Turn Cheeks Not Digits

Very surprised to read in an interview with one of the leaders of the Ijaw self-determination groups that he is a muslim. On Wikipedia, the Ijaw are described as mostly Christian. Apparently Alaji Dokubo converted to Islam, and his reasons for doing so are most interesting.

Many readers may believe that your becoming Muslim has to do with the cause of the Niger Delta. To what extent is that true?

I will not say it has to do with the cause of the Niger Delta. As an individual, I wanted to serve God and to know him but there was a contradiction. I was not ready to turn the other cheek and I became a Muslim. I was not ready to believe that all authority is from God and we must be submissive to that authority. The only religion I saw that is suitable to my nature is Islam. It is only Islam that says we must resist evil wherever we find it. The prophet Mohammed said and I quote: 'When you see evil in the land, you must resist it with your hand, you must speak against it with your tongue or you must hate it with your heart.' That is the weakest of it. Mohammed also said: 'The best thing to do to a tyrant ruler is to speak the words of truth.' So that is it. Islam has helped me in my agitation because Islam accepts my role as somebody who should correct the ills of society and the fight against oppression even with my life.

I agree that turning the other cheek is a poor idea when confronted with brutal oppression. An emerging branch of theory describing how individuals co-exist in cooperative societies suggests likewise. In a computer tournament of cooperation between individuals with differing strategies, held in 1981, a 'tit-for-tat' strategy stabilized societies against selfish individuals. Later it was shown that 'tit-for-tat' provides the groundwork for more generous strategies (for example 'tit-for-two-tats') to prosper. In contast, 'turn the other cheek' is a recipe for social disaster.

Still, a casuist might hold that Jesus specified the cheeks as they are but two in number. Had he commanded his followers to 'let them slap you on the same cheek repeatedly', or even 'let them sever your ten digits' it would be clear that he recommended a passive response to every insult. The very fact that he specified the two cheeks hints that he was an early advocate of the 'tit-for-two-tats' strategy.

So, though I am not myself a Christian and aren't really invested in his religious affiliations, I do feel compelled to urge Mr Dokubo - on the off chance that he is an avid reader of blogs to consider carefully his reasoning. Jesus may not have been as timorous as he thinks.