![\"law\"](\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/law.jpg\")
An Islamic court has sentenced a Nigerian cleric to death by hanging for insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the northern city of Kano.<\/p>\nAn Islamic court has sentenced a Nigerian cleric to death by hanging for insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the northern city of Kano.<\/p>\n
Abdulazeez Dauda, popularly known as Abdul Inyass, was convicted after a trial held in secret to avoid protests.<\/p>\n
Five of his followers were also sentenced to death last year.<\/p>\n
These are the first death sentences for blasphemy handed down by a Nigerian Sharia court; those delivered for other offences have not been carried out.<\/p>\n
Mr Inyass is a preacher at a local faction of the Tijaniya sect, founded in Senegal by Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, which has a large following across West Africa.<\/p>\n
He was reported to have said that “Niasse was bigger than Prophet Muhammad” during a lecture at an event in May, leading to violent protests in the city.<\/p>\n
Mr Inyass, fled to Abuja with nine of his followers and got arrested for their alleged part in organising the event.<\/p>\n
When they were arraigned in court, there were further clashes and the courthouse was set on fire.<\/p>\n
Four of the followers were acquitted and the five sentenced to death are appealing against their conviction at the state’s high court.<\/p>\n
Kano has a predominately Muslim population and Islamic courts operate alongside secular courts.<\/p>\n
Mr Inyass, whose five-month trial was held in secret for security reasons, will also be able to appeal against the verdict at a the high court.<\/p>\n
Several states in northern Nigeria introduced Sharia after the country returned to civilian rule in 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Islamic court has sentenced a Nigerian cleric to death by hanging for insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the northern city of Kano. Abdulazeez Dauda, popularly known as Abdul Inyass, was convicted after a trial held in secret to avoid protests. Five of his followers were also sentenced to death last year. These are the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[1164,1163],"class_list":["post-7115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-world","tag-abdul-inyass","tag-sheikh-ibrahim-niasse"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/law.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1QL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7117,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions\/7117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}