[Groop]re: OT Amina Lawal

[Azamin]

Responding to the Amina's case... as a muslim, I would like to explain
several thing that might intrest you.

Firstly, Islam, which is differs from Christian, is not just a religion,
but a way of life... means Islam covered everything involve in our daily
life.. not just only in the praying.  This include how we do business,
working, politics, implement laws, collecting Groo and others... And as
a muslim, we have to do what God ask us to do like praying, working,
implement His law, and all our daily activity (including reading Groo)
according to His guideline.

Islamic criminal law (penal code) which is under syariah is divided into
2 which are 1- Hudud and Qisas law (what Aminah's case fell into) and 2-
Takzir law which depends on the judge and in modern democratic term,
using laws that been passed in the legislative like jail or fine
punishment... If the person implicated cannot be punished under hudud
for example because not enough witness or the witnesses cannot be form a
qualified one.. then he or she will be charged with the Takzir law and
the court will decides...  Thus the possibility of people who will be
punished under Hudud will become very small as most cases will fall
under Takzir.

Islamic penal code concept is to prevent people commiting the offence by
having harsh punishment so that it will strike fear in the hearts of
would-be criminals as prevention is better than cure.  But with strict
requirement to be a witness, it is hard ti implicate people commiting
the offence under hudud as it requires witness which are 4 adult people
with good character and religious or through confession.  Among offences
under Hudud are adultery (sex out of wedlock), roberry, rebellion
against the government, stealing and murder and each offence has its own
punishment. Under Hudud law, those involve in the 911 or in Bali bombing
would be sentence to death if found guilty... or those corrupt dishonest
politician who who steal taxpayers/peoples' money too will lost their
hand if found guilty.
To read more about hudud and takzir and discussion about implementing it
with the human right issue, you can go to these links.

PAS turns on charm to sell 'terrifying' Islamic penalties
http://www.harakahdaily.net/article.php?sid=2355

Q & A on the Hudud and Qisas Enactment
http://www.malaysia.net/aliran/monthly/2002/6e.html
(My comment in this article is, in case of rape and there was no witness
of confession of the rapist, the victim can prove it through the DNA
test of the rapist sperm or through medical checkup and takzir law will
be used instead of Hudud and the rapist won't get away freely.  The
Qazaf only to protect of cases where the women accused an innocent men
of raping her but actually she had consensual sex with other men simply
because of revenge)

Human Rights from an Islamic Worldview
http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/Articles/hrights.htm

In Amina's case,  because she had made the confession, she was found
guilty of adultery, there was no witness involved. But the fact that she
did not named the man she had sex with in her confession is still a
question.  If she did not confess that she had consentual sex, she
might get pregnant because she was raped.

"Evidence Needed for Conviction
Oprah: What kind of evidence do you need to sentence someone for
adultery?
Akbar Ahmed: Again, the punishment is harsh, but to check that, the
frivolous use of that kind of punishment, you actually have a very
important clause, which is four eye-witnesses. Now, if two people are
going to be involved in what in the old days was called hanky-panky, you
need four witnesses. Now four witnesses, Oprah, are difficult to get
ahold of. So what that means is, in fact, you don't have a case. Amina's
case is different because of the child. The four witnesses are not
invoked in this case: [her child] is the evidence. "

Amina should name who the father/sex partner was (so that he too  can be
arrested and punished) or if she was raped, she should charge the
rapist  so that she should not be charged under hudud and let free as
there is no case against her.

she should be sentence after her child is not depending to her, i.e. not
milking to her as other people can cake care of the baby.  What makes
this case a controversial one is maybe because how the trial was
conducted.. maybe not through what Islam had stated like the judge was
biased or misinteprete the law or the procedure or there was some
inteference from politicians (like the corruption  and sodomy trial of
Anwar Ibrahim, ex deputy prime minister of Malaysia where there had
inteference of the malaysian prime minister Mahathir to the justice
system so that Anwar will found guilty regardless  there was no
convincing evidences).

As far as I know, the sentence that Amina had has nothing to do with 911
tragedy.  She got few support in Nigeria or people cheering the verdict
is not because of 911 or because they hate America... but simply because
they think that the verdict is according to Islam.  But if people from
America who want to dictate of  dos and don'ts in their country by
interfering their law, then this might spark a dissatisfaction among
them towards America and if anybody there resort their dissatisfaction
through violent term. there might be attack on the American properties
in the country (just like the Palestinian case where some people said
that the dissatisfaction of US siding on the Israeli's side of the
conflict sparked the 911)

I'm sorry for the off topic posting, but I just want to clear the issue
of Amina through the perspective of a muslim, islamic law and human
right.

Azamin
The Malaysian Groper, the Groo trooper.