Bookmark stories for easy access on any device or the Swarajya app. The Lagos police in Nigeria have charged three men for lynching a sex worker for keeping a copy of Quran in her room. The victim, Hannah Saliu, was dragged out of her room and beaten up, and later set on fire by the men, as per various reports including by the Guardian.
Muslims make up more than half of Nigeria's population. They are mostly concentrated in the northern part. The place in Lagos state where this incident took place has mostly Muslim residents. As per reports in the Nigeria edition of the Guardian and Nigerian daily the Punch , this is what happened in April: A customer paid Hannah a thousand Nairas Nigerian currency for her sex service in a brothel. When the customer left the room, Hannah ran after him on discovering that five thousand Nairas kept in her room were missing.
She accused the customer of stealing her money. When they went inside and searched the room, they found a copy of the Quran underneath her pillow. Enraged that a sex worker had kept the holy text at her workplace, they beat her up. After killing her, they burnt her body. So, they decided to go and search her room where she attended to her customers.
While searching the room, they found Quran under her pillow and started asking what she was using the Quran for as a prostitute. So, they started attacking her; they stabbed her, took her out and set her ablaze. A little over half the population of Nigeria is Muslim and lives mainly in northern states. Almost 45 per cent are Christians, who live in the south. Less than 10 per cent reportedly practise traditional religions. The victim, Deborah Samuel, was Christian.
After the police arrested some suspects, a huge rally was taken out in Nigeria in their support. Yet many Shariah laws in northern Nigeria continue to criminalize blasphemy and result in harsh punishments for blasphemers. In Nigeria, many people have been thrown into jail for a long time after being convicted of blasphemy.
