Magic Statistics

Sharia alert in Bauchi state, Nigeria, where Islamic law has been in force since 2000.

Six people convicted by Islamic sharia courts in a northern Nigerian state are awaiting death by stoning, while 46 others are waiting for amputation, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported on Friday.

The men on death row in Bauchi state include a 52-year-old sentenced in 2004 for getting his teenage step-daughter pregnant and another who was sentenced in 2002 for having sex 13 times with his friend's wife, the agency said.

The report did not say how many people were facing such penalties in 11 other northern Nigerian states that have criminal courts using sharia law. Such data is not collated centrally.

The sentences must be ratified by the state government before they can be carried out.  The Reuters story does not indicate how long that might take.

Only last week, reporting on the impact of Sharia law in Nigeria, the BBC said, “[T]he harshest Sharia penalty - death by stoning - has never been carried out.”  Perhaps BBC spoke too soon.

In other news from Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, Kano state has forbidden film-making after a sex video recorded by cellphone camera was circulated.  This effectively shuts down the state’s movie industry, potentially throwing thousands out of work.

Finally, Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, Governor of Zamfara state boasts that Sharia is so fully integrated into his state that it can never be eradicated or curtailed.  He also claims that Sharia has become effective far beyond the 12 states that have formally adopted it.

"When you go to places like Enugu State [in southern Nigeria] and see those female Fulani that go about half nude before the introduction of Shariah, they now dress in veils (Hijab). The essence of the Shariah as we have been saying always is not to punish but to educate and correct the people.

Nevertheless, those who will not be “educated” and “corrected” will be punished.

The Fulani are a diverse ethnic group spread across West Africa who have been Muslim for many centuries.  Gov Shinfaki implies that Fulani women were not “good” Muslims, but had to adopt the customary dress of his brand of Islam in order to be “correct”.

h/t for Reuters link: Dhimmi Watch

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