreading content with moderate nuances on social media. The purpose of this study was to determine the integration and communication carried out by the Batang santri community in preventing religious intolerance for youth. This research method uses a qualitative method with an action research approach of Grounded Theory, merged with Max Werber 's theory based on the type of field research. The findings in this study have shown that the efforts made by the Batang santri community in voicing moderate content through social media are effective in preventing the understanding of religious intolerance by young people. According to Max Weber's theory, acting on the basis of saving the younger generation. Integration, Communication of the Batang Santri Community in the Prevention of Religious Intolerance has had a profound impact on the surrounding environment, especially in Batang Regency and the wider community in general. As a forum for young people, the Batang santri community also makes da'wah efforts through Instagram social media.

Integrasi, Komunikasi Komunitas Santri Batang dalam Pencegahan Intoleransi Beragama

The widespread spread of content of religious intolerance has threatened the unity of the nation's generation, so this condition was responded to by the Batang santri community by spreading content with moderate nuances on social media. The purpose of this study was to determine the integration and communication carried out by the Batang santri community in preventing religious intolerance for youth. This research method uses a qualitative method with an action research approach of Grounded Theory, merged with Max Werber 's theory based on the type of field research. The findings in this study have shown that the efforts made by the Batang santri community in voicing moderate content through social media are effective in preventing the understanding of religious intolerance by young people. According to Max Weber's theory, acting on the basis of saving the younger generation. Integration, Communication of the Batang Santri Community in the Prevention of Religious Intolerance has had a profound impact on the surrounding environment, especially in Batang Regency and the wider community in general. As a forum for young people, the Batang santri community also makes da'wah efforts through Instagram social media.

Religious Intolerance: Way to Eliminate Religious Extremism in The Light of Islam and Gandhian Approach

India is the largest democracy globally; however, right-wing populism has led to a dramatic shift in India's political landscape, particularly for religious minorities and Dalits. Discrimination, abusive slurs, or news of violence against people in this group should not be tolerated even for a single day. "Hindutva" ideology, or "Hindu nationalism," advocates violence against Muslims and views them as outsiders and potential threats to the country's security. That has created a sense of feeling unsafe for Muslims in their own country and an unending wave of intolerance spread by the progenies of the RSS. In light of the Holy Quran and Gandhian approach, this paper defines the type of religious intolerance and how it is spreading and damaging the social fabric of the society and suggests ways to combat religious intolerance.

Discursive Structures in Matthew Kukah’s January 2020 Speech on the State of Insecurity in Nigeria

Abstract This study investigates the discourse structures in the state of the nation speech given by Mathew Kukah, the Bishop of Sokoto (Nigeria) Catholic Diocese in the wake of 2020. The study explores how the various discursive moves are deployed in Kukah’s speech to condemn the spate of insecurity in Nigeria as well as call for attitudinal change amongst Nigerians. The study adopts van Dijk’s (2004) critical discourse analytical model as theoretical frame of reference. This model supplies the material for the categorization of the discursive moves deployed for self-positive and other negative representation. The data is purposively selected because it is considered as interventionist and one of the objective appraisals of the insecurity situation in present-day Nigeria. The study revealed that seven discursive moves: lexicalization, comparison, victimization, rhetoric, authority, presupposition and burden are used by Kukah to delegitimize terrorism and religious intolerance, castigate President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as well as give a wake-up call to all Nigerians. The study concludes that linguistic choices are deployed in Kukah’s speech to call for national re-awakening.