Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria’s Zaria city reportedly disappeared following death threats from Muslim militants and growing pressure on Christians in northern Nigeria. Christian news agency Compass Direct said Andrew Akume knew from a militant Muslim group at the university it had issued "a death sentence" on him because he allegedly blasphemed Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.
The death sentence for Akume, the university’s dean of the faculty of law, is contained in two ‘fatwa’s’. or Islamic decrees, issued in May and June by the ‘Concerned Muslims Movement’ of the university, Compass Direct said.
The first ‘Fatwa: The Resolutions,’ distributed on the university campus, accused Akame of "assaulting Muslim sisters and blasphemy against Allah and Islam." He allegedly asked a Muslim female student not to wear the hijab, a head-to-toe covering, because it hid the identity of the student from lecturers and students.
DRESS CODE
Akume tried to defend himself and was quoted as saying that "the student disregarded the Council for Legal Education’s dress code for law students by wearing the Islamic dress," Compass Direct reported.
But a second fatwa issued later reportedly said that the "earlier fatwa holds" and that "it is a time bomb which will explode in a few days’ time." The circular, which contained no dates or names, accused Akume of blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed and of making the faculty of law at the university a "hell for Muslims," Compass Direct claimed. It was not clear if the Muslim group was directly involved in the disappearance of the lecturer.
News of his disappearance came as three students expelled for sharing the Gospel in November last year reportedly said their "fundamental rights as Christians were violated by authorities of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi," also in northern Nigeria.
"GROSS VIOLATION"
The three filed a case against the university, claiming the expulsion "was a gross violation of their fundamental rights as Christians," Compass Direct added, citing sources in the area. A court hearing on that case continues on July 6.
The latest tension has raised concern about the possibility of new religious tensions in the African nation.
Over the past four years, religious violence in Nigeria has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced many thousands more from their homes and farms, according to church estimates. Community leaders in Nigeria — both Muslim and Christian — reportedly blame the violence on social tensions produced by the implementation of Islamic law in a dozen northern states of Nigeria since 2001. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Nigeria)
