| Around the world, Sharia law is used by many Muslim-majority countries as a comprehensive legal system to address family law, contracts, criminal law, financial transactions, and property rights.
The record of its application tells a troubling story. It does not treat women as equal to men. It discriminates on the basis of religion. It prohibits, and in some jurisdictions criminalises, on threat of death, conversion away from Islam. It imposes serious limits on free expression, particularly speech relating to faith.
Those who bear the greatest cost of this are often Christians and religious minorities.
A death sentence for a song lyric
In Nigeria, a young Sufi musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, shared song lyrics he had written on WhatsApp and his community deemed the lyrics as “blasphemous”. Before Yahaya reached the courtroom, his house was burnt down by a mob. The Hisbah (Islamic religious police) then arrested him, and a Sharia court swiftly convicted him without legal representation.
Yahaya was sentenced to death by hanging.
That sentence was later overturned on procedural grounds, but Yahaya now faces retrial on the same charge, awaiting a ruling by the Supreme Court of Nigeria that could either set a precedent against Sharia-based blasphemy law across northern Nigeria, or worryingly, confirm it.
Forced into a faith she never chose
In Iraq, a young Christian woman named Maryam was automatically registered as Muslim under a law assigning children the religion of a parent who converts to Islam - in her case, her mother, after remarrying a Muslim man.
Upon reaching legal age, she challenged the designation, and with support from ADF, won her case - first in a lower court, then before Iraq's Court of Cassation, the country's highest appellate court for personal status matters, in July 2026.
Her sisters, however, remain legally registered as Muslim, illustrating how state-assigned religion can strip individuals of the right to choose their own faith and expose non-Muslims to Sharia court jurisdiction.
The story the headlines miss
To most of the world, the term “Sharia law” brings to mind images of targeted attacks of terrorism - crimes committed by extremists acting outside the law.
But Yahaya and Maryam were victims of the law – and this is the fundamental issue and danger with Sharia law that the headlines don’t always cover.
ADF continues to advocate for freedom in these regions through litigation and advocacy to ensure protection of the God-given right to live and speak the truth. Will you stand with them today?
Thank you for standing with the persecuted and for all your support. |
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| With gratitude, Alliance Defending Freedom |
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