This is a very significant case. It will be interesting to see how Shariff-Aminu’s appeal is received. This recalls the case of Robert Hussein Qambar Ali, a Kuwaiti national who converted from Islam to Christianity in the 1990s. Hussein was arrested and tried for apostasy, even though the Kuwaiti Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion and says nothing about the traditional Islamic prohibition on conversion to another faith. Mohammad Al-Jadai, one of Hussein’s prosecutors, explained: “Legislators did not regulate the question of apostasy in the Constitution because they never thought this kind of thing could happen here. The freedom of belief in the Constitution applies only to the religion of birth.”
When Hussein asked during a court hearing to see a memorandum from the prosecution, the prosecutor told the judge, “His blood is immoral! This document contains verses from the Holy Qur’an and should not be touched by this infidel!” Then he began quoting a passage from the memorandum that made abundantly clear the relationship between Kuwait’s ostensibly tolerant secular law and the Sharia: “With grief I have to say that our criminal law does not include a penalty for apostasy. The fact is that the legislature, in our humble opinion, cannot enforce a penalty for apostasy any more or less than what our Allah and his messenger have decreed. The ones who will make the decision about his apostasy are: our Book, the Sunna, the agreement of the prophets and their legislation given by Allah.” Even in some places where it is not fully enforced or is not officially the law of the land, the Sharia retains the status of a kind of meta-law, often overriding and superseding the laws of the land.
“Blasphemy: Musician appeals conviction, says Sharia law illegal,” Punch, September 4, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
22-year-old musician, Yahaya Shariff-Aminu, who was sentenced to death for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed, has filed a notice of appeal before a Kano State High Court, describing Sharia law as practised in the state as unconstitutional and undemocratic.
Shariff-Aminu was sentenced to death by an Upper Sharia Court on August 10, 2020, but was given 30 days to file an appeal.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje had expressed readiness to sign the convict’s death warrant once the 30 days lapses.
In the notice of appeal marked CR/43/2020, and filed by his lawyer, Kola Alapinni, the convict sued the Attorney-General of the state and the governor.
He based his appeal on the grounds that the Sharia law, which formed the basis of his conviction, was illegal and unconstitutional.
The notice of appeal read in part, “The appellant’s trial, conviction and sentencing by the Upper Sharia Court of Kano State pursuant to the Kano State Penal Code Law, 2000, were unconstitutional, null, void having grossly violated and conflicted with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended and having violated the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, respectively.”
The musician said the confessional statement was a nullity because the alleged crime did not exist in the constitution.
He added, “The Penal Sharia Code Law is only applicable and permissible in Islamic theocracies or countries, whose constitution allows for such, whereas Nigeria is a secular state with constitutional democracy and the constitution being the supreme law.”…
When Hussein asked during a court hearing to see a memorandum from the prosecution, the prosecutor told the judge, “His blood is immoral! This document contains verses from the Holy Qur’an and should not be touched by this infidel!” Then he began quoting a passage from the memorandum that made abundantly clear the relationship between Kuwait’s ostensibly tolerant secular law and the Sharia: “With grief I have to say that our criminal law does not include a penalty for apostasy. The fact is that the legislature, in our humble opinion, cannot enforce a penalty for apostasy any more or less than what our Allah and his messenger have decreed. The ones who will make the decision about his apostasy are: our Book, the Sunna, the agreement of the prophets and their legislation given by Allah.” Even in some places where it is not fully enforced or is not officially the law of the land, the Sharia retains the status of a kind of meta-law, often overriding and superseding the laws of the land.
“Blasphemy: Musician appeals conviction, says Sharia law illegal,” Punch, September 4, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
22-year-old musician, Yahaya Shariff-Aminu, who was sentenced to death for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed, has filed a notice of appeal before a Kano State High Court, describing Sharia law as practised in the state as unconstitutional and undemocratic.
Shariff-Aminu was sentenced to death by an Upper Sharia Court on August 10, 2020, but was given 30 days to file an appeal.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje had expressed readiness to sign the convict’s death warrant once the 30 days lapses.
In the notice of appeal marked CR/43/2020, and filed by his lawyer, Kola Alapinni, the convict sued the Attorney-General of the state and the governor.
He based his appeal on the grounds that the Sharia law, which formed the basis of his conviction, was illegal and unconstitutional.
The notice of appeal read in part, “The appellant’s trial, conviction and sentencing by the Upper Sharia Court of Kano State pursuant to the Kano State Penal Code Law, 2000, were unconstitutional, null, void having grossly violated and conflicted with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended and having violated the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, respectively.”
The musician said the confessional statement was a nullity because the alleged crime did not exist in the constitution.
He added, “The Penal Sharia Code Law is only applicable and permissible in Islamic theocracies or countries, whose constitution allows for such, whereas Nigeria is a secular state with constitutional democracy and the constitution being the supreme law.”…
