An African Vortex: Islamism in Sub-Saharan Africa

Numerous Islamist movements formed in the same environment that cultivated the Izala.  The Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers), for example, led by Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a prominent player in Nigerian Islamism, proclaiming that “there is no government except that of Islam.”[29]  And an even more radical offshoot of the Ikhwan formed in the late 1990s as the Ja’amutu Tajidmul Islami (Movement for Islamic Revival), and is headed by Abubakar Mujahid.

Much evidence exists to show that foreign states other than Saudi Arabiaare active in promoting Nigerian Islamism.  For instance, the Iranian-sponsored Islamist magazine Sakon Islam, published in the Hausa language (spoken by many of the country’s Muslims), is a prominent periodical that serves to push Nigeria down the Islamist path.[30]  Furthermore, although Sunni, Ibrahim Zak Zaky received extremist training in, and is suspected to have obtained financial support from, Iran.[31]

Despite its spread from the 1960s onward, the extent of Islamism’s grip onNigeriabecame clear only with the country’s liberation from military rule in 1999.  This landmark event marked a rapid decline in the power of the central government.  Now free to implement their program at the state level, Islamists in northernNigeriahave embarked on a campaign to transform social and political life to conform to the dictates of radical Islam.

Alhadji Ahmed Sani, governor of the northern state of Zamfara, began the political transformation on October 27, 1999, when he proclaimed that his state would henceforth be governed by shari’a.  A great admirer of Saudi Arabia, Sani would model his legal system on that of the Kingdom.  The announcement, in fact, was made following solidarity visits from Saudi (as well as Sudanese, Syrian, and Palestinian) officials, and a number of potential judges have since been sent to Saudi Arabiafor training.[32]  Eleven other states in northern Nigeria subsequently followed Zamfara’s lead in implementing shari’a.[33]

Using Zamfara as an example, the impact of Islamism since 1999 becomes apparent.  Under Sani’s shari’a, public transportation has been sexually segregated and alcohol banned regardless of a citizen’s faith.  Furthermore, corporal and capital punishment – including flogging and death by stoning – have become institutionalized.  And as in Saudi Arabia, a vigilante organization – the Joint Islamic Aid Group – was established to monitor compliance with the new laws.  Aside from the new penal code, Sani sought to implement other Islamist policies: disclosing a plan – at an event not surprisingly organized by the Saudi Embassy in Nigeria– to enforce the teaching and usage of Arabic in Zamfara and to begin paying Islamic preachers out of state funds.[34]

Across northern Nigeria, the implementation of Islamist policies has begun to erode accepted standards of human rights.  Freedom House notes that these violations contravene not only the Nigerian Constitution, but also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[35]  Most significantly, the application of Islamism by northern states has created widespread religious tension that resulted in violence on a massive scale.  It has been estimated, in fact, that as many as 10,000 people have been killed by such violence since 1999.[36]