Throughout recent decades, Nigeria has been plagued by religious and political conflict, and that violence has often undercut democratic governments and paved the way to chaos or military dictatorships. The northern states of the sub-Saharan country are predominantly Muslim while the southern states are predominantly Christian, a situation that has in many ways made it more difficult for national leaders to maintain control.

In 1999, democratic reforms ended 15 years of military dictatorship and political leaders drafted a new constitution aimed at ending Nigeria's revolving-door history of attempted democratic rule followed by violence and military takeovers.

The constitution's authors also sought to provide a framework for the peaceful coexistence of Nigeria's two main religions. The constitution allows each state to make its own laws and says the majority Muslim states may use religious or "Sharia" code in cases of "Islamic personal law."

Some northern states, however, have also begun to apply Sharia to other areas of the law, including criminal cases.

Sharia law courts are known for handing down what their critics consider to be harsh rulings. Limb severing and death by stoning are not uncommon sentences in some countries where Sharia law is in place.

"Nigeria has usually arrived at a kind of compromise, namely that they will continue with British common law to deal with most matters involving all Nigerian citizens and that Islamic law would be available to deal with family matters," Richard Joseph, director of African Studies at Northwestern University, told National Public Radio in November 2002. "The adoption by those states of Sharia, of Islamic law, has really introduced a new element into the equation in Nigeria."

The result of the expanded application of Sharia law coupled with pre-existing differences in belief and culture has increased violence between the country's Christian and Muslim populations, according to some experts. Some Christians have reacted violently to Muslims seeking more political power, while Muslims have responded in kind.

During clashes, both sides accuse the other of the first offense. Efforts by the federal government to maintain order have often been futile, while episodes of rioting and unrest have become routine.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in religious, tribal or political violence — or overlapping versions of all three — since 1999.

When the Kaduna state announced in May 2000 that the government would utilize the Sharia law, some 2,000 people died in rioting, according to the Associated Press. Although the Sharia courts were only to be used to deal with Muslims accused of breaking the law, many non-Muslims, fearing the worst, fled or fought. Prosecutors in Kaduna later indicted local Christian leaders for inciting the riots.

In September 2001, more than 2,000 people were reportedly killed in religious riots in the majority Christian city of Jos after Christians and Muslims clashed over the appointment of a Muslim to oversee a government poverty alleviation program. Armed, roaming factions of Christian and Muslim men fought in the streets during the riots, with some burning churches and mosques.

Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is a Christian and one of the country's former military rulers. Obasanjo was elected to a second four-year term in April, amid accusations of election fraud.

Before and after the election, Obasanjo spoke out against one of the most controversial Sharia rulings, the case of Amina Lawal, who was accused of adultery and sentenced to execution by stoning. The Lawal case could turn into a major trial for Obasanjo's administration. He has said that the Sharia court went too far and vowed that if the sentence were not overturned on appeal, he would bring the matter before a secular federal court.

"No such punishment has ever been carried out in Nigeria, and I have said to the world that under no circumstances will such punishment be carried out in Nigeria, because we have a system of appeal in our courts that will carry this to the highest court of appeal in the land, which is the supreme court," Obasanjo told CNN in November 2002.

In the same interview, however, Obasanjo said that any intervention in the legal affairs of the states would cause major conflict.

"We are practicing a federal form, a federal system of government in this land, and we deliberately went for a federal system of government because of our diversity," Obasanjo said. "And anybody who wants to try to impose a unitary form of government in this country will destroy this country overnight. That has been tried before, and it did not work."

Aside from reticence to impose national authority on the states, the president has also proven reluctant to find fault with individuals who commit acts of religious violence.

When rioting left some 200 people dead as Nigeria attempted to host the Miss World pageant in November 2002, Obasanjo said an insensitive media was to blame.

The pageant was offensive to some Muslims, who believed a contest focusing on the physical beauty of women should not be allowed in a country with a large Muslim population. Some Muslims believe women should wear only the most conservative clothing — wrist- and ankle-length robes with veils and head scarves.

When a female columnist for This Day newspaper defended the pageant by saying the founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed, would have approved of the pageant and may have even married one of the contestants, an ensuing violent eruption left scores of people dead in the northern city of Kaduna.

One northern state issued a "fatwa," or official ruling, calling for the execution of the columnist. She resigned and fled the country. Pageant organizers moved the event to Britain.

The government responded by arresting one of the newspaper editors and Obasanjo pronounced, according to National Public Radio, that freedom of the press was a "license to be insensitive."

"Well, I will say, irresponsible journalism in Nigeria bears responsibility for what happened in Nigeria," Obasanjo told CNN after the riots. "What happened in Nigeria could have happened at any time that such sensitive and irresponsible remarks is made."

The potential for violent clashes in Nigeria will remain, say some observers, until fundamental questions of religion, government and speech are resolved. The continuing frictions between the two major religions and their geographic strongholds, they say, compounded by the northern states' attempts to expand Sharia, make for a bleak outlook. Citing these and a host of other problems, including economic woes and the need for governmental reform, The Financial Times declared in June 2003 that, for Nigeria, the "testing time has just arrived."

-- By Jason Manning, Online NewsHour