An alternative vision of sharia application in Northern Nigeria: Ibrahim Salih's 'Hadd Offences in the sharia'

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Periodical article

Title:	An alternative vision of sharia application in Northern Nigeria: Ibrahim Salih's 'Hadd Offences in the sharia'
Author:	Weimann, Gunnar J.
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Journal of Religion in Africa (ISSN 0022-4200)
Volume:	40
Issue:	2
Pages:	192-221
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Northern Nigeria
Subjects:	Islamic law ulema
About person:	Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Salih al-Husayni (1939-)
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1163/157006610X500865
Abstract:	After Islamic criminal law was introduced in Northern Nigeria in 1999/2000, sentences of amputation and stoning to death were handed down by sharia courts. Within a short period of time, however, spectacular judgments became rare. Given the importance of religion in Northern Nigerian politics, this development must have been supported by influential Muslim scholars. This article analyses an alternative vision of sharia implementation proposed by influential Tijaniyya Sufi shaykh Ibrahim Salih. He calls for a thorough Islamization of Northern Nigerian society, relegating the enforcement of Islamic criminal law to the almost utopian state of an ideal Muslim community. In this way he not only seeks to accommodate the application of Islamic law with the realities of the multireligious Nigerian State but also tries to conserve the unity of Muslims in the face of a perceived threat for Nigeria's Muslims of being dominated by non-Muslims in the country. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]