A file photo of Kano

KANO, May 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The mainly-Muslim Nigerian state of Kano banned Christians from drinking or selling alcohol, the first move by the northern province to impose Shari’ah on non-Muslims.

Sule Ya'u Sule, spokesman for Kano governor Ibrahim Shekarau, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, May 7, that henceforth non-Muslims will be fined 50,000 naira (357 dollars/ 320 euros) or jailed for up to a year if they are caught drinking or selling alcohol.

"The law has been promulgated with best of intentions and it is not meant to persecute anybody but intended to sanitize the society.

"Those who are crying persecution are only being sentimental as no divine religion encourages drinking," Sule said.

"The government will go to any extent to protect the rights of everyone living in this state, irrespective of his religious inclination, but at the same time the government will leave no stone unturned in ensuring morality and decency in the society, which is what Shari'ah is all about," he added.

Members of Kano's Muslim majority already face a flogging if caught drinking, under the provisions of Shari'ahw, which 12 northern Nigerian states have been gradually introducing into their penal codes since the end of military rule in 1999.

Enforcement

Sule said that judicial officials would have to examine the wording of the law, which was passed Thursday by Kano's House of Assembly, before a decision is taken on how to enforce it.

The decision may raise tensions in the state capital, where many members of the Christian minority run bars and even wholesale beer warehouses in the Sabon Gari district of Kano city.

 Luxury hotels geared to business travelers and army cantonments housing troops from all corners of the country also persist in serving alcohol.

Eminent Muslim scholar Sheikh Abdel Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef told IslamOnline.net Saturday, May 8, that according to Shari'ah, non-Muslims living in a Muslim state can be allowed to drink or selling alcohol or pigs only to non-Muslims principally.

"In principle, non-Muslims living in the Muslim states cannot be forbidden from drinking or selling alcohol as long as this is done only in their houses or communities.

"However, they are not allowed to sell alcohol to Muslims or in the Muslim communities or areas," Ash-Shareef asserted.

He added that "people in authority have right to enact laws that guarantee the welfare of the community as a whole so that the interests of residents – Muslims and non-Muslims – would be secured".