The Islamic police in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano arrested 11 Muslims on Tuesday who had been seen consuming meals throughout the Ramadan quick.
Kano has a majority Muslim inhabitants, the place an Islamic authorized system – Sharia – operates alongside secular legislation.
The Islamic police, extensively often known as Hisbah, perform searches of eateries and markets yearly throughout Ramadan.
The ten males and one lady had been launched after swearing an oath that they might not purposely miss a quick once more.
“We received 11 individuals on Tuesday together with a woman promoting groundnuts who was seen consuming from her wares and a few individuals alerted us,” Hisbah spokesman Lawal Fagge advised the BBC.
“The opposite 10 had been males and had been arrested throughout town particularly near markets the place a whole lot of actions occur.”
He added that the search operations would proceed however mentioned that non-Muslims had been exempt.
“We do not arrest non-Muslims as a result of this does not concern them and the one time they could possibly be responsible of against the law is after we discover out they cook dinner meals to promote to Muslims which might be purported to be fasting.”
Concerning those that had been arrested he mentioned that they had been freed after promising to start out fasting to any extent further and “for a few of them we needed to see their family or guardians as a way to have household monitor them”.
Simply over twenty years in the past, Sharia was launched to work alongside secular legislation in 12 of Nigeria’s northern states that each one have a majority Muslim inhabitants.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It has a particular significance in Islam.
It’s throughout this month that Muslims consider the primary verses of the Quran – Islam’s holy e book – had been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Fasting is likely one of the 5 Pillars of Islam, which lay the premise for a way Muslims are required to dwell their lives. The quick is noticed throughout daytime.
This yr, Ramadan is predicted to final 30 days, with fasting beginning on Monday 11 March and predicted to finish on Tuesday 9 April.
