When religion and state power collide

Published on Tuesday 9 September 2003 01:00

JUST across the Potomac river from Washington in the Vir- ginia suburbs there was a bizarre row between a school and some local Christian activists.

I confess that this row, apparently trivial in itself, is one of the many things that I love about America. Who cares whether a plastic donkey and a baby Jesus are placed inside or outside the school? Many Americans do care, because what is at stake in the dispute is the role faith and churches should play in civil society. The American solution, dictated by the founding fathers of the United States, sober men who well knew the disastrous consequences of mixing religion and politics in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, was to keep the two as separate as possible. But the debate continues today.

Even so, despite - or perhaps because of - this strict separation of church and state, America has the highest levels of church attendance in the developed world. But what of those countries where religion and state power continue to collide, without the genius of the US Constitution to keep them apart?

NIGERIA has a population of 120 million people roughly split between Muslims and Christians. It has more Muslims, and more Christians, than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa. But 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states have declared themselves in favour of Sharia or Islamic law. Amina Lawal, a single mother from one of those states, faces being stoned to death for having sex outside marriage.

I have been talking to Ahmed Sani, governor of Zamfara state, one of the predominantly Muslim states in Northern Nigeria which has embraced Sharia law. He offers an extremely robust defence to charges that Sharia is, in the words of Amnesty International, cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment.

Governor Sani, a tall and handsome man in long white flowing traditional robes, has an easy smile and a soft voice. He has been in Britain to take part in the opening ceremony for a new mosque. Sharia, Governor Sani says, is very popular in his home state. Nigeria is regarded as the second most corrupt country in the world, after Bangladesh. Sharia is seen by Nigerian Muslims as a tough law-and-order measure. In Zamfara, two criminals have had their hands chopped off for stealing. Governor Sani claims this has proved to be a great deterrent to others. I asked him if he was proud of chopping off people’s hands. He said softly: "Yes."

But on the Amina Lawal case, Governor Sani told me it would be very unlikely that the Sharia punishment could be carried out. The Islamic courts, he said, would require a very great degree of proof. Given the private nature of sexual relations, he felt it was unlikely to be achieved. But, I wondered, if the case were to be proved, would Governor Sani himself be prepared to cast a stone to kill the woman? Again he answered softly: "Yes."

Now, given the make-up of Nigeria and the fact that an estimated 10,000 people have already died in rioting between Muslims and Christians over the past four years, it does not take clairvoyance to figure out that if Amina Lawal is stoned to death there will be further disastrous riots in the country. Nigeria’s federal President Obasanjo, a Christian, says the mixture of religion and politics "portends destruction and devastation". He is correct. It always does.

But Governor Sani also has a point. Sharia is popular in northern Nigeria for the same reason people in Iraq have turned to Islamic authorities. When the state fails to bring law and order, people turn to any other possible source of stability - a church, a mosque, a military strongman. The terror of our times is failed or failing states - Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Liberia, Congo, much of the rest of Africa, Indonesia, Colombia and elsewhere. Religious opportunists, like political opportunists, will seize their chance.

I WONDER what Scotland’s very own John Knox would have made of it all? I remember hearing a dispute between historians about Knox’s views of the closeness between church and state, with one historian arguing that Knox, by pushing for parish schools and education, at least ensured that Scots still have an abiding respect for education even today. Ah, responded another historian, but he also ensured that the playhouses were closed down. We could all read the James VI Bible, but we never produced a Scottish Shakespeare.

Gavin Esler is a presenter on BBC2’s Newsnight.