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Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid, on a three-day visit to Nigeria, said on Tuesday the implementation of Islamic law should always reflect a country's local realities, the French news agency reported.
"There is a need for Islamic countries to study deeply the Islamic law so that it conforms to the local ways of thinking, culture, norms and values of respective Muslim societies," AFP quoted Wahid as saying while visiting the northern city of Kano. Indonesia, which is the world's largest Muslim country, has its own interpretation of the Sharia legal code, he added.
Kano is one of 10 states in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north that have adopted strict application of Sharia since Africa's most populous country returned to civilian rule in May 1999, a move strongly criticised by the predominantly non-Muslim south.
Wahid is due to end his visit on Thursday, while President Olusegun Obasanjo has accepted an invitation to vist Indonesia in May.
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