ACRE after acre of burnt-out shops and houses in the northern city of Kaduna serve as a sombre reminder of the destructive power of religious intolerance in Nigeria.

More than 3,000 Christians and Muslims have died in the three religious riots that have erupted in this impoverished city since the introduction of Sharia three years ago.

Poverty, illiteracy and ignorance are fuelling mounting Christian-Muslim tensions in the largely Muslim north of the West African country and Muslim politicians have been accused of manipulating Islamic fervour in the pursuit of power.

Shehu Sani, a leading human rights activist, said: “It usually starts with a rumour.

“A Muslim will accuse a Christian of insulting the Prophet Muhammad or defiling the Koran. There is no time to establish the facts. The rumour spreads and then the thousands of unemployed and idle youths begin smashing cars.

“The elders and the security forces stand by and do nothing. Then the youths start attacking Christian churches. The Christians retaliate and attack the mosques. Soon all hell breaks out and people are lying dead in the streets. Here a rumour can bring about the death of a thousand people.”

Before the introduction of Sharia in February 2000, under which drinking alcohol is punished by public flogging, limbs are amputated for theft and adulterers are stoned to death, Christians and Muslims had lived side by side in Kaduna.

Three years later there are almost no Christians living in the northern Muslim neighbourhood of Rigasa, and few Muslims in the Christian south of the city. Sectarian “cleansing” is all but complete.

More than 200 people were killed in three days of riots in November after a columnist wrote in a local newspaper that Muhammad would have approved of the Miss World competition then due to be held in Lagos, the commercial capital. “Miss World did not cause the riots,” Mr Sani said. “It was just a pretext to stir up anti-Christian feeling. There is no peace in this city, only intervals between riots.”

Sharia has since been introduced in a dozen northern states. This has not only polarised relations between Christians and Muslims living in the those regions, but has encouraged the development of a religious divide between the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian south of the country.

Mr Sani, a Hausa-speaking Muslim who is highly critical of the way in which many Muslim politicians in the north appear to be exploiting religious issues for political ends, blames much of Nigeria’s increased religious tension on General Muhammadu Buhari, leader of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the main challenger to President Obasanjo.

“Religion here has become more important than the provision of roads, schools and electricity,” Mr Sani said. “It has become the main rallying point for politics in the north.

“Most northern politicians present themselves as the defenders of the Islamic faith. It enables them to get elected while at the same time shielding them from public criticism. The northern political elites are deliberately manipulating religious fears. They have accused Obasanjo of being anti-Muslim and anti-north. I’m no supporter of Obasanjo, but he is not guilty of the things they say he is.”

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