Nigerian singer sentenced to death for blasphemy in Kano state
IDRIS IBRAHIM
A musician in Nigeria's northern state of Kano has been sentenced to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.
An upper Sharia court in the Hausawa Filin Hockey area of the state said Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, was guilty of committing blasphemy for a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March.
Mr Sharif-Aminu did not deny the charges.
Judge Khadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani said he could appeal against the verdict.
States across Muslim-majority northern Nigeria use both secular law and Sharia law, which does not apply to non-Muslims.
Only one of the death sentences passed by Nigeria's Sharia courts has been carried out since they were reintroduced in 1999.
What is Sharia?
The singer who is currently in detention, had gone into hiding after he composed the song.
Protesters had burnt down his family home and gathered outside the headquarters of the Islamic police, known as the Hisbah, demanding action against him.
The Islamic police had appealed for people not to take the law into their own hands after the song was released
Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad.
'Judgement will serve as deterrent to others'
The leader of the protesters that called for the musician's arrest in March, Idris Ibrahim, told the BBC that the judgement will serve as a warning to others "contemplating toeing Yahaya's path"."When I heard about the judgment I was so happy because it showed our protest wasn't in vain.
"This [judgement] will serve as a deterrent to others who feel they could insult our religion or prophet and go scot-free," he said.
Who is Yahaya Sharif-Aminu?
Few people had heard of him before his arrest in March.
An Islamic gospel musician, he is not well-known in northern Nigeria and his songs were not popular outside his Tjjaniya sect, who have many such musicians within their ranks.
How common are death sentences in Sharia courts?
Several sentences have been passed, including for women convicted of having extramarital sex - cases which have caused widespread condemnation.
But only one has been carried out - a man convicted of killing a woman and her two children who was hanged in 2002.
The last time a Nigerian Sharia court passed a death sentence was in 2016 when Abdulazeez Inyass, was sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam during after a secret trial in Kano.
He was alleged to have said that Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the Senegalese founder of the Tijaniya sect, which has a large following across West Africa, "was bigger than Prophet Muhammad".
Basically, the same thing Yahaya was sentenced for. I think we need to know more about this Tiyaniya sect.
The sentence has not been carried out as a death penalty in Nigeria requires the sign-off of the state governor. Mr Inyass is still in detention.
How Nigeria's Sharia courts work
By Mansur Abubakar, BBC News, Kano
Twelve states in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north operate the Sharia system of justice, but only Muslims can be tried in its courts.
The Sharia system, which also has its own Court of Appeal, handles both civil and criminal matters involving Muslims and its judgements can also be challenged in Nigeria's secular Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
The Sharia judges, known as alkalis, are learned in both Islamic and secular laws.
If a case involves a Muslim and a non-Muslim, the non-Muslim has the option of choosing where they want the case to be tried. The Sharia court can only hear the case if the non-Muslim gives written consent.
Sentences handed down by the courts include floggings, amputations and the death penalty.
Violence breaks out in Bengaluru over derogatory post
about Prophet Mohammed
By : Sami Khan
IBT on google news
2nd Update: Three people were killed in the clashes, 110 were arrested, and a curfew was declared.
Update: One person has reportedly been shot. The crowd has been dispersed and situation has been brought under control by the police.
Original article
Massive violence has broke out in Bengaluru's DJ Halli area after kin of a Congress MLA allegedly posted a derogatory post about Prophet Mohammed, hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims. The angry mob attacked Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy's house and burnt down the vehicles parked outside the home.
A large crowd also gathered outside DJ Halli police station, who are demanded police to take action against MLA's relative P Naveen, who'd allegedly posted a disrespectful post about Prophet Mohammed. Footage from the violence site shows people gathered in a huge number gathered outside the MLA's house amid COVID-19 pandemic.
In one of the videos shared through WhatsApp and on social media shows one protestor requesting people to maintain social distancing. Another video also showed torched vehicles outside the MLA's house.
MLA responds
"A Facebook post by my sister's son has gone viral. I have nothing to do with the post. The post is said to be against some particular community and I have asked the police to arrest the person who has put up the offensive post," said Srinivas Murthy.
Chamrajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan has also arrived at D.J. Halli police station to lodge a complaint against the MLA's kin. However, the kin has said that his account was hacked.
"The community is furious and the situation is going out of control. I am in the police station along with religious leaders of our community to file the complaint. We will stage a protest tomorrow," said Zameer Ahmed.
It is usually Pakistan or Afghanistan where crowds go berserk at the hint of someone blaspheming Mohammed. I can now add India to that list. The top article on this post would indicate that Nigeria is not quite there yet, but it is just a matter of time.
Co-option of religion by Saudi’s MBS spells disaster
Nasim Ahmed @Nasimbythedocks
The misuse of religion has become something of an art form in the Middle East. On the one hand many of the region’s autocrats and dictators, calling for greater secularism, warn of the dangers of mixing religion with politics, pointing to Daesh and the Muslim Brotherhood. One the other, the same dictators and autocrats conscript religion to advance some of the worst forms of repression.
Egypt’s former Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa’s support for 2013 coup that overthrew the government of democratically elected Mohamed Morsi is perhaps the most striking recent example of this deadly union between the region’s autocrats and religion. “Shoot them in the heart … Blessed are those who kill them, and those who are killed by them,” said Goma in what is believed to be a speech delivered to the Egyptian military and police leadership prior to the August 2013 Rabaa Al-Adawiya massacre.
Some 1,000 people were killed in what has been descried as the “the worst mass killing” in modern Egypt. Ali Goma’s chilling words, needless to say, generated the kind of frenzy that’s required for such blood-letting. The hatemongering of the cleric against his political opposition is worth quoting in full: “We must cleanse our Egypt from these riffraff … They shame us … They stink. This is how God has created them. They are hypocrites and seceders … Stand your ground. God is with you, and the Prophet Muhammad is with you, and the believers are with you … Numerous visions have attested that the Prophet is with you. May God destroy them, may God destroy them, may God destroy them. Amen!”
More recently, Egypt’s religious institutions were recruited in support of military intervention in Libya. Following President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s July announcement to deploy armed forces in support of rebel group led by General Khalifa Haftar against the UN recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Cairo’s top official religious institutions offered resounding endorsements. Al-Azhar, one of the most respected religious institutions in the Sunni Muslim world, issued a statement in support of Al-Sisi’s military intervention. A second institution, Dar Al-Iftaa, which describes itself “among the pioneering foundations for fatwa”, urged Egyptians to back their president warning that any opposition would be considered haram, or forbidden, under Islamic law.
These examples are by no means rare. Across the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has demonstrated a deft touch in the misuse and exploitation of religion to serve his own brand of authoritarianism. The 34-year-old de-facto ruler of the kingdom, popularly known as MBS, obtained a fatwa authorising the extra judicial killing of one of his critics. Details of what can be described as nothing less than religious sanctioned murder, were part of series of bombshell allegations made in a legal documents filed in the US last week.
In the yet to be proven claims, MBS is said to have ordered a hit squad to seek out and kill one of his former top intelligence official, Saad Al-Jabri, in Canada just 13 days after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The case filed by 62-year-old Al-Jabri, who is living in an undisclosed location in the Toronto region, has striking parallels with the murder of Khashoggi nearly two years ago in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Bin Salman is said to have personally orchestrated the attempted extrajudicial killing of Al-Jabri “to fulfil his murderous desire”. It’s alleged that the notorious “Tiger Squad” which killed Khashoggi was directed by the prince himself to assassinate Al-Jabri.
In a section describing how “Defendant bin Salman Obtains a Fatwa Endorsing the Extrajudicial Killing of Dr. Saad” the legal document claims that MBS convened a meeting with close advisers in or around May 2020, where they were overheard saying that he had obtained a fatwa for the killing of Al-Jabri. The fatwa that was issued justified the extrajudicial killing of the former intelligence czar. As a result of the fatwa, described as “the newest stage of a multi-year campaign of execution” Al-Jabri’s life “remains in dire peril to this day.”
Canadian sources reported yesterday that Al-Jabri has been placed under heightened security after it emerged that there was a new threat against his life. In the latest development in the case, the US District Court for Columbia issued a summons order for MBS over the failed assassination attempt of Al-Jabri. The same court also summoned 13 Saudi officials, including former Deputy Director of Intelligence Ahmed Al-Asiri and former adviser in the royal court Saud Al-Qahtani, for their involvement in Khashoggi’s assassination.
Such misuse of religion and religious institutions is nothing new. Throughout history and across faiths, the recruitment of religion has been a constant feature of empires. In more modern times autocrats and despots see in the manipulation of religion a powerful means to cement their position. Democracies too are not immune to such tendencies. Evangelical Christians groups, for example, mobilise support for the Republican party and for the state of Israel. The Zionist state also has its own very special brand of union between religion and state. Not only do its leaders cite Biblical text to justify the finding of the state, religious narrative remains a powerful force in the ongoing takeover of Palestine by Jewish extremists and elected Israeli officials.
Israel has not, as a government, used Biblical text to authorize the murder of its many detractors. The Bible gives the Holy Land explicitly to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and is full of history of the Hebrew people living in the land up to 1900 years ago when the diaspora occurred. For the next 1800 years, nearly all the land was uninhabited, waste howling wilderness.
Comparing that to MBS' ruthless, Islam-sanctioned murders, is absurd!
Across the Middle East, the urge to misuse religion has taken a unique form. The likes of MBS speak on the one hand of wanting to create a more secular country but at the same time have skilfully enlisted religion to justify their repressive policies in a manner that is unprecedented. Prominent clerics are often seen propping up regimes by declaring that protest is prohibited in Islam, or blaming the victims of colonialism and ethnic cleansing in what appears to be an attempt to divert attention from state sanctioned terror and human rights abuse.
The Middle East is in desperate need of space that allows for the free expression of religion as much as the free expression of ideas. For too long autocrats have co-opted religion to cement their power while at the same time using the fear of Islam to mobilise support across the West to silence critics and opposition. Their long time survival depends on this balance.
'The fear of Islam' - You just gave us some excellent reasons why we should fear Islam, and then criticize us for doing just that!
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Pakistan's stance on religious minorities exposes its hypocrisy
WION Islamabad, Pakistan
Edited By: Palki Sharma
The condition of minorities is worsening in Pakistan and their numbers are declining by the day.
Minorities in Pakistan are severely charged on minor allegations, leading to punishments like the death penalty. Blasphemy laws, in most cases, are used to fulfill a personal vendetta.
Religious minorities are living a life under siege in Pakistan. The country's stance on them exposes its hypocrisy.
In February, Imran Khan issued a warning that anyone targeting the non-muslim population of Pakistan will be dealt with strictly. He declared that minorities are equal citizens of his country. However, his actions have fallen way short of his lofty words.
Since August 2018, after Imran Khan took power, at least 31 members of the minority community have been killed, 58 have been injured in targeted attacks and 25 blasphemy cases have been filed. At least seven places of worship for the minorities have also come under attack.
In the Nigeria story above, Sharia Law does not apply to non-Muslims. Not the case in the more hardened Islamic State of Pakistan. Sharia applies to everyone.
The Shia Muslims, Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus and Sikhs make up the minority community in Pakistan. All of them, without exception, have been targeted under Imran Khan.
The Shias, specifically, the shia hazara community, continue to suffer violent attacks. According to one claim, at least 509 Shia Hazaras have been killed in violence since the 2012.
Under Imran Khan, at least 24 members of this community were killed last year. In April last year, an attacker detonated a bomb at a vegetable market in Quetta. The target were the Hazaras.
The Christian community in the country has been perpetual sufferers of violence and discrimination.
Asia Bibi, a woman belonging to this community had spent almost a decade in prison on blasphemy charges before she was acquitted in 2018. But, she couldn't leave the prison for weeks because in Pakistan religious leaders are above the law.
When hardlines laid seige to major cities in Pakistan, Imran khan was helpless before the radicals. He couldn't ensure the safety of Asia Bibi and her five children in their own country and they had to be whisked out of Pakistan and took asylum in France.
Actually, they came to Canada, the children first and Asia much later.
The Ahmadiyya community represents less than one percent of Pakistan's population continue to be attacked. They boycott elections in protest. Nearly 90 percent of Ahmadis in Pakistan's Rabwah boycotted the election in 2018. So far, no leader has addressed their concerns. Their places of worship have been vandalised.
There are laws that make it illegal for Ahmadi Muslims to recite the Quran. They are also not allowed to have Islamic inscriptions on headstones or even call their place of worship a mosque. Under Imran Khan, nothing has changed. The Ahmadis remain doomed. They face constant attacks.
In this year alone, a group stormed into a mosque. Local authorities could not do anything. So, the Ahmadis had to hand over their mosque to hardliners.
And there's no end to stories of the plight of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan.
According to the human rights commission of Pakistan, close to one thousand young Hindus and Christians are forced to convert to Islam every year.
Last year, a 19-year-old Sikh girl was forced to convert to Islam. She came back home after a 30-member committee of the Sikh community put pressure on the government.
Attacks on Hindu temples are frequent. Last year, a large mob in Sindh vandalised a temple. This was after a Hindu principal was accused of blasphemy.
In the month of May, the Imran Khan government announced the formation of the national commission on minorities. The cabinet decided to include the Ahmadis, only to drop them later. The Pakistani government faced a backlash, it had to keep the Ahmadis out.
So, Pakistan's minority commission has no representation from the Ahmadis. The minority group, that faces the most severe persecution in Pakistan. This case alone exposes Imran Khan's farce on minorities.
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Pakistan: Judge rules man can keep child 'wife' he abducted
John Pontifex Aug 4th, 2020, ACN
The campaign to free a 14-year-old Christian girl from the clutches of a man who abducted her and held her hostage in his home in Pakistan lies in tatters after Lahore High Court unexpectedly decided in his favour.
Judge Raja Muhammad Shahid Abbasi today (Tuesday, 4th August) overturned last week's ruling of the Faisalabad District and Sessions Court which ordered that Maira Shahbaz be removed from Mohamad Nakash's house and placed in a women and girl's refuge, pending further investigations.
Mr Nakash claimed he had married Maira but, in spite of evidence invalidating the marriage certificate and showing that she is underage, Lahore High Court ruled in his favour, stating that the teenager has embraced Islam.
Witnesses said Maira was in tears in the court today and afterwards her clearly distressed mother, Nighat, declined to speak to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity which has been closely following the case.
Family friend and advocate Lala Robin Daniel said: "With this ruling, no Christian girl in Pakistan is safe."
Lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu, who represented Maira in court, told ACN: "It is unbelievable. What we have seen today is an Islamic judgement. The arguments we put forward were very strong and cogent."
In the courtroom, Mr Tahir Sandhu detailed 11 arguments in support of his client, chief of which involves an official birth certificate showing Maira was only 13 last October, the month of her alleged marriage to Mr Nakash.
Mr Tahir Sandhu also argued that the marriage certificate was faked, citing evidence denouncing the document given by the Muslim cleric whose name appears on the document.
The lawyer also quoted from state law in Pakistan to show that, as Maira is underage, she can only change her religion with her mother's permission.
Mr Tahir Sadhu said: "I became so upset as the proceedings went on, I feared I might be asked to leave the court room."
The lawyer said he would appeal the decision, first at Lahore High Court and, if this fails, in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Pakistan is not a safe place for any child, but especially girls, and even more especially, Christian or Hindu girls are ever in danger of this medieval, barbaric practice of kidnapping child brides.
This is sharia law!
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