Shari’ah and the Press in Nigeria
Islam versus Western Christian Civilization
by
Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa
(ibrahimado@hotmail.com)
Kano, Nigeria
© 2001

Nigeria has the largest concentration of Muslims on the African continent-with an illustrious history having largely being founded around the residue of the famous Sokoto Caliphate, pre--colonial Africa's undoubtedly largest state.

European colonialists and the missionaries had since 'inheriting" what remained of the Caliphate tried to obliterate Islam from the area through aggressive secularization and mindless evangelization, attempting to "convert" those who already believe in One God. Their mission was obviously one of de-Islamization. Abolition of the Shari'ah hudud (punishments) at the on-set of colonial rule was the first step towards this de-Islamization project, which the colonialists thought they had completed by imposing the Christian-inspired penal code on Muslim parts of Nigeria as a pre-condition for independence. However since then the issue of Shari'ah in the constitution has always resurfaced whenever Nigerians decide to go for Constitution reviews or amendments.

With the latest return to democratic governance the amendment of the criminal laws of Zamfara State (in 1999) incorporating the Shari'ah hudud (punishments) confirmed once again the irrepressibility of Muslims whose heritage had been defiled and denied by the colonialists and their successors. The adoption of Shari’ah Criminal Legal code through constitutionally guaranteed amendments to the penal laws gave credence to the alert by a Sudanese intellectual who hid predicted that democracy is bound to free the oppressed Muslims whose fundamental freedom of worship had hitherto been deliberately curtailed by the post-colonial state.

The violent public reactions to Shari'ah by Christians and Muslim Secularists on the streets and pages of newspapers, mainly owned and controlled by Christians is the focus of extensive research in Sharia’h and the Press in Nigeria: Islam versus Western Chritian Civilizationby Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa (ibrahimado@hotmail.com) who valiantly admirably attempts a content analysis of some of the publications by Nigeria's anti-Shari'ah Press that persist in the battle to obliterate Islam on behalf of their patrons.

Shari’ah and the Press in Nigeria: Islam versus Western Christian Civilization traces the reason and nature of the current debate within the dynamics of Nigerian politics by exploring the relationship of Islam and Western Christian Civilization in the West and Nigeria, generally considered an appendage of the Western Christian World. While Muslims insist that Shari'ah is their identity, local representatives of Western Christian Civilization insist on forcing Muslims to conform to the Western Christian worldview by subordinating the Shari’ah to secular precepts.

The book finds that propaganda, fiction and bigotry rather than truth and reason propel the Christian dominated Nigerian press, leading to today's tensions that are a creation of the monster media.