By Eniola Akinkuotu, Adelani Adepegba and Oladimeji Ramon THE United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has faul...
By Eniola Akinkuotu,
Adelani Adepegba and Oladimeji Ramon
THE United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom has faulted the judgment of an Upper Sharia Court in Kano State
sentencing a 13-year-old boy, Umar Farouq, to 10 years in prison for making
derogatory statements toward Allah in an argument with a friend.
Farouq was convicted on August 10, 202o, by Aliyu Kanu, the
same judge who sentenced a Musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, to death for
blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.
Baba-Jibo Ibrahim, spokesman for Kano Region Justice
Ministry, said the court handed down the death sentence as enshrined in Islamic
laws based on irrefutable evidence and the convict’s admission of guilt.
The PUNCH reports that although Farouq is a minor by
Nigerian law and should not have been tried as an adult, Islamic canons regard
anyone who has begun puberty as an adult.
Kano, a predominantly Muslim northern Nigerian state, has
Islamic Sharia courts that function alongside civil courts and introduced
Sharia law in 2000.
But the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom has condemned the blasphemy laws in Nigeria.
The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan Federal Government
entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyse, and report threats
to religious freedom abroad.
In a statement in reaction to the judgment, the US
commission condemned the death sentence handed to Sharif-Aminu for allegedly
insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
USCIRF Commissioner, Frederick Davie, stated, “It is
unconscionable that Sharif-Aminu is facing a death sentence merely for
expressing his beliefs artistically through music. The US Senate should work
swiftly to pass Resolution 458, which calls for the global repeal of heresy,
blasphemy, and apostasy laws.”
Also, the President of the African Bar Association, Mr
Hannibal Uwaifo, described the verdict on Farouq as unconstitutional, calling
on the Attorney General of the Federation to stop the Sharia court from making
a mockery of Nigerian on the international scene.
Uwaifo said, “I call on the Attorney General of the
Federation to step in and to stop this kind of sectional court from making mockery of Nigeria. This is a country
where people are stealing billions of naira and being given a pat on the back;
then you say someone committed blasphemy, according to your own religion, and
then you sentence him to death or sentence a teenager to 10 years’
imprisonment. I think we should stop making a laughing stock.”
In the same vein, two civil society groups have condemned
the Shari’a court verdict.
The Convener, Coalition in Defence of Democracy and
Constitution, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, said, “What is coming out of Kano is a
challenge to section 10 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. We know that the
current Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, is more or less
not interested in the secularity of this country.
“What is going on in Kano is an attempt to restructure
Nigeria through the back door to create a two-nation in one because the message
they are sending to the international community is that there is a part of the
country operating a different legal system.”
Speaking in the same vein, the National Coordinator, Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the judjement
did not conform with human rights conventions and treaties to which Nigeria was
a signatory.
He stated, “Section 10 of the constitution prohibits the
elevation of any religion as a state religion, so the Kano State government
does not have the constitutional rights to legislate Islam as a state religion.”
Source
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