A hilarious quote from Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of Kano state in Nigeria:
“Other religious heroes and reformers that came before me were equally mocked and ridiculed, so this is not a new phenomenon.”
Shekarau was praising his own efforts in establishing Shariah law in Kano, and he offered unlimited resources to his religious police force, known as the “Hisbah”:
“Anything you need, inform me. We can spend any amount on the activities of the Hisbah. We would not mind spending the whole treasury to ensure the success of Shariah in the state”.
I blogged on the Hisbah back in 2006 – it has been accused of persecuting Shiite muslims, and it put a good deal of effort into preventing women from riding on taxi mopeds.
Shekarau was largely responsible for fanning an anti-polio vaccine conspiracy in 2004 which (to the dismay of Nigerian Muslim scientists who declared the vaccine to be safe) scuppered efforts to eradicate the disease.
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[…] that a number of children in Nigeria and elsewhere have been affected by the disease. In October he stated that he would be willing to spend the “whole treasury” of the state on implementing […]