“Come to daddy, little girl…”

Perversion and religious leadership seem to go hand in hand. Whether it’s the rent-boy antics of Rev. Ted Haggard or the pedophilic urges of sharia enforcer Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim, religious moral exemplars always seem to be up to no good when they don’t think anyone’s looking.

First, let’s take a look at Abdulkarim’s background. He is an Ustaz, or learned Islamic scholar, who served as the deputy commander of Hisbah, the sharia-enforcement group in Nigeria’s Kano state. Basically, he went around forcing people to live their lives by an arbitrary and often obscene “moral” code from the 7th century. When five lesbians tried to enter into a polygamous marriage (Muslim men can marry up to four wives; these women were probably just trying to do the same), there was immediate backlash from the local Islamic population. Abdulkarim stated: “As defenders of the sharia laws, we shall not allow this unhealthy development to take root in the state.” The women had to flee for their own safety – sharia prohibits all lesbianism (sihaq) and fornication (zina). Abdulkarim cited the sharia punishments for zina – death for the married, and caning for single women. It’s most likely that the five would have been caned, as any lesbian marriage would likely not be recognized by the medieval Hisbah group, and killing any of them for their union would have been a tacit admission of its validity.

One thing that sharia law doesn’t prohibit, however, is child molestation, as evidenced by the prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, a marriage he consummated when Aisha was 9 years old. Considering this, Abdulkarim thought that he could get away with a bit of kiddie-fiddling. He lured an underage girl into the backseat of his car behind a shopping center, thinking no one would see him.

However, someone did. In fact, quite a few people did. They chased him out of his car and down the street, throwing all sorts of things at him. Police rescued the panicked pedophile from the growing mob. When questioned, Abdulkarim had no answer to explain his actions. Hopefully he rots in jail for the rest of his years.