Subscribe to Christianity Today
Subscribe to Christianity Today
Donate to Christianity Today
login | my account
February 13, 2012

Home > 2000 > September 4Christianity Today, September 4, 2000
Nigeria: Churches Challenge Islamic Law
Christians plan to take shari'a to court.

Nigerian Christians are so disturbed that some northern Nigeria states have adopted Islam as the state religion that they have vowed to go to court. The Christians say their rights are being violated.The Christian Association of Nigeria plans to ask the Supreme Court of Nigeria to interpret church-state language in the nation's constitution. Lawyers will press Nigeria's attorney general and minister of justice, Chief Bola Ige, to clarify the legal role of Islamic law in the federal constitution, says Sunday Mbang, president of the association and prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria. Bishop Mike Okonkwo, president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, says the initiative is necessary because of widespread violence between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria over Islamic law. Government officials told Christian leaders to go to court if they felt aggrieved about the adoption of Islamic law, Okonkwo says. In other nations, Islamic law has made Christians and non-Muslim religious groups second-class citizens. A former supreme court judge, Anthony Aniagolu, says the federal government has a legal right to challenge regional use of Islamic law. "Constitutionally, the state's interest overrides that of the constituent units," Aniagolu said. "The Zamfara [state] experiment [in adopting Islamic law] is totally unconstitutional."

This article is currently available to CT subscribers only. To continue reading:




Christianity Today


  


Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.


Click here for international orders2-for-1 Gifts!

You must be a Christianity Today subscriber or have created a FREE registration to post comments
[Browse More Christianity Today]



Search
Search
Search
Scripture Search
Go Deeper

Books & Culture
Christianity Today
Church Law & Tax Report
Church Finance Today
Leadership Journal
Men of Integrity
Kyria.com
ChristianityTodayLibrary.com
PreachingToday.com