|
30-Dec-2002
SHARI'AH LAW AND WESTERN REACTION
by
CARLOS MARTINEZ (4th year journalism student at the University College of the Cariboo,)
FORWARDED BY Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa majekarofi@yahoo.com
B.C., Canada
(ypoons2000@hotmail.com.
)
Amina Lawal Kurami is probably a name that’s not intriguing nor fascinating for most of us on-campus. It’s not her name that has shocked the Western World, however, it’s her death sentence, which has captivated the attention of many, including celebrities such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. Last March, a newly introduced Shari’ah court in Katsina, northern Nigerian state, found 31-year-old Amina Lawal guilty of adultery and sentenced her to be stoned to death while buried up to her waist. The sentence is not to be carried out until her daughter is weaned, which would not be until 2004. An appeal court upheld her sentence on Aug. 19. She has now appealed to a higher court. According to Shari’ah law, pregnancy is evidence of sexual intercourse. Lawal allegedly confessed to the court that she had intercourse with another man who was not her husband after her divorce, which is considered adultery. The man denied it and no evidence was against him, which is acceptable under Islamic law. Kamloops Women’s Resource Centre co-ordinator Dodie Goldney said, “The case of Amina Lawal certainly is shocking and a flagrant violation of International Human Rights.” Although on Oct. 1, a week after pressures from former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Australian Primer Minister John Howard to overturn the verdict, Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo said in a radio and television broadcast that, “We have never entertained doubts that whatever verdict a lower court may give, the appellate courts will ensure that justice is done;” the fate of Amina Lawal is still unknown.
Islamic law, or Shari’ah, is a major legal system distinct from both the civil and common law systems. Islamic law is just one facet of Islamic faith. The Shari’ah originates from two primary sources. The first is the Qur’an, which requires authoritative interpretation since it contains many layers of meaning. The second is the Sunnah, which contains the Prophet decisions respecting issues not addressed in the Qur’an.
Saudi Arabia presumably has the purest form of Islamic law and Nigeria has the largest concentration of Muslims.
As from Jan. 2000, Katsina is one of a dozen northern Nigerian states that have adopted Islamic law, against the widespread outcry of representatives of Western Christian civilization in southern Nigeria . In a forthcoming book, called Domestication of the Shari’ah in Nigeria , author Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa attempts to explain why Islamic law was adopted. “Thirty-nine years after independence, there has been no economic development or even foreign investment with increasing crime and almost a collapse of the judicial systems.”
A 27-year-old man hanged in Jan 4, 2002 became the first execution in Nigeria since Shari’ah law was introduced in the northern country. Amina Lawal is the second woman to be sentenced to death for adultery since 2000. Safiyatu Husseini, a woman accused of adultery for having her young baby while divorced, was granted pardon from Shari’ah court in Sokoto Nigeria, under technicalities. Western World reacted, almost immediately, to such Shari’ah sentences claiming that they were inhumane and against international standards. In an interview for a Globe and Mail article on Sept. 27, written by Jeff Sallot, Bill Graham, Foreign Affairs Minister said, “We totally reject that sharia law should act in a way that is contrary to international norms.”
According to Graham, Nigeria ’s Islamic courts are violating international law by sentencing a woman convicted of adultery to death by stoning. Amnesty International has urged the Nigerian authorities to abolish all torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments, and to bring law and practice into line with obligations under Nigeria ’s 1999 Constitution and legally binding international human rights agreements such as the Convention against Torture. Craig Benjamin, spokes person for Amnesty International Canada said, “we strongly condemn the use of corporal capital punishment.” According to Benjamin, the process can also be discriminatory. “Women’s testimony is not as valid as men’s testimony.” Under Shari’ah law, a woman who’s been raped must prove so with four male witnesses. If she can’t prove so, she’ll be convicted of false testimony and sentenced for having intercourse outside marriage.
Amina Lawal is one of several victims that have been sentenced by Shari’ah law. “It’s and individual case in a series of cases that has created an outcry for justice,” said Benjamin. Many more have joined the efforts to overturn Lawal’s verdict. On Sept. 25, former U.S. president Clinton pleaded personally for the life of Lawal at a speech on democratization to an audience that included several other West African leaders as well as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. “I hope and pray that the legal system will find a way to pardon a young woman convicted to death for bearing a child out of wedlock.” The European Parliament has urged a boycott of the Miss World pageant set for November, in the Nigerian capital, in protest of the stoning sentence.
Amnesty International Canada encourages people who are interested, to take action and pressure the government of Nigeria .
“I would encourage people to visit our web site and read more about the case. For those who feel strong about the case, express your opinions. Write a letter to the Nigerian government and forward it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Benjamin.
John Tackaberry, spokes person for Amnesty International Canada suggests that, “The best thing people should do is to inform themselves.” Here in Kamloops , Jeanne Olineck, housing administrator of Upper College Heights has already taken action.
After hearing the news on television and radio, Olineck decided to act. “You always think someone is going to do something. But it’s not up to somebody, it’s up to you,” said Olineck.
In search for support of Amina Lawal, Olineck has started her own petition letter and has posted it at the bulletin boards at Upper College Heights. “It only takes a little thing, like signing a letter,” she said. Looking for some student body support, Olineck wrote letters to UCC student society, faculty association and the Omega’s editor. “Hopefully students will get involve with the case and start their own petition letters,” she said. Olineck has also addressed letters to the MP Betty Hinton and the two local newspapers. She plans on sending the signatures she’s already collected as soon as possible to the Nigerian government with copy to MP Betty Hinton. “I don’t want to wait until I’ve collected hundreds of signatures, it might end up being too late for that woman,” she said. Olineck expressed, that she would be “very happy” if Amina Lawal sentence was overturn. “Maybe (what I did) helped, or maybe it didn’t, but every voice counts,” she said.
The terrorist attacks on Sept 11, however, have led to a general misperception of Amina Lawal’s case. “There’s a fear that this might provoke an anti-Islamic sentiment,” said Benjamin. “In order for people’s understanding, (Amina Lawal’s case) is easily politicized making it an issue of southern Christian Nigeria against a northern Muslim Nigeria,” said Tackaberry.
The angle of Muslims versus Christians “maybe simplistic because most of the Christians regard the Shari’ah as an archaic and barbaric law, which must be revoked and replaced with the civilized Western notion of law. Most of the Muslims on the other hand regard it as a Divine law that must be implemented,” said Kurawa.
Most of the Western World believes that they have a moral obligation to stop Amina Lawal’s stoning to death sentence. It is, nevertheless, far more complex. The worldviews of the two societies are different. The West has discarded God as the pivot of its philosophy and chose Man. All prohibitions of God, therefore, were legalized except for those that disturb man’s pleasure. Hence “sex by consenting adults is not a crime in Western societies but in Muslim societies all these are illegal because the Muslims still uphold Devine prohibitions,” said Kurawa. For the Shari’ah, adultery is a very serious crime just as child molesting is for the West World.
Nigeria’s constitution permits executions for serious crimes. “The Westerners do not stop at finding it absurd that the Muslims could stone and adulterer to death but they also wish to impose their hedonistic values as universal human values through UN conventions and other contraptions, hence the outcry by the so called human rights community against the Shari’ah implementation in Nigeria ,” said Kurawa. Whether it is appropriate for Canada and any other Western nations to condemn the sentences imposed by Shari’ah law is a tough question. Should Western nations ignore Nigeria ’s sovereignty and condemn a culture and religion that is different and mostly unexplainable to them? Is it our moral responsibility to intervene wherever and whenever human rights are being violated? Do we believe that sentencing someone to the electric chair in Texas is a much more humane way of capital punishment, reason why we don’t intervene? “I can tell you the world will be cheering” if Lawal Is released, Clinton said. “It is a small thing for a great nation to forgive.”
Brought to you by Kano Online © 2001, 2002, 2003
|
