Radical Islam in Nigeria
From the April 15, 2002 issue: The Talibanization of West Africa.
by Paul Marshall
04/15/2002, Volume 007, Issue 30


AFTER SAFIYA HUSEINI was sentenced to death by stoning last October 9 by an
Islamic sharia court in northern Nigeria, her case drew international
attention. The New York Times Magazine profiled her, and European members of
parliament protested to Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. When, in
March, an appeals court overturned the death sentence on a technicality,
much of the world sighed with relief and lost interest in the growth of
militant Islam in Africa's most populous country.

But the extremism to which Huseini's case drew attention--she had gone to
the police to complain of being raped, then was arrested and tried for
adultery--remains a growing threat to human rights in the dozen Nigerian
states that have adopted a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law.
Especially at risk are women and religious minorities, not to mention
democracy and stability in West Africa.

Thus, three days before Huseini's conviction was overturned in Sokoto state,
a sharia court in neighboring Katsina state condemned Amina Lawal Kurami to
be stoned to death for adultery, and another court is considering the same
for 18-year-old Hafsatu Abubakar. (This mode of execution, incidentally,
involves immobilizing the person to be stoned by first burying her up to her
chest.)

Men are invariably let off for their part in these sexual crimes because
sharia courts require a higher standard of evidence to convict them. But men
face notable brutality for other offenses. In May 2001, an Islamic court
ordered the removal of Ahmed Tijjan's left eye after he was found guilty of
partially blinding a friend. Another ordered 15-year-old Abubakar Aliyu's
hand amputated for stealing. Ahmed Sani, the governor of Zamfara, the first
state to introduce this form of sharia, told Freedom House that "without
amputations there is no sharia."

The growth of radical Islam has effects far wider than these draconian
punishments. Nigeria is about equally divided between Christians and
Muslims, with a small number of animists. If radical Islam is left
unchecked, it will continue to provoke widespread inter-religious conflict
that, combined with endemic ethnic strife, may fragment the country. This
could make the giant of sub-Saharan Africa--a major oil exporter to the
United States and a new, struggling democracy--into a haven for Islamism,
linked to foreign extremists.

As in much of Africa, family law in Nigeria has long drawn on sharia, the
body of Islamic law and precedent. But the versions of sharia introduced in
the last two years are closer to those imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan
or the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia. Since 1999, Zamfara state has sexually
segregated buses, taxis, and many public places, banned alcohol, enforced a
dress code on women, and closed non-Muslim schools. Its hizbah (religious
enforcers) mete out immediate, harsh punishments for "un-Islamic" activities
such as questioning Islamic teaching or women's wearing pants.

In some states Muslims are subject to sharia even if they prefer civil
courts that have protections under Nigeria's bill of rights. Non-Muslims are
barred from being judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in the courts to which
they may be subject. Sharia state governments have destroyed dozens of
churches.

Sani told Freedom House that the Koran requires Muslims to kill family
members who leave Islam, and indicated that his state will not prosecute
such killings. Trying to appeal a sharia verdict to one of Nigeria's higher
civil courts could be taken as a sign of such apostasy.

The new laws are not subject to democratic control. Since proponents of the
new code say that it is divinely ordained, no constitution or election is
allowed to challenge it. Sani says that sharia supercedes the Nigerian
constitution, and Zamfara's legislative assembly suspended two
democratically elected Muslim members because they did not fully support the
new laws. Governor Bukar Ibrahim of Yobe, another sharia state, said that he
was prepared to fight a civil war to preserve it.

The new laws have precipitated riots throughout the country. February 2000
saw the worst violence since Nigeria's civil war 30 years ago. In Kaduna
City, whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Police conservatively estimate
that 600 people died; human rights groups say as many as 3,000. Perhaps
6,000 have been killed in the last two years in religion-related violence
nationwide.

After September 11, some Islamist violence took on a distinctly
anti-American tone. In the cities of Jos and Kano, hundreds died in riots in
September and October, with Muslims observed waving bin Laden posters and
Christians waving American flags. Bin Laden remains a hero in much of the
north.

While no evidence has surfaced of al Qaeda operations in Nigeria, the
extremism from which it draws support is spreading rapidly, and is
encouraged by radical Islamic groups and foreign regimes. Nigerian police
say that dozens of Pakistanis have been involved in religious riots, and
visiting Pakistani "scholars" have been ejected from the country. Before
Zamfara instituted sharia, officials from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria,
and even Palestinian representatives, visited. Sudan, which has already
supplied Chechnya's criminal code, is running training programs for
Nigeria's sharia judges.

The Nigerian federal government's response has been tentative. Its justice
minister has written that the new sharia is unconstitutional but has failed
to mount a legal challenge.

Nigeria is further proof, if any were needed, that radical Islam is not
created or driven by opposition to U.S. policy on Israel. It is an
aggressive, worldwide ideological movement with its sights set on Africa and
Asia as much as the Middle East. The situation in Nigeria also provides an
additional reason for the United States to drop its 30-year practice of
downplaying demands for human rights and democracy in Muslim societies. The
United States should urge Nigeria to oppose extremist sharia vigorously and
help it to do so. Even hardheaded realists should see the importance of
aiding the country to reform its troubled legal system nationwide and
provide education that includes modern knowledge and promotes freedom as an
alternative to Islamist schools.

Otherwise this fledgling democracy, regional power, and U.S. ally is bound
to face further religious violence. As Nigerian novelist and Nobel laureate
Wole Soyinka laments, "The roof is already burning over our head--the
prelude to civil war."


Paul Marshall is a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at
Freedom House, which has just released his book-length report "The
Talibanization of Nigeria: Sharia Law and Religious Freedom."



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