| Nigerian Sharia conflict | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Map of Nigeria |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
| Nigeria | Boko Haram Muslim extremists |
Christian extremists | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| peter clifford Ibrahim Geidam Ali Modu Sheriff Isa Yuguda |
Mohammed Yusuf † Bukar Shekau † Mallam Sanni Umaru[2] |
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| Strength | ||||||||
| Military of Nigeria Nigeria Police Force Nigerian Mobile Police |
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| total casualties=at least 10,000 civilians killed[3] Thousands civilians displaced[4] |
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The Nigerian Sharia conflict is an armed conflict of militant groups, different representatives of religious groupings and the government of Nigeria.
According to a Nigerian study on demographics and Religion, Muslims make up 50.5% of the population. They mainly live in the North of the country. The majority of the Nigerian Muslims are Sunnis. Christians are the second-largest religious groups and make up 48.2% of the population. They predominate in the centre and in the South of the country, whereas adherents of other religions make up 1.4 %.[5]
As Muslims narrowly form the majority of the population, many of them demand to introduce the Sharia - the Islamic law - as main source of legislation. 12 Northern states have introduced sharia as base of the executive and the judiciary in the years 1999 and 2000.
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In the North of the country are numerous Muslim groups, which want to introduce sharia in the whole country. In the states of the North these demands have been executed in 1999 and 2001.
In the following 9 states the Sharia has full validity:
In the following states the sharia is valid for areas with a mainly Muslim population:
The riots of 1999, 2000 and 2001 were riots between Christians and Muslims in Jos, Nigeria about the appointment of a Muslim politician, Alhaji Muktar Mohammed, to the local coordinator federal programme to fight poverty.[6] The riots began on 7 September, lasted nearly two weeks and ended on 17 September. More than 1000 people were killed because of the riots.[7]
In 2010, more than 500 people were killed by religious violence in Jos.[8]