Why bother fighting Boko Haram if you are going to enforce Mohammed’s 7th-century law?

KANO, NIGERIA (AFP) – Police who enforce Islamic law in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano have arrested 150 people in the last week, including for indecent dress, as part of a crackdown on immorality, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Some people in Nigeria’s second city have been picked up for sporting hair styles inspired by prominent international football players, said Mohammed Yusuf Yola, spokesman for Kano’s sharia police, or Hisbah.

Others were thrown in jail and fined for wearing their trousers too low on their waists, mimicking a style that became prominent in the 1990s, partly through the influence of some American hip hop artists.

The arrests have followed an order by Kano state Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to cleanse the city of immoral practices and the trend is set to continue in the weeks ahead, said Hisbah Director-General Abba Sufi.

The Hisbah is a state police force funded by state government and is not part of the federal police.