Killing Infidels
Sharia as a weapon has been particularly sharp on Kabiru Lawal, a former Muslim who four months ago received Christ. The Hisbah Commission, Zamfara state's agency for the enforcement of the sharia, is gunning for his life.
In late December and early January, agents of Hisbah invaded the Lawal family's house three times looking for the 29-year-old man. Agents told family members that whenever Lawal is found, he should be prepared to pay the supreme price of abandoning Islam - death.
Each time the Hisbah arrived, Lawal was at the Federal Medical Centre in Gusau town due to illness.
He is now in hiding, no longer free to walk the streets of Gusau. His father, Mallam Lawal, comes from a family of Islamic clerics.
In 2002, Lawal read in the Quran about the second coming of Jesus into the world. Lawal, who holds a diploma in business administration from Kaduna Polytechnic in northern Nigeria, said his decision to investigate the life of Christ was informed by his desire to know whether "Jesus was coming as a Muslim or a Christian."
Tunde Adebayo, a relative, gave Lawal a pocket size New Testament in 2003, which he hungrily read.
Lawal said the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Jesus is coming back not as a Muslim, as Muslims believe, but to take those Christians who believe in Him. He began to attend church services. Last September 3, he went to the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church in Gusau town and asked to receive Christ into his life.
