Yesterday I wrote here that "Musharraf wants to examine Sharia law, particularly laws regarding rape (which I discuss at length in Islam Unveiled) in the light of "chivalry," but for millions of Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere, it is the law of Allah. It is not to be judged or revised -- an idea that bodes ill for non-Muslims and women in Sharia societies." Here is more evidence of that problem: in chronicling human rights abuses, Amnesty International has run afoul of Nigerian Muslims, who protest that what AI calls abuses are just exercises of the Sharia, which cannot be abusive as it is Allah's law.
From the Mail and Guardian, with thanks to Nicolei:
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.
Of course this is a common dodge, but it is false on several levels. Christianity in fact does not prescribe stoning for adultery, and the laying aside of that punishment is the subject of the famous incident in which Jesus tells those ready to begin stoning an adulteress: "let the one who is without sin cast the first stone" (John 7:53-8:11.) As for Judaism, this punishment is nowhere practiced today, for the rabbinic tradition has elaborated methods of interpretation of the Torah that rule it out. In Islam, however, it persists.
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.
Last month, President Olusegun Obasanjo told an international audience the Islamic legal system had fizzled out in Nigeria.
I don't know what to say, except that Islam, taken as a whole, is just barbaric. If one looks at the society from which it evolved, the prohibitions involve behavior that was then commonplace.
Of course, the Muslim man who rapes a woman gets off, especially if that woman is not a Muslim. And also, of course, it is the woman that bears the burden.
Amnesty International is blowing smoke, yet again. The death penalty is wholly acceptable when matched with an equitable system of justice. Rather than focussing on the death penalty itself, they should have drawn attention to the injustice of the Sharia law, and how the courts routinely use it to oppress people and kill them. The stillborn child as abortion is a shining example of the perversity of Sharia law.
The fact that they have the sharia law and they are implementing it in their countries,it`s fine...let them do what they want over there,as long as they are not trying to export their sharia to civilized countries.
And this is where the problem is...that is their ultimate goal.
Also,christians in muslim countries ,unfortunately are also affected by the barbaric sharia.
How can AI even say such a ridiculous thing? Is there any Islamic Country which does not have human rights violations against women and non-Muslims? NO - due to SHARIA -even the partial implementation! Living under Sharia should be considered a human rights violation and not deemed a special way of living so that the Saudis, etc who have signed the UN Human Rights agreement get out of actually being told to follow the document which their government had actually agreed to in the signing!
Believe me, no one from the IA would last one minute in the countries under Sharia - because the moment one of them speaks out s/he would be out!!!! - either out of the country or out of society (in prison or dead!)
Those from IA should be denouncing the human rights violations in these countries instead of taking on the dhimmi mind-set of "you are picking on the poor muslims - stop guys! You must play fair!"
There is nothing fair in the way these Muslims are fighting. Mohammad has said that Muslims are allowed with Allah's blessing to lie to infidels to ensure the spread of Islam. Their concept of "turn the other cheek" is "I'll turn the other cheek until I can kill you!"
jihan
We need a reciprocal headline - "Muslims Warned, 'Stop blowing things up'."
jay
I try to never use the "C" word.....but the more information I review, Islam behaves more like a Pagan type Cult, instead of a religion.
This is why groups like CAIR and others need to be shut down, and shipped out. They are heavily promoting Muslims to register to vote in an attempt to execute a block vote for their favorite puppet in the Presidential race.
I know that the Govt. is watching these groups, but if anyone hasn't yet experienced the rhetorical trash that comes out of their mouths, just log-on the ANTICAIR.com
They think they're going to turn us into an Islamic ruled nation. These Muslim civil rights groups, some anyway, work very closely with the ACLU, in an attempt to shread our constitution to pieces, except where it benefits them. It appears that our laws are being manipulated to work against us.
Did anyone see the news last night? A store in Georgia was fined and told to take a large sign off of their store front that read "God Bless America"....
One, this is freedom of speech and expression. Two, I'd like to know why this all happened. I didn't catch the entire story. Can anyone tell me the outcome of this ridiculous scenario?
D.C. Watson
Note that the Muslim spokesman made assertions about Jewish and Christian scripture.
We already have seen how violent Nigerian (and other) Muslims get when non-Muslims say anything about Islam, and yet these same Muslims feel perfectly free to make assertions about what Jewish and Christian scripture says.
Makes you wonder....
I know.....yet every time anyone recites a direct command out of their Qur'an that is non-complimentary to Islam, oh, that's right......we "took it out of context"....Islam doesn't mean "peace" I think it means "double standards"
D.C.
Well they've discovered the plot. shucks! Nigeria has stopped allowing the UN (American vassel) to administer polio vaccines because it is tainted with toxins that cause sterility (??!!?) Polio which was to be wiped off the face of the earth by 2005 has made a resurgence in Africa, but at least the Nigerians have protected their children from the Infedels.
Uh huh.....Seems like alot of nasty diseases come from that continent. For the lack of hygiene they practice, including dental hygiene, they sure are arrogant cusses aren't they?
Jane, the Arab News reported that the people who analyzed the vaccine first announced that the vaccine was tainted with HIV. Then they backed off on that and said they allegedly found traces of estrogen in the vaccine.
jay
Oh, I almost forgot. The solution is to have a plant in some Muslim country manufacture the vaccine. I'd be a little nervous about quality control though.
jay
Jay, I published an article once in the Arab News and they inserted "for all his faults" after a reference to President Bush. They also rewrote practically every word but all the ideas were in.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=35940&d=5&m=12&y=2003
JC Watson - Do you have a link or source regarding the removal of the "God Bless America" sign?
Jane,
I remember the article. I wonder if you could send me a copy of what YOU wrote.
jay
Clearly islam is a barbaric failure as a third world religion, government, and economic system. How can such ignorance prevail?
Where does the Quran prescribe stoning for adultery? 24:2 prescribes 100 lashes and prohibits adulteror and adulteress from marrying any but each other.
CAIR has right to outrage for injustice.
It will do the same for anyother oppression,
would it be someone else?
Let the people be free to speak truth.
Both the terrorism and root cause of the terrorism should be uprooted.
I see people wearing colored glasses, some wearing red and some green. They don't see beyond their own colors and could not see the plain truth. Some are totally blind, they navigate wherever they find the way.
People wake-up have wisdom and do justice whether it is your own matter or anybody else's.
The history is witness to the distruction of proud and arrogant people.
Only long lasting peace come with justice!
Don't forget justice! What America stands for?
Today it is not only problem with Islam but we too have Dual Standards dealing with Humanity.
Should we not seek justice for all as Americans?