SOKOTO, Nigeria — Nigeria’s Sokoto state declared itself Islamic beginning May 29, despite a federal government directive that no state should adopt a state religion.
Governor Attahiru Bafarawa, a Muslim, said it was necessary to implement the Islamic legal system, sharia, because it is the popular wish of Muslims in the state. Sokoto state has already converted 44 of the conventional judicial courts to Islamic courts.
Muslims in the state have been demanding that Islamic law be implemented and that Christians be subject to it.
Christians have also been attacked. On March 7, three churches were burned.
“The Christians are not against sharia as long as it does not affect us, but once they attack us as they have been doing, we shall resist such onslaught on us,” said Simon Dangana, chairman of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
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