It noted that Muslims in Africa had been deprived of rights to be governed under sharia law and they should strengthen their struggle to reinstate it.
[6][7] On the decision to set up the IAO, Heather Deegan (senior lecturer in Comparative Politics, Middlesex University) has commented "More recently Islam has adopted a liberating posture, presenting itself as a religion which will rest countries from their neocolonial dependencies and ignoring the fact that it too was a conquering and colonising force in Africa over the longue durée.
"[8] The East African Centre for Law and Justice reports the declaration verbatim but goes on to quote two other objectives which it says were omitted from the IAO website.
It also severely criticises what it regards as the real objectives of the IAO.Raphael O Duru (Project Director, Voice Your Vote Nigeria, Nigeria) [9] In 1990 another declaration was promulgated purporting to be from the 1989 conference and which Frans Wijsen (professor of World Christianity and Inter religious Relations at Radboud University Nijmegen) regards as a forgery because it does not correspond with declarations made at the conference.
[10] Regarding Africa, it said, amongst other things, that only Muslims should be appointed to strategic posts, non-Muslim religions should be eradicated, Nigeria should become a Federal Islamic Sultanate, and western law should be replaced with sharia.