The Law of Sharia?

Question

Early in December of 2001, a Sharia religious court of appeal in Muslim-dominated northwest Nigeria ordered a stay of execution for a woman who had been sentenced by a lower court to be stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage. The woman contended that she had been raped. The court granted the stay to allow Safiya Hussaini, 33, to appeal her sentence by a lower Sharia court in the state of Sokoto. The woman is a divorced mother with five children who would be orphaned and probably perish if the execution were carried out.

The court imposed the sentence after Hussaini asked it to compel a man to pay for her infant daughter's naming ceremony. She charged he had raped her three times and impregnated her. When she charged the man with rape, the court dismissed the charges against him, citing a lack of evidence because she was the sole witness.

After dismissing the rape charge against the man, the lower Sharia court then charged the woman with adultery and sentenced her to death in mid-October. She was given thirty days to appeal. According to Sura 2:282 of the Qur’an, the testimony of a woman is equal to only half the testimony of a man, so Hussaini's appeal will automatically be trumped by the rapist's counter-charge.

Hussaini was sentenced to death because she was divorced. Had she never been married, the sentence would only have been one hundred lashes. The fate of her five children, of course, was of no concern to the religious court.

The Nigerian federal government has said it will not allow the sentence to be carried out, but officials in Sokoto indicated that the federal government had not contacted them about the up-coming stoning. Nigeria is not yet "One Nation Under God," since Sharia has been imposed on less than a half of its 36 states. More than a thousand people have lost their lives in riots protesting the introduction of religious law.

Question...why would anyone who is sane want to be part of a religion who espouses this type of terror on women?

Answer 1

I've said this before, that 95% of the time, it is the women that are either stoned, hung, or lashed, for their offenses, while the men often get off of any punishment due to a lack of evidence. It is a law that is very one sided to the detriment of women, and i feel deeply for their plight.

Answer 2

I do not know the full details of this case so I will keep myself restricted to only general aspects of this case.

1- The ruling if it really is what you wrote, seems wrong. Because the punishment of adultary is always for both man and woman involved. One person alone can not be punished while both people are identified. As simple as it is. Therefore if man claims that woman committed adultary with him, he gets the same punishment too.

2- Claim of adultary is a very difficult claim to prove as the Holy Quran explicitly demands four credible eye witnesses. On the other hand putting wrong charge on a woman is a serious crime which is even more harshly punishable then adultary. It would not require any eye witness but circumstantial evidence is enough.

3- Therefore bringing charges of Adultary are an extremely difficult matter. People in different countries can make whatever rules they want in the name of Islam but this is what is mention in the Holy Quran, so there are no turn arounds here.

4- Adultary is considered an extremely offensive act in Islam. Therefore punishment is very harsh and equal for both man and women. Look how many problems adultary has created in western societies. Judiasm and Bible also forbids adultary with same strength.

5- In recent years ( last 300 years ) there was no true Islamic courts. Shariah Jurisprudence remained at stall during this period. Some Muslim countries tried to reimplement Shariah law in a hope to end lawlessness. They forgot that Shariah law needs to be updated to accomodate current level of evidence and scientific development. Many Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia etc have already recongnized this fact and they are working on updating the law through their parliments. Its a slow purpose, will have its pain of birth, so be patient.

6- As far as I researched, Nigerian supereme court intervened in this woman's case and she is still alive. It appears system is there to help the needy , so lets avoid unnecessary anxiety and self biased propaganda.

Peace

Answer 3

Ask this lady she will answer your question:
http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21

However, the scenario you posted is not Islamic, the law of Sharia will not be applied except if she admits or there are 4 witnesses which is practically very difficult to provide. If there are only three witnesses and they can't provide one more the three witnesses will be severely punished each with 80 lashes.
The testimony of women in these circumstances is equal to men, it is half the testimony of men in trading only, more over in certain conditions woman testimony will be accepted while men will not be accepted. Islam is deep and can't be judged superficially the way you do. The punishment for adultery in Islam is very known and not a secret and it is designed to end this crime from the society to keep it clean and to preserve the rights of family and kids contrary to your untruthful worry about the five children. Why would she commit this crime publicly if she knows what the end will be?

Answer 4

....folks tolerate it, or are not outraged, here in the west, because of all the propaganda that says U.S. conservatives are more dangerous.. And also because they have not read the Koran.
--- Note the so oft repeated villainizing of Pres Bush, regardless of how in 1990 U.S. News stated Saddam was THE most dangerous person on the planet.. Why is it saddam would not cooperate with the U.N. and what WAS he trying to purchase from Niger.. No one cares, but just keep repeating the pet anti-bush assertions.
...I am predicting that our handling of despots, extremists and terrorism will become the same as our political correct handling of crime in this country..

Answer 5

Because - it is NOT THE RELIGION that is imposing this punishment - it is the Shar'ia Law that is imposing the craptastic ideas......

We need to understand that these people have taken a holy book and bastardized it for their own good, and made it into secular law. The religion does not promote these views. The people who pretend to practice it do.... the same shall happen in the US, when Bush signs into law rules governing stem cell research...he is using his own religion to make secular laws. Its wrong whatever way you cut it....

Answer 6

No clue. I'm glad the West has by and large outgrown those barbaric religious dictates.

Answer 7

sharia is a barbaric law which is still followed for convienience of men in muslim world.

Answer 8

Ask the liberals... they love muslims.

Answer 9

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index_files/Tehran-stoning.jpg

Answer 10

because they don't know of anything else. They don't know any better