Islamic police in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano arrested 11 Muslims last Tuesday. They were seen eating during the Ramadan fast.
Ramadan, the month of mercy, forgiveness and salvation has begun. Fasting is one of the fundamental acts of worship in Islam and for this reason Muslims all over the world observe fasting with religious solemnity. But recently there was news of a country where the police arrested people if they did not observe fast.
The incident happened in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the Islamic police are arresting Muslims who do not fast during the holy month of Ramadan. A number of people were arrested after they were seen eating during the day during the month of fasting in a province of this mainly African country.
Islamic police in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano arrested 11 Muslims last Tuesday. They were seen eating during the Ramadan fast.
Kano has a majority Muslim population and the Islamic legal system i.e. Sharia law is in force in addition to secular law. And the Islamic police are known as ‘Hisbah’ and every year during the month of Ramadan, they search food shops and markets.
Of the 11 people arrested last Tuesday, 10 are men and one is a woman. After their arrest, they were released after swearing that they would never miss another fast.
“We found 11 people on Tuesday, including a woman, who was selling groundnuts and was seen eating from her wares and later some people told us about it,” said Hisbah spokesman Lawal Fage.
He further said, ‘Among the other 10 arrested were men and they were arrested from across the city, especially near the market.’
He says that search and search operations will continue. But non-Muslims are out of the scope of this campaign.
“We don’t arrest non-Muslims because it (fasting) is not their thing to observe and we arrest the accused only if they are found guilty of a crime,” says Lawal Fage. And that is, those who are supposed to fast to sell to those Muslims who cook food.
About those who were arrested, the spokesman of the Islamic Police said that they were released on the promise to start fasting from now on and “we had to call their relatives or guardians so that the families of some of them could observe them”.
Just two decades ago, Sharia law was introduced alongside secular law in 12 northern states of Nigeria. All these provinces have majority Muslim population.
