The Nigerian singer Yahaya Sharif-Aminu has been sentenced to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.
An upper sharia court in the Hausawa Filin Hockey area of Nigeria’s northern Kano State said Sharif-Aminu, 22, was guilty of committing blasphemy for a song he circulated on WhatsApp in March.
The musician did not deny the charges.
Sharia courts in majority-Muslim northern Nigeria have been given death sentences for adultery, murder and homosexuality before but, to date, no executions have been carried out.
A spokesman for the Kano region ministry of justice, Baba-Jibo Ibrahim, said: “The court handed down the death sentence as enshrined in Islamic laws based on irrefutable evidence and the convict’s admission of guilt.”
Sharif was accused of blaspheming against the Prophet in a song he shared on social media in March, which caused riots in the city.
Protesters burned down his family home and gathered outside the headquarters of the Islamic police, known as the Hisbah, demanding action against him.
“Judgement will serve as a deterrent to others”
Critics said the song was blasphemous, as it praised an imam from the Tijjaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad.
The leader of the protesters who called for the musician’s arrest in March, Idris Ibrahim, told the BBC that the judgment will serve as a warning to others “contemplating toeing Yahaya’s path [sic]”.
Ibrahim said, “When I heard about the judgment I was so happy, because it showed our protest wasn’t in vain. This [judgment] will serve as a deterrent to others who feel they could insult our religion or prophet and go scot-free,” he said.
Few people had heard of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu before his arrest in March.
An Islamic gospel musician, he is not well known in northern Nigeria and his songs were not popular outside his Tijjaniya sect, which has many such musicians in its ranks.
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