"Amnesty International told to 'stop interfering'"
Kano, Nigeria 11 February 2004
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=31026
An influential Nigerian Islamic body on Wednesday warned the London-based rights group Amnesty International to stop interfering in Islamic religion in the name of human rights campaigns.
The warning by the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the umbrella body for Nigeria's Muslims, followed Tuesday's report by Amnesty condemning the use of the death penalty in 12 northern Nigerian states where the Sharia legal system is in operation.
JNI spokesperson Zubairu Jibrin told a local radio in a report monitored in Kano that the rights group is hiding under the guise of human rights to attack Islam or the Sharia legal system.
"We are warning Amnesty to desist from disparaging Islam under the guise of human rights," he said.
"The issue of stoning for adultery is an Islamic injunction which applies only to Muslims and every Muslim who commits adultery is aware of the consequence of this offence if he is prosecuted," he added.
"The issue of stoning for adultery is not confined to Islam. Both Judaism and Christianity prescribe same punishment for adultery, even in severer form," he added.
Amnesty had said the death penalty violates women's human rights by curbing their right to a fair trial and by exposing them to homicide charges for abortion-related offences.
The London-based organisation said it "believes that the death penalty in its application in Nigeria in particular violates women's human rights to access to justice ... and has a discriminatory effect on women in certain cases and for certain crimes".
It said that the death penalty remains on the books in Nigeria in both its Constitution and in the Islamic law imposed in 12 northern states for a range of crimes including armed robbery, treason, murder and culpable homicide, with the latter "often" being used in abortion-related cases.
There have been "at least 33 death sentences since 1999", a summary of the report said.
"One of the convicted was a woman charged with a capital offence of culpable homicide, after allegedly having had a still-born baby, which event the court termed as an illegal abortion," it added.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of about 126-million people, is almost evenly spread between Muslims and Christians.
The reintroduction of the Sharia in 12 northern states since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999 after more than 15 years of military dictatorship has been widely criticised by local and international rights bodies, Christians and the country's central government.
From: Mail & Guardian Online - http://www.mg.co.za/
Can anybody provide more information on the ways in which Judaism and Christianity inflict more 'severe' forms of 'punishment' on alleged adulterers than stoning them
to death.
buzzbee
Kano, Nigeria 11 February 2004
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=31026 An influential Nigerian Islamic body on Wednesday warned the London-based rights group Amnesty International to stop interfering in Islamic religion in the name of human rights campaigns.
The warning by the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the umbrella body for Nigeria's Muslims, followed Tuesday's report by Amnesty condemning the use of the death penalty in 12 northern Nigerian states where the Sharia legal system is in operation.
JNI spokesperson Zubairu Jibrin told a local radio in a report monitored in Kano that the rights group is hiding under the guise of human rights to attack Islam or the Sharia legal system.
"We are warning Amnesty to desist from disparaging Islam under the guise of human rights," he said.
"The issue of stoning for adultery is an Islamic injunction which applies only to Muslims and every Muslim who commits adultery is aware of the consequence of this offence if he is prosecuted," he added.
"The issue of stoning for adultery is not confined to Islam. Both Judaism and Christianity prescribe same punishment for adultery, even in severer form," he added.
Amnesty had said the death penalty violates women's human rights by curbing their right to a fair trial and by exposing them to homicide charges for abortion-related offences.
The London-based organisation said it "believes that the death penalty in its application in Nigeria in particular violates women's human rights to access to justice ... and has a discriminatory effect on women in certain cases and for certain crimes".
It said that the death penalty remains on the books in Nigeria in both its Constitution and in the Islamic law imposed in 12 northern states for a range of crimes including armed robbery, treason, murder and culpable homicide, with the latter "often" being used in abortion-related cases.
There have been "at least 33 death sentences since 1999", a summary of the report said.
"One of the convicted was a woman charged with a capital offence of culpable homicide, after allegedly having had a still-born baby, which event the court termed as an illegal abortion," it added.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of about 126-million people, is almost evenly spread between Muslims and Christians.
The reintroduction of the Sharia in 12 northern states since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999 after more than 15 years of military dictatorship has been widely criticised by local and international rights bodies, Christians and the country's central government.
From: Mail & Guardian Online -
http://www.mg.co.za/ Can anybody provide more information on the ways in which Judaism and Christianity inflict more 'severe' forms of 'punishment' on alleged adulterers than stoning them
to death.
buzzbee
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
tell us who to hate
13.02.2004 12:09
Amnesty have a sound record of speaking out against human rights abuses without fear or favour, they have spoken out against US/UK many times, it's a slur to suggest bias.
kurious
Kurious or Spurious?
13.02.2004 23:09
I am neither 'pursuing an anti-Islam agenda' or accusing Amnesty of 'bias'.
I have merely posted an existing article in which Nigeria's Islamic spokesman is quoted as saying: "We are warning Amnesty to desist from disparaging Islam under the guise of human rights".
Thus any claim of Amnesty's 'bias' has been made by the 'Jama'atu Nasril Islam', not by me. And any reproaches against Islamic Sharia law - ie. the stoning of women - was made not by me, but by Amnesty.
Don't blame the messenger. Thank him.
buzzbee
buzzbee
the weird world of selective concern
14.02.2004 01:05
Is it right to execute a woman by slowly smashing her to death with stones? Is it an issue of cultural relativity?
SJH
PRESS RELEASE: Nigeria � Lawal appeal victory welcomed by Islamic group
14.02.2004 20:01
The chairman for the London-based human rights organization �IHRC� today said that �shariah� law as implemented in Nigeria �ignores corruption in high places but targets the powerless.�
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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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25th September 2003
PRESS RELEASE: Nigeria � Lawal appeal victory welcomed by Islamic group
The chairman for the London-based human rights organization �IHRC� today said that �shariah� law as implemented in Nigeria �ignores corruption in high places but targets the powerless.�
The statement was made by Massoud Shadjareh, Chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission the day the Amina Lawal won her appeal in Nigeria. Lawal was charged with fornication 31 months ago and sentenced to death by stoning. The conviction came shortly after several Northern Nigerian states adopted shariah law.
�Hudood punishments under the banner of shariah in a secular state are unacceptable and cannot be the starting point for the implementation of shariah,� said Shadjareh.
�This is the majority consensus among the different Islamic schools of thought.� A woman who is not married at the time of accusation of fornication does not deserve capital punishment nor is pregnancy proof of fornication in an Islamic court he added.
Shadjareh said he also feared that �selective and abusive use of shariah would only promote fear and hatred of Islamic law both within and outside the Muslim community.�
IHRC welcomes the ruling, but remains concerned at the simplistic and often Islamophobic reporting of the situation in Nigeria, where the legitimate aspirations of the Nigerian people, the abuse of Islam by politicians and the marginalisation of Muslim communities is described, without substantiation or clarification, as �shariah�.
For more information, please call the Press Office on +44 (0) 20 8904 4222 or +44 (0) 7958 522 196, or email:
Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom
Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email:
Web: www.ihrc.org
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