There is no greater love...

This should be enough to shame the mohammedans into silence and repentance. This should be enough to cause them to cease their despicable attacks on the Holy Father and The One True Church...

But I won't hold my breath, kiddies.

ChristianityToday.com: Archbishop Proposes to Die in Place of Woman Sentenced to Stoning
Okogie’s offer is a protest against Nigeria’s Islamic Shari‘ah law.
By Obed Minchakpu in Lagos posted 02/25/2002

A Nigerian Catholic archbishop has voluntarily offered to die in place of a Muslim woman who has been condemned to death by stoning by an Islamic court for the crime of adultery.

Dr Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, the Catholic archbishop of the Lagos Archdiocese in south-western Nigeria, has offered to pay the sentence recently imposed on the woman in the northern state of Sokoto in a case which has created an international outcry. The man has been allowed to go free.

The woman, Safiya Hussaini Tungar-tudu, is appealing the conviction; the next hearing has been set for March 18.

In a statement released to the news media by the archdiocese earlier this week, Archbishop Okogie explained that he decided to make the offer as a protest of the Nigerian Catholic Church against the Islamic Shari‘ah legal system.

The archbishop accused the system of deliberately persecuting Christians and the poor of northern Nigeria. He called on religious leaders vested with responsibility for administering and interpreting the Islamic legal code to do so in the fear of God and with humility, taking human considerations into account.

The archbishop warned the nation's political leaders that unless checked, policies in certain Nigerian states could isolate the entire nation from the international community.

Under the strict Shari‘ah law applied in Sokoto, adultery carries a mandatory death sentence.

Hussaini, a nursing mother whose one-year-old baby girl is at the center of the case, was convicted of having had an illicit sexual affair with a man out of wedlock.

Her lawyers were preparing to appeal the verdict on the grounds that Hussaini was raped. But Hussaini, who is divorced, has since claimed that her former husband is the father of the child, which would not be an offense under Shari‘ah law.

Bello Sanyinnawal, the judge who convicted Hussaini, said the criteria for adultery on the part of a man were very specific.

Speaking of Hussaini's case, Sanyinnawal said, "The man had to be freed for lack of evidence. Under the Shari‘ah law, for the man to be convicted, there must be four male witnesses who saw them at the same time having sex. Either that or the man himself confesses to the act. These two instances were lacking."

The judge said that the sentence passed on Hussaini, if carried out, would ensure her access to paradise. "She will be saved on the day of judgment. The manner of her death now will save her from a terrible ordeal on judgment day. She may be admitted in the good heaven."

Abdulkadir Imam Ibrahim, a legal practitioner, has filed an appeal on her behalf at the Sokoto State Sharia Court of Appeal and asked for a stay of execution of the death sentence pending the appeal.

"I can't predict anything now, but surely, we will examine very critically whether there were procedural or legal errors in the judgment delivered,” he said.

Mallam Hussaini Tungar, Hussaini's father, said that he had appealed to both the state of Sokoto and the federal government not to kill his daughter: "I don't want my daughter to be stoned to death. Allah is forgiving. Let them forgive her." (Thanks to Laura Ingraham for reminding me.)

What happened?

Here is Salbiah Ahmad, a visiting scholar of the Islam and Human Rights project of the Law and Religion programme at the University of Emory Law School in Atlanta, Georgia. This was posted 10/27/2003 at WLUML:

By the emails I have received, the Nigerian case of Amina Lawal has generated some interest in Malaysia as well. One of my earliest involvement with Islamic law in the 90s has been with campaigns at the regional level around hudud law and its impact on women. I sincerely hope that the battle of the hearts and minds of Muslims would not have to be fought over women’s bodies (and death). I think this is also the concern of the emails from Malaysia.

Country practice does show that invariably, the first victims of hudud would be women accused of zina (illicit sexual intercourse). This was the case in Pakistan under its Hudood Ordinances, as in Nigeria under its state hudud laws.

Nigeria has two cases tried in the Sharia Court. The first was the case of Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu. Safiya, 35 was acquitted on appeal in the state of Sokoto. The second involves a 31-year-old mother of four Amina Lawal Kurami.

Both Safiya and Amina came from impoverished families. Both married very young at 12 and 14 respectively and both were abandoned by their husbands and left to care for children without any financial support. The women accused of zina under the Pakistan Hudood Ordinances share similar backgrounds. These are well documented by human rights groups in the respective countries.

Amina Lawal was charged and convicted of zina in the lower sharia court in the state of Katsina, Nigeria in March 2002. She appealed her conviction and sentence of death by stoning (rajm) to the upper sharia court. That court affirmed the conviction and sentence in August 2002. She then appealed to the sharia court of appeal which acquitted her on Sept 25, 2003 in majority of four-to-one judgment.

The sentence to death by stoning, for illicit sex by a married person (adultery) is prescribed in the Sharia Penal Code of the Katsina state.

Victory for Sharia

The governor of Lagos, Nigeria made a statement to an online local press that would probably be well received as well here in Malaysia by those in support of the enforcement of hudud.

He said that the acquittal marks, "a victory for the sharia legal system" and that "the sharia is a well-developed legal system that places emphasis on objectivity, respect for evidence, serious regard for the truth and a holistic perspective that combines morality and legality".

A colleague at Emory Law School’s Islam and Human Rights project, Dr Ali Ahmad of the University of Bayero Law School in Kano, Nigeria offers a different perspective of the acquittal.

"The first acquittal of an adultery charge was that of Safiya, and anyone who thought Amina would really be stoned to death in Nigeria was mistaken. But far more mistaken is anyone who believes the lady’s acquittal was only due to Sharia’s internal mechanism as implemented in Katsina.

"Nothing can be farther from the truth. In my view, Safiya’s earlier acquittal was due largely to international public opinion. Amina’s trial attracted even more intense international opinion and the outcome was equally predictable. And one can fairly predict similar adultery cases that will be filed. The Nigerian public can now appreciate what circus those in authority have turned Sharia to be." (amanaonline.com)