In May, Lebanon marked the anniversary of the Hizbullah’s successful expulsion of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000. For Muslims around the world, the Hizbullah success was a triumph for the courage and steadfastness of its members in the field of battle and in the far more complicated arena of Lebanese politics.
Over the past eighteen months, several Muslim states in northern Nigeria have introduced shari’ah, to Muslim jubilation and non-Muslim consternation. Last month, IQBAL SIDDIQUI attended a conference in London to discuss the ‘Restoration of Shari’ah in Nigeria: Challenges and Benefits’.
The word ‘shari’ah’ literally means waterway that runs one single course leading to a main stream. It is also borrowed from here to refer literally to any way, road or path that leads to a goal, be it a village, city, or building.
Zamfara, an overwhelmingly Muslim state in northern Nigeria, adopted Shari’ah law on October 27, amidst celebrations by the area’s Muslim population and widespread support among other Muslims in the country.
Pakistan is fast approaching a threatening social chasm, representing not the conventional divide between the secular and the religious but within the religious community itself.
