When the law becomes a sword

摘要

Ramadan this year may not be its usual calm, fasting self in northern Nigeria. Last month, the governor of Kano, the north's most populous state, announced that he had decided to go ahead with implementing sharia, or Islamic law, from the first day of Ramadan, which this year will fall in late November. Most of the other northern states are expected to follow suit, and the Christian minority is justifiably frightened. The city of Kano has a violent history of religious riots. And this spring, more than 1,000 people were killed in Christian-Muslim riots in Kaduna, another northern city, after a call went out for sharia to be introduced.