Release International

Muslim leaders in Nigeria are calling for blasphemy laws which, Christians say, will legitimise attacks on their community.

The call has come from community leaders in the northern Sharia state of Kano, where Muslim rioters rampaged through a market after a Christian was accused of blasphemy as recently as April 20.

Thousands of Christians took refuge in churches after Muslims attacked people and property in the Sabon Garia area of Kano city. Violence followed a rumour that a Christian had written derogatory comments about the Muslim prophet Mohammed on a wall. Local Christians have since claimed the blasphemy charge was false.

Calls for a blasphemy law come as the National Assembly begins to amend the 1999 constitution.

Christian leaders claim that blasphemy laws would give Muslims free rein to attack Christians on flimsy or false pretexts - as has happened in Pakistan (see below).

'We have seen innocent Christians being wrongly accused of blaspheming Mohammed, and they have been attacked,' said Rev Nelson Jebes of the Evangelical Church of Christ in Nigeria. 'So enacting a law on such claims is like legalising the illegality.'

Compass Direct reports that four cases of false blasphemy claims against Christians have been reported in Kano state in the past year - three of them in schools (see 7x7, 4 March 2008).

Now Bauchi state governor Mallam Isa Yuguda has added fuel to Christians' fears by calling for Sharia to be enshrined in Nigeria's national constitution 'to strengthen the Sharia system'.

• Pray for Christians in Kano city recovering from last month's violence triggered by blasphemy accusations.
• Pray that politicians involved in the current constitutional review would consider the religious rights of all faith communities in Nigeria.

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