KADUNA, Nigeria, (AFP) - Christians protesting plans for Islamic Sharia law in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna killed three Muslims, burned cars and brought the city to a standstill.
Several thousand Muslims from Kaduna have staged daily demonstrations in the city demanding the introduction of Sharia law. Over the weekend, several thousand Muslim women from across the state staged another rally demanding Sharia be reinstated after decades of exclusion.
Thousands of Christians poured into the streets of the city of Kaduna from dawn, answering a call read out in churches across the state Sunday to demonstrate against the Sharia law. This is the first such demonstration against Sharia by the Christian northern minority that led to violence (death of three Muslims).
The crowds blocked the main thoroughfares of the city and police were out in force. In the city's main market, stalls believed to belong to Muslim Hausa-speakers were set on fire and in surrounding streets vehicles were destroyed. Across the city, hundreds of shops and businesses shut their doors fearing trouble and business life ground to a standstill.
A spokesperson for the non-governmental human rights organization, Human Rights Monitor, Festus Okoye, believed the demonstration showed that it would be impossible to impose Sharia on Kaduna. "Sharia is possible in some places in the north, but Kaduna is a different ball game. It is too mixed," said Okoye.
Kaduna is one of the most important cities in northern Nigeria with a population that has a strong Muslim majority like the rest of the cities in the north.
In October last year, the governor of nearby Zamfara State declared Sharia law, and last month Kadis or judges in the state began implementing the law along Islamic lines.
Kaduna, with a Christian minority, is one of a number of other states in the north considering bringing in Sharia as the law of the land.
Last year, the State House of Assembly set up a committee to look into considering Sharia but Christian leaders boycotted the body. Christian representatives have however joined a committee raised by Governor Ahmed Makarfi.
The Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association said it believed the imposition of Sharia is a violation of the 1999 constitution. The federal government, headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo, a born-again Christian, has been cautious in declaring a definite position on the issue.
In recent weeks, Niger State Governor Abdulkadir Kure, who has put a bill on Sharia to the local state assembly, pledged to introduce the Sharia law on May 4, providing it is passed. In Yobe, the governor has said he will introduce Sharia in April.
In the predominantly Muslim state of Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, a motion favoring Sharia has already been passed by the state assembly. But Christian leaders have said they would make it impossible to reinstate Sharia in the city.
