Posted on 04/25/2002 11:25:05 AM PDT by tdadams
MADA, Nigeria (AP) - Muslim prosecutors sought the death penalty for two men accused of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime for which an Islamic court judge gave the accused men three days to reconvert.
Auwal Jabaka, the court judge, said Wednesday that although the Muslim holy book, or Quran, calls for the execution of Muslims who accept another religion, it was unclear whether the state's two-year-old Shariah penal code also permitted such a punishment.
Jabaka adjourned the court for three days to allow the accused to "change their minds" and convert back to Islam.
In the meantime, he called on the Zamfara government to clarify its position on the matter.
"If the law empowers me to (execute the two for converting from Islam to Christianity), I will have no hesitation in doing that," the judge said.
Yakubu and Jafaru were not represented by lawyers but were instead accompanied by fellow church members.
The two argued they had never been Muslims, but were instead members of the Magazawa, a Hausa subgroup that has long practiced Christianity. The overwhelming majority of Hausas — one of Nigeria's largest tribes — are Muslim.
The case was believed to be the first of its kind since a dozen predominantly Muslim northern states began implementing Shariah law in early 2000, despite virulent opposition from mainly Christian and animist southerners.
In the past two years, thousands of Muslims and Christians have been killed in periodic bursts of inter-religious bloodletting.
Of course, those Muslims are tolerant, peace-loving people, so we're told.
Jabaka adjourned the court for three days to allow the accused to "change their minds" and convert back to Islam.I keep forgetting that for most of this bloody world, it's still the first century AD. The myth of universal enlightenment and human brotherhood was a powerful one for us; I think it's time that we reconsider it.
And "Nigeria has 250 ethnic groups, including the political powerful Muslims who have set up their own Islamic Sharia legal code in eight northern Nigerian states, and ethnic militias have cropped up wherever they've found an opening."
And from politics and elections, "12/2/00 Goverment officials in the northern state of Kebbi officially adopted Shariah, the Islamic social and penal code, as its basic governmental document. Kebbi becomes the ninth Nigerian state out of 36 to adopt the Shariah. The spreading use of the Shariah in Nigeria has increased political violence among believers and non-believers."
Yes, the First Century AD was a kinder and gentler time than the years since the Mad Prophet went on his flight to Mecca and took a flying horse (what was he smoking?) to Jerusalem.
Anybody want to take a guess which side is behind most of it?
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