Modou,
Your points are well made. If only we can hammer these into the heads of our
average Imam in The Gambia.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. And I believe the
situation happening in Nigeria will inspire other misguided Muslim leaders
to copy-cat such a wretched system of justice.
I have a suggestion: how about just doing away with Sharia? I will be the
first to claim that I have no expertise in Islamic laws but for the some
reason, our so-called experts and those in positions of authority where this
misguided system is put in place cannot seem to appropriately interpret
Sharia. Some might argue that just because a few knuckle-heads are
practicing their own brand of justice in northern Nigeria should not make us
discard the ‘real’ Sharia. I am really hard-pressed for find a country that
interprets and executes Sharia exemplary.
My point is that Sharia is completely out-dated. Some people have written
earlier that the death sentence by stoning passed on the Nigerian lady is an
example of “men controlling women” or “misinterpretation”. But isn’t it
decreed by the Sharia that anyone guilty of an adulterous relationship
should be stoned to death (this may not be written in the Quran but for
those who opinions matter, the mention of the punishment in some obscure
Hadith is sufficient)? Someone help me here. I agree that it is very
important as to how verdicts are arrived in a court of law. But isn’t the
outrage here more about the cruel punishment rather than the judicial
procedure used to arrived at the verdict?
Isn’t also according to Sharia that anyone convicted of stealing should
loose a limb? Or if you renounce Islam, you should be sentenced to death?
Why is it that when a country’s laws are based on Sharia, there is a
tendency to “misapply” or “misinterpret” them? In Saudi Arabia, women have
only begin to have their own ID cards and in most cases can’t drive (Sharia
is not to blame here). Women tend to have fewer restrictions on their lives
in neighboring countries but significant limitations abound in many of those
countries as well. We all know what happened in Afghanistan. Northern
Nigeria? All these oppressive measures use Sharia as their basis. Could it
be that all the Islamic scholars in these countries are all incompetent
fellows? I don’t think so. I think the problem is there for all to see.
These countries use Sharia as the basis for their laws and barbarisms like
stoning people to death, cutting off limbs, etc. followed. In other words,
what I’m trying to say is that the problem is with Sharia. Any country or
society that fully implements Sharia today will go through what Northern
Nigerians are going through today. Sharia as a legal code is simply not
viable today. The argument that groups or people in power misinterpreting
Islamic teachings, though true in some instances, is just not a convincing
one. You may argue that the judicial procedure used to convict the Nigerian
lady was flawed but the death by stoning as a punishment is prescribed by
Sharia. There could be hundreds of male and FEMALE witnesses who saw what
happened and every legal procedure decreed by Sharia followed to the letter,
it still would not change the fact that it is a cruel and barbaric
punishment. What Sharia prescribes as punishment to certain offenses may
have been acceptable centuries ago but not today. And when we have a country
with people who practice several religions, the problems multiply. Changing
or modifying Sharia to adapt to changing times seems to me a diplomatic way
of overhauling or completely dismantling it wherever it is practiced.
Countries will do well to adopt modern legal system. Imperfect as some of
our legal systems are, they change and adapt.
You don’t need to be living under Sharia to be a good Muslim. Those of us
living in Gambia, Europe and US should be able to attest to that.

Ousman



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