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Former Sudan Leader Urges Caution on
Shari'ah in Africa
LAGOS, July 3 (IslamOnline) - Former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq el-Mahdi has called for caution in the application of Shari'ah (Islamic law) in Nigeria, arguing that it may not always be in the interest of the people, a Lagos
daily reported.
The Nigerian newspaper, The Guardian, said Mahdi was delivering a lecture in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna on 'The Challenges of Islamization - The Experience of Sudan,' and urged Nigerians of all religious persuasions to ensure that the country's unity and democratic strengths prevailed, the report said.
"As much as possible, avoid repeating the mistake of others," he said. "In many countries, the (Islamization) programs have been associated with dictatorships which, to shore up legitimacy, embrace Islam."
"Islamization programs have failed to deliver on promises and even given the enemies of Islam ammunition to fight the system," he added.
Over the past year and a half, about 11 states in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north have either adopted Shari'ah or made plans to do so.
Differences between Muslims and Christians over plans to introduce the law in Kaduna State last year led to religious and ethnic riots, which left an estimated 2,000 people died.
Yesterday, the Nigerian Christian Red Cross said that more than 72,000 people have fled from their homes in two Nigerian states following last month's ethnic clashes.
More than 22,000 people have fled fighting between ethnic Hausa and ethnic Jarawa people around the town of Tafawa Balewa, the acting secretary general of the Nigerian Red Cross, Abiodun Orebiyi said.
"We have over 22,000 people, representing over 4,000 families displaced," he said, describing the clashes as apparently an ethnic dispute.
On June 19, Muslim-Christian clashes in Tafawa Balewa broke over a dispute on the imposition of Islamic law regulations on bus seating.
Christians angered by the introduction of the Islamic law code, the Shari'ah, rioted after a Muslim bus driver insisted that his male and female passengers, some of whom were Christians, be segregated into different areas of the bus, saying this meant Islamic law was being imposed on them.
Eleven northern states have started implementing Shari'ah, but the federal government is seeking to review the way it is enforced in a country where some people, especially in the south, are Christians.
Of these, nine states are already implementing the code fully. Two others have offered restricted versions of it, despite opposition from Christians, Western rights bodies and the federal government.
To ease tensions created by the introduction of Shari'ah, the federal government has held two rounds of talks with northern governors on how it is implemented and the use by some states of vigilante groups to enforce it.
The talks, were demanded by President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, and led by Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a Muslim. The most recent session was held early this month.
The Shari'ah body said in Tuesday's statement signed by its national president, Datti Ahmad, that the government move was designed to delay Shari'ah in some states that have reached an advanced stage ahead of launching the law.
"Given the diversity of states in the country, there is no way a single Shari'ah system can be workable. The whole move is motivated by political calculations with an eye on 2003 elections," it said.
Presidential elections are scheduled for 2003.
After lurching from one military coup to another, Nigeria now has an elected leadership. But, it faces the growing challenge of preventing Africa's most populous country from breaking apart along ethnic and religious lines, the BBC online archives said.
Thousands of people have already died over the past few years in communal rivalry. Separatist aspirations among some groups have been growing, prompting reminders of the bitter civil war over the breakaway Biafran republic in the late 1960s.
Having gained independence from the British Colonial Empire in 1960, Nigeria adopted a secular form of Government rather than one based on Shari'ah. But, Muslims of northern Nigeria have wanted the restoration of the Shari'ah, as it existed in pre-colonial Hausaland.
Muslims in Nigeria, despite Western complaints, say they are happy that they have finally been able to take "their destiny in their own hands" and that the Muslim masses have been able to assert "people's power."
In addition, they also have often praised the changes that led Muslims to fight what they called "all manner of social evils afflicting them."
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