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As a Nigerian who was born a Muslim and who was once attacked by militants who held a gun to my head and accused me of abandoning the faith because my play Bondage criticized Sharia law, I am saddened that a Nigerian man is now accused of trying to bring down a U.S bound airliner on Christmas day.

However, it is not surprising to me that Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab claims to have ties to Al-Qaeda in Yemen or that he was indoctrinated in violent extremists' views.

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Since a majority of states in Northern Nigeria adopted Islamic Sharia law in the mid 1990's, fundamentalists in the region have had adequate reason to be further radicalized. They first gained impetus in the 1980's when the country's ruling military junta secretly made...