Nigeria Muslim Cleric Hate
By AFP
PUBLISHED: 12:31
EDT, 1 August 2021
Nigeria has
filed fresh terrorism charges against a Shia Muslim cleric, a prosecution
lawyer said Sunday, days after he was acquitted of murder following almost six
years in detention.
A court in the
northern city of Kaduna discharged Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife on Wednesday
because of a lack of evidence in a case involving the killing of a soldier in
deadly clashes between their followers and troops in December 2015.
Zakzaky has
repeatedly called for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution in Nigeria -- where
the Muslim population is predominantly Sunni -- putting him at loggerheads with
the secular authorities.
Dari Bayero, prosecution lawyer for Kaduna state government,
said terrorism charges were filed against Zakzaky at another court two days
before his release.
"On July
26, we filed new charges against Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky before the federal high
court here in Kaduna," Bayero told AFP.
He said the
charges involved "terrorism and treasonable offences" and attempts
were made to serve the cleric with court papers while he was in detention but
he refused to accept them.
Bayero said the court was now on holiday and the
prosecution would have to wait until September before trying again.
Zakzaky, his
wife Zeenah Ibrahim and 200 followers of their
Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) were arrested in the 2015 crackdown in the
northern city of Zaria in which hundreds were killed.
A court in
2016 ordered the couple to be released, but the authorities ignored the ruling.
Most of the
200 sect members have since been released.
In the past
six years, IMN supporters have staged regular protests in the capital Abuja
calling for the release of their leader.
Nigeria sect leader
lauds al-Qaida, threatens US
(AP) –
Jul 13, 2010
LAGOS, Nigeria — A leader of a radical Nigerian Muslim sect that sparked
violence that killed 700 people last year has issued a statement mourning the
deaths of al-Qaida in Iraq commanders and threatening the U.S.
Imam Abubakar Shekau, a deputy for the Boko Haram sect whom police claimed to
have killed during the July 2009 violence, issued the statement on a jihadist
Internet forum. The message, translated Tuesday by the SITE Intelligence Group,
shows Shekau also praises Osama bin Laden and says: "Do not think jihad is
over. Rather jihad has just begun. O America, die with your fury."
The message comes as the one-year anniversary of the violence approaches.
Shekau made a videotaped statement in April claiming the group would launch new
attacks.
Muslim cleric sentenced
to death
11/10/2006 - (SA)
Kano - A high court in northern Nigeria's
Adamawa state on Tuesday sentenced a leader of an unorthodox and militant
Islamic sect on the run for 22 years to death by hanging, said reports.
Musa Ali Suleiman, 51, was found guilty of
three charges of murder, conspiracy and incitement of public disturbance, said
reports.
The presiding judge Bamari
Bansi, who was also the state's chief judge, ordered that Suleiman be hanged on
the first charge of murder and sentenced him to 21 years in prison and 12
strokes of the cane as well fining him $770 for incitement.
According to reports, he also received a six
months jail term for criminal conspiracy.
2,000 people killed
Suleiman led followers of his heretic Maitatsine Islamic sect in bloody intra-religious violence
in 1984 in the state capital, Yola, which led to the deaths of 2 000
people and large-scale destruction of property.
The group believed only in the Qur'an, rejected
all aspects of Islamic theology and was opposed to modernity. They branded
other Muslims as infidels who must be converted through violence.
As well as in Yola, there were similar
outbreaks of strife in Kano and Maiduguri, but the leaders of the sect in these
two cities were killed in a military crackdown.
Suleiman managed to escape and was on the run
until March 2004 when he was arrested in Abuja before being transferred to
Yola.
He rejected the judgment through his lawyer,
Innocent Daagba, and declared his intention to appeal
the sentence.
Nigerian Muslim cleric detained over al Qaeda
case
Thu 8 Feb 2007
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Feb 8 (Reuters)
- A Muslim cleric has been detained in northeastern Nigeria in connection with
a man accused of taking $300,000 from al Qaeda to assist a group called the
Nigerian Taliban, officials said on Thursday.
The cleric, Mohammed Yusuf, is a well-known preacher in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in the country's Muslim-dominated north. Police
fanned out in the area around the mosque where he usually preaches as news of
his detention filtered out.
"Yusuf is with us and we are taking him to Abuja for a chat. He's already
cooperating," said Ruben Amawo, director of the
State Security Services, the secret police, in Borno
state.
He said Yusuf was a close associate of Muhammed Damagun,
a media company director whom prosecutors last month accused of taking money
from al Qaeda in 2002 to arrange combat training in Mauritania for 17 members
of the Nigerian Taliban.
The case relates to a short-lived spate of attacks in 2003 and 2004 by the
self-styled Taliban, a group of reclusive Islamists in the far north of Nigeria
with no known connection to the Afghan Taliban.
Yusuf, who often includes anti-Western sentiment in his sermons, was known at
the time as a sympathiser of the mysterious group.
The Taliban launched a series of armed attacks on police stations and
government offices in Borno and neighbouring
Yobe, prompting a fierce military crackdown in which at least 20 people were
killed and several others captured.
The group, who said they were fighting for an Islamic state in Africa's top oil
producing country, have hardly been heard of since then.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is split about evenly between Muslims
and Christians. The northern half of the country is predominantly Muslim
although significant Christian minorities live there.
The two major religions coexist peacefully most of the time although
inter-religious violence sometimes breaks out. These conflicts are often
intertwined with land, ethnic and political disputes.
Muslim mobs killed about 50 Christians in Maiduguri a year ago in riots sparked
by a controversial public hearing over a plan to extend the president's tenure.
About 100 Muslims died in reprisal killings in the southern city of Onitsha.