The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a faith-based civil society organisation, has called on the Federal Government, state governments, and public agencies to refrain from engaging in any business transactions with Israel.
The group expressed strong opposition to a recent arrangement between Nigeria and Israel’s foreign ministries involving forty startups in the country, describing the initiative as a dangerous partnership with what it termed “a terrorist state.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, 13th August 2025, MURIC’s Founder and Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the startups were “vehicles of deception” from “a rogue, genocidal state.”
According to him, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel-Harpaz had earlier in the week announced her country’s startup programme in Abuja, stating it would support forty Nigerian startups in collaboration with the Nigerian foreign ministry.
“MURIC hereby expresses strong reservations about this deal. It suffers from acute desertification of conscience. It is morally wrong for Nigeria to enter into any business agreement with Israel at a time when the Zionist state is at odds with much of the international community,” Akintola said.
He alleged that Israel had defied the United Nations and committed large-scale human rights violations, claiming that over 60,000 Palestinians had been killed since October 7, with women and children making up the majority of the victims.
“Doing business with Israel at this moment is akin to dancing on the graves of innocent women and children massacred by a belligerent, war-mongering and recalcitrant state. Every single sheqel from the Bank of Israel is blood money,” he stated.
MURIC urged Nigerians at all levels to reject what it described as “genocide-infested businesses,” insisting that any agreement with Israel amounts to “a romance with a terrorist state.”
