A timely publication when the need for greater understanding between Islamic and Western cultures is sharper than ever, the papers in this book are the result of an international conference entitled 'the Shari'ah debate and the shaping of Muslim and Christian identities in Northern Nigeria'. The conference was convened by the University of Jos in northern Nigeria in the wake of the religious/civil strife in the area in 2001 and 2002. The conference, which brought together scholars from Nigeria and overseas considered recent developments in law and religion, and shari'ah from local and global perspectives. The publication is intended to serve as an example of constructive dialogue in an academic setting between Muslims, Christians and those of neither religion, and as a permanent contribution to the literature on law and religion in Nigeria.

Examines the case of Islamic law in Nigeria through a comparative lens by probing the meaning of justice in Islamic, Jewish, Continental European and Anglo-American law and by contrasting Nigeria's experience of sharia law with the versions practised in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sudan. Islamic Law and Politics in Northern Nigeria examines these legal and political issues from a long-term perspective, thereby acquainting the reader with the essentially uninterrupted application of Islamic law.

This work was written 1989 and published for the first time in 2002. The author's intention is to inform even-handedly, national and international debates about the misunderstandings surrounding the Sharia and common legal systems in Nigeria. Balewa broadly discusses Western and Islamic philosophical backgrounds of law, relationships between law, politics and religion in society, and concepts of secularism and secularity. He traces the history and schools of Sharia law, and the sources of common law in Nigeria, and its comparative religious and colonial foundations. He further appraises two views of the controversy: namely, whether Sharia law, as a fully-fledged legal system, should be reflected in the Nigerian constitution - or not, given its contentious religious content; and he states the case against Sharia. His conclusion is that in view of the status quo, and the multi-ethnic, mulit-religious nature of Nigerian society, there is a need for understanding of the truths of both systems; and to find appropriate means of ensuring their equality and peaceful co-existence.

When democracy was introduced to Nigeria in 1999, one-third of its federal states declared that they would be governed by sharia, or Islamic law. This work argues that such a break with secular constitutional traditions in a multireligious country can have disastrous consequences