Muslim Law in Nigeria Used Against Christians

May 11, 2001

     According to a May 1 news release, five Anglican Christians will appear in court in northern Nigeria later this month, charged with abducting two teenage sisters who were going to be forced into arranged Muslim marriages. The five, who have been detained in police cells, claim the girls are practicing Christians who sought shelter in their church.

In another instance, the National Council of Ulamas, Nigeria's highest Islamic council, criticized the six northern Nigerian states, which have adopted Sharia law, for not having enforced the strict penal code as they should. According to the council, only the state of Zamfara is enforcing the law properly.

In using them as a model, it was reported that in January a pregnant 17-year-old girl was lashed 100 times in Zamfara as punishment for being pregnant and unmarried. She insisted that she had been become pregnant when raped.

--Used by permission of Religion Today

---

Islamic Law Discriminates Against Christians in Nigeria

February 7, 2001

    The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, recently told BBC that many Christians in the northern state of Zamfara in Nigeria had left the state since the adoption of Islamic law, resulting in a decline of Christianity there. They are now unable to build churches or teach religion in schools.
    Dr. Carey, currently on a two-week pastoral tour of Nigeria, met with the governor of Zamfara state, Ahmed Sani, and expressed his concerns over Christians' rights. "I pressed the point quite strongly," the archbishop said, "and I wished to be a voice for all Christians who feel excluded and marginalized." Mr. Sani responded that he was very concerned.
    Zamfara was the first Nigerian state to impose the Islamic legal code, or Sharia, which includes punishments such as stoning to death, amputation and flogging. According to the Muslims in Zamfara, the fear of Sharia has already made for a better society. Men and women - of all faiths - are now prohibited from sharing public transport in Zamfara. Boys and girls are taught in separate schools and the sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned.
    Attempts to introduce Sharia in the neighboring state of Kaduna, with its much larger Christian population, led to terrible bloodshed last year. At least 2,000 people died in fighting between Christians and Moslems and Nigeria's Christian minority says the fear of Sharia is driving their numbers even lower.

--Used by permission of Religion Today

---