Sharia Court Bans Circulation,
Performance of Satirical Play
An Upper
Sharia Court in Kaduna, capital of Kaduna State in North-east Nigeria on
October 3 issued an injunction, preventing anyone from "selling or in
any way circulating" the manuscript of a play titled “The Phantom
Crescent” written by Shehu Sanni.
Shehu Sani
had finished preparation for the public performance of the play: actors
were hired and posters pasted at strategic places to publicise the
performance when the court came out with the injunction just a few days
before the event.
Alhaji
Abdullahi Mohammed, head of the Concerned Members of Sharia Forum, Zaria,
filed a 15-point affidavit at the Sharia court accusing the author of
condemning the introduction of Sharia in Northern Nigeria; branding the
re-introduction of the Sharia as an imposition and not a renaissance;
and questioned the motive behind the enforcement of Sharia law which he
said was an instrument of slavery among others.
On October
22 after two trial days, the court ruled that it did not have
jurisdiction over the case yet it did not lift the ban on the
manuscript.
“The
Phantom Crescent” is a scathing satire of Sharia Law which operates in
several states in the Northern parts of Nigeria. It satirizes all of the
familiar characters of the Sharia code - lawyers, judges, police and
politicians.
Sani says
in his introduction to the play that: "Under Sharia law everyone is a
sinner with the exception of members of the ruling party, tokenistic
clerics, businessmen and feudal lords co-opted to the government side".
The
Prosecution lawyer Barrister Sherif argued that the play could incite
the kinds of religious violence the North has worked so hard to quell.
He said: "We will not allow the interests of the public to be
compromised in favor of the interests of an individual." |
