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10,000 Protest Continued Detention of Nigerian Islamic Leader
KANO, Nigeria, Aug 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - More than 10,000 Muslims in Nigeria's northern Kaduna city staged a peaceful protest over the detention of an Islamic leader, news agencies reported.
A Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria report said Muslims carried out a peaceful demonstration on the streets of Kaduna Thursday in protest at the continued detention of Islamic scholar Yakubu Musa, a leader of the Izala Muslim sect, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Security agents arrested Musa, whose group is committed to implementing Shari'ah (Islamic law), about three weeks ago at his base in nearby Katsina, and have kept him in detention since then, the radio report said.
Musa was arrested for calling for the formation of an Islamic political party, and for allegedly harboring foreigners with intent "to cause trouble," without giving any details on the charges, the report added.
No date has yet been fixed for the hearing.
On Wednesday, a Kano-based human rights organization, Network for Justice, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Kano over Musa's continued detention.
The president of The Supreme Council for Shari'ah in Nigeria, Ibrahim Dati Ahmed, cited the case of Musa's detention as an example of the government's policy of arresting and detaining people without trial.
"It is very disheartening that after two years of our so-called new democracy, Nigerians are still living under an oppressive government," Ahmed said.
"The hope of Nigerians for a free and civilized society has become dented by arbitrary arrests and detention of its citizens, without trials, characteristic of military regimes," he added.
Ahmed said Musa's continued detention was unjustified.
"Sheikh Yakubu is a renowned Islamic scholar working for the establishment of a just and morally upright society through the implementation of Shari'ah," he said.
No official reason has been given for Musa's detention, but Muslim observers have said they believe it is linked to his views in favor of the implementation of Islamic law.
Ahmed said he would mobilize Muslims to vote against Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo if he seeks a second term in elections due in 2003.
The Supreme Council for Shari'ah said that Muslims should no longer support Obasanjo, who came to power in May 1999, because of his poor handling of issues affecting them.
"Why should we vote for him again? We are not slaves, we are free Nigerians. If we vote for you and you do what is right, then we will vote for you again, but if you do what is wrong, we vote for somebody else," Ahmed said.
Northern Nigeria has a large Muslim population, and 11 states there have introduced, or have announced plans to introduce, Shari'ah over the past 18 months.
Under Shari'ah law, which came into force in Kaduna on August 2nd last year, stealing, prostitution, alcoholism and fornication are banned.
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