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By El-Khedr Abdel Baqi Mohammed Lagos (IslamOnline) - A former official with a popular Islamic group in Nigeria accused the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of plotting to prevent the implementation of Islamic Shari'a in the African country. Omar Bello, former secretary general of the Islamic Scholars Council, one of Nigeria's most respected Islamic organizations, said in a recent interview that the Nigerian intelligence service was collaborating with the CIA to undermine the influential Council and block its attempts to introduce Islamic law to Nigeria. "The Nigerian Intelligence gave the Council several blows with the blessings of the CIA," said Bello, a British-educated university professor of Islamic Studies in Lagos. "The Nigerian authorities say that the Council crosse[d] many red lines but they never said what these red lines actually are." Eight states in Africa's most populous nation, and the continent's largest oil producer, have already adopted Islamic law. Nigeria is a predominantly Muslim country with a Christian minority that opposes the implementation of Shari'a law. Bello, who is believed to be among few influential Islamic figures in the country, said recent ethnic clashes, which have taken place in this country of 140 million, earlier this year were triggered at the behest of the CIA. The violence came as some state governments discussed adoption of Shari'a law. Kano, the most populous of Nigeria's 36 states, adopted Shari'a in March. Several other states followed suit, the last of which was Yobe, a state in the north. Hundreds were killed in the largely Christian southeast in a wave of ethnic strife operations between Muslims and Christians that threatened to destabilize the country. Bello said the American ambassador in Abjua was trying to convince local emirs and chieftains to disregard the Council on the basis that the scholars were trying to eat away on the emirs' local influence and power. Bello also accused Nigerian authorities of complying with American demands to sow the seeds of differences among the Muslim sects. "They try to spread the word that the council is dominated by Wahhabis who dislike the Sufis, among the Sufi tribes," Bello said. Sufis and the Wahabis are two different Muslim sects. The Muslim Scholars Council, which came into existence in the mid-1980s, is an independent body set up to gather Nigerian Islamic scholars and to act as a religious watchdog. The council now carries much weight and its statements are well heeded among Nigerians. |
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