TEHRAN - Nigeria's leading Islamic scholar Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky is set to arrive in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday. 

Sheikh Zakzaky is widely followed and revered by Muslims in Africa in general, and Nigerian Muslims in particular, for his revolutionary political ideals and struggle for truth and justice.

Sheikh Zakzaky, who founded the Zaria-headquartered Islamic Movement in Nigeria that focuses on non-violent resistance to local and foreign arrogant powers, says Imam Khomeini’s thought inspired him.

He has founded more than 300 schools in Nigeria and other African nations and has also established charities for health and educational support of African Muslims. 

The Nigerian cleric and his wife have faced persecution from Nigerian authorities for years, with both suffering from multiple life-threatening ailments and prevented from traveling abroad for treatment.

In 2015, he was injured and arrested along with his wife during an attack by the Nigerian army, which resulted in the death of three of his sons and hundreds of his followers. At least 350 people were killed in what’s now called the Zaria massacre.  

Zakzaky and his wife were acquitted from all charges laid against them in 2021.

MHA/PA