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Published 15 May 2021
The United States has expressed dissatisfaction at how Nigerian courts continue to convict citizens of blasphemy, sentence them to long-term imprisonment and death.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated this during the release of the 2020 International Religious Freedom Report on Thursday.
He also said the Nigerian government has not brought anyone to justice for the “massacre” of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria also known as Shiites.
“In Nigeria, courts continue to convict people of blasphemy, sentencing them to long-term imprisonment or even death. Yet the government has still not brought anyone to justice for the military’s massacre of hundreds of Shia Muslims in 2015,” Blinken was quoted in the report.
The United States government has criticised how Nigerian courts have continued to sentence citizens to long jail terms for blasphemy and death.
The US position was disclosed by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, during the release of the 2020 International Religious Freedom Report this week.
He wondered why the Nigerian government has not brought anyone to justice for the “massacre” of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria also known as Shiites.
Quoting the report, the Blinken said, “In Nigeria, courts continue to convict people of blasphemy, sentencing them to long-term imprisonment or even death. Yet the government has still not brought anyone to justice for the military’s massacre of hundreds of Shia Muslims in 2015.”
Nigeria’s continued sentencing of citizens over blasphemy worrisome US
The United States has expressed dissatisfaction at how
Nigerian courts continue to convict citizens of blasphemy, sentence them to
long-term imprisonment and death.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated this during
the release of the 2020 International Religious Freedom Report this week.
He also said the Nigerian government has not brought anyone
to justice for the “massacre” of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
also known as Shiites.
“In Nigeria, courts continue to convict people of blasphemy,
sentencing them to long-term imprisonment or even death. Yet the government has
9 Feb 2021
Police arrested a barber in Nigeria’s majority-Muslim Kano state for allegedly cutting his clients’ hair in styles deemed offensive to the Islamic faith, Nigeria’s
Punch newspaper reported Monday.
Local senator Abba Moro demanded the barber’s release from police detention on Sunday, explaining that he was arrested on January 15 and again on January 27 “by a group of Muslims over claims that the hairstyle he designed on two of his customers was insulting to Islam and the Holy [Islamic] Prophet Mohammed.”
The barber, named Elijah Ode, is “currently being tried in Gyadi-Gyadi Magistrate’s Court sitting in Kano State,” according to Moro. The senator said Ode has “been denied bail” despite intervention on his behalf by two Nigerian governors from his native Benue state and Kano state, where his business is based. Moro argued the barber’s arrest and continued detention is unconstitutional.
iAfrica 2 months ago 1 min read
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Omar Farouq had an argument last year with a colleague that would change his life. Insults were exchanged in the heat of the moment, he admits, but Farouq, a teenager, thought nothing of the exchange until he was summoned to the police station and charged with blasphemy against God. When word got out about the nature of his arrest, an angry mob descended on Farouq’s family home forcing his mother to flee to a neighboring village, his lawyer said. Farouq, who was then 16, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor by a Sharia court, in Kano, northern Nigeria. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal by the Kano State High Court on January 22 because Farouq did not have legal representation at his first trial, his counsel Kola Alapinni told CNN. “I’m delighted, I’m in a joyous mood. An