I just came across an interesting piece today in Episcopal News Service about a Nigerian religious leader praising the archbishop of Canterbury for his endorsements of sharia law last month. Archbishop Rowan Williams got reamed worldwide for suggesting that some forms of sharia law would work in the UK.

Anyway, the archbishop's remarks went over quite well in northern Nigeria where shariah law has been imposed for nearly a decade, much to the discomfort and danger to the region's Christians and other non-Muslims. In the article, a Muslim sheikh said that non-Muslims need not fear shariah law.

"It is designed and meant for Muslims," he said.

Really? Ask Ben Kwashi, the Anglican bishop of Jos in northern Nigeria, whose family was mauled and his wife tortured by a Muslim gang and marched through the streets naked in 2006 because of because of some cartoons spoofing Mohammed that were published in a Danish newspaper several months before. The bishop was not home during that first attack, which left his wife temporarily blind and unable to walk, but he was there during a second attack, where he miraculously escaped being killed by another gang.

Do a computer search on "Nigeria" and "religious persecution" and you'll be appalled in what's going on in that part of the world. Bishop Jos gave an interview recently on what he thought about the archbishop of Canterbury's remarks and you can read that here.

Muslims and Christians used to live in peace in that area of the world until Muslims began to apply shariah to Christians. Sharia law does not coexist with democracy. It's either all or nothing.

I am friends with a Catholic priest who works in Zamfara state, where sharia law mandates amputating the hands of thieves. I wrote him, saying I feared he might not make it out of there alive.

"Thanks for your prayers and concern," he replied. "As a missionary, I should be prepared for the worst."

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times