Sirens Over Africa
Where there are stonings, there is jihad.

By Paul Marshall


On August 27, Amina Lawal, a 32-year-old Nigerian
single mother, sat in an Islamic sharia court in
Katsina state in northern Nigeria and nursed her
two-year-old daughter, Wasila. Wasila had been
born over nine months after Amina was divorced
and, in Nigeria´s Islamic courts, this is taken to
be prima facie evidence that Amina committed
adultery.

If her appeal of this conviction is denied, she
will be buried up to her chest, and the
surrounding throng will throw stones at her until
she is dead. The stones used must not be so small
that they will inflict no damage, nor so large
that they will kill her too quickly. She must die
slowly and painfully in front of the crowd.

Of course, in any adultery case, there must also
be a man involved, and Amina testified that she
had not willingly committed adultery but had been
raped. However, to convict a man of rape,
Nigeria´s sharia courts usually require that there
be four male Muslim witnesses. Though the courts
are not yet clear on this, it may be (following
precedent in other Islamist jurisdictions such as
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Pakistan) that up
to eight male non-Muslim witnesses, or 16 female
non-Muslim witnesses, would also suffice for the
conviction of a male Muslim. However, since
Nigerian adulterers and rapists — like those in
other parts of the world — do not usually perform
in front of crowds, the man has been acquitted,
and Amina and her daughter stand alone.

She is one of five women who have been so charged,
though none has yet been executed. Thanks to the
international attention their cases attracted,
other luckless women have had their sentences
deferred, or dismissed on technical grounds. In
Amina´s case, the appeals court has deferred
judgment until September 25.

Yet, terrible as is Amina´s plight, her situation
is but a symptom of a larger problem afflicting
Nigeria and other African nations. Nigeria — along
with Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa — is
subject to major campaigns by radical Islamists to
spread their ideology. The country is, as was
repeatedly emphasized by Osama bin Laden, an
explicit target for Islamic extremists, often
funded by the Saudis. When extreme sharia was
introduced in Nigeria in 1999, Saudi, Pakistani,
and Palestinian representatives gathered to
express their support.

When radical Islam gains a foothold, stonings,
amputations, and religious executions follow. But
the effects are even wider than these barbarities.
In such regimes, questioning the government is
effectively equated with questioning God. Since
extremists maintain that their laws and rulers are
authorized directly by God without any human
mediation, any political opposition is, by
definition, blasphemy, and thus punishable by
death. ...""

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