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Islamic Body Censures Nigeria for Delaying Shari'a Law
KANO, Nigeria, June 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Islamic body in Nigeria criticized the government Tuesday for what it saw as a bid to stall the implementation of the
Shari'a law, which is objected to by Western countries and non-Muslim human rights organization.
The Supreme Council for Shari'a in Nigeria said in a statement that a federal government move to introduce a uniform Islamic legal code was a delaying tactic and that they were succumbing to pressure from non-Muslim countries.
The communiqué came after an emergency meeting in the northern city of Kaduna.
Eleven northern states have started implementing Shari'a, 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'a, 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, demanded by President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, have been led Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a Muslim with the most recent session held early this month.
The Shari'a body said in Tuesday's statement signed by its national president, Datti Ahmad, that the government move was designed to delay Sharia 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'a 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'a. But Muslims of northern Nigeria have wanted the restoration of the
Shari'a as it had existed in the pre-colonial times in Hausaland of the 19th Century.
Muslims in Nigeria, against Western complaints, say they are happy they finally have been able to take "their destiny in their own hands" and that 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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