Following an international outcry against harsh sentences...

Following an international outcry against harsh sentences passed by Sharia courts in Nigeria, particularly on the Amina Lawal and Safiya cases, a prominent Islamic group in the North, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) declared that the implementation of the Sharia legal system in some states of northern Nigeria has nothing to do with the reluctance of foreign investors to invest in Nigeria.According to the Islamic group, the Federal Government was only looking for an excuse for its monumental failure in attracting foreign investments to the country in spite the many foreign trips embarked upon by president Olusegun Obasanjo for the purpose.In a statement issued in Kaduna by the JNI and signed by its secretary General Justice Abdulkadir Orire, the JNI observed that the reluctance of foreign investors to visit Nigeria predated the introduction of the Sharia legal system in the country."The authority knows, or should know that Sharia has nothing to do with the reluctance of foreigners to invest in Nigeria. In any case, if it were true that Sharia discourages foreign investments, the United States and many European countries would not have invested massively in Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran." The body expressed concern over comments about the judgements on a number of Sharia cases in some states that adopted Sharia, stressing they smack of "ignorance of the essence and substance of the Sharia or out of sheer mischief."