They need to run the judges out of Nigeria, and outlaw Islam in that country.
Sloppy kisses to all Henry Sanders ------------------------------ On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 3:49 AM PST asfan wrote: > > >Wielding Whip and a Hard New >Law, Nigeria Tries to ‘Sanitize’ Itself of Gays > >BAUCHI, >Nigeria — The young man cried out as he was being whipped on the courtroom >bench. The bailiff’s leather whip struck him 20 times, and when it was over, >the >man’s side and back were covered with bruises. >Still, the >large crowd outside was disappointed, the judge recalled: The penalty for gay >sex under local Islamic law is death by stoning. >“He is >supposed to be killed,” the judge, Nuhu Idris Mohammed, said, praising his own >leniency on judgment day last month at the Shariah court here. The bailiff >demonstrated the technique he used: whip at shoulder level, then forcefully >down. > >The mood is >unforgiving in this north Nigeria metropolis, where nine others accused of >being >gay by the Islamic police are behind the central prison’s high walls. Stones >and >bottles rained down on them outside the court two weeks ago, residents and >officials said; some in the mob even wanted to set the courtroom ablaze, >witnesses said. > >Since >Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed a harsh law criminalizing >homosexuality throughout the country last month, arrests of gay people have >multiplied, advocates have been forced to go underground, some people fearful >of >the law have sought asylum overseas and news media demands for a crackdown have >flourished. >Gay sex has >been illegal in Nigeria since British colonial rule, but convictions were rare >in the south and only occasional in the mostly Muslim north. The new law bans >same-sex marriage and goes significantly further, prescribing 10 years in >prison >for those who “directly or indirectly” make a “public show” of same-sex >relationships. It also punishes anyone who participates in gay clubs and >organizations, or who simply supports them, leading to broad international >criticism of the sweep of the law. > >“This >draconian new law makes an already-bad situation much worse,” the United >Nations >high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said in a statement. “It >purports to ban same-sex marriage >ceremonies but in reality does much more,” she added. “Rarely have I seen a >piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, >universal human rights.” >Homosexuality is illegal in 38 of 54 African countries, >according to Amnesty International, and carries the death penalty in >Mauritania, >Sudan and Somalia, as well as Shariah-governed northern Nigeria. Recently >Uganda’s president declined to sign a bill that carried a life sentence for >gays, though he called them sick. In Senegal, where the press regularly “outs” >gays, same-sex relations carry a penalty of five years. > >Rights >advocates say they have recorded arrests in multiple Nigerian states, but the >country’s north has experienced the toughest crackdown. Mr. Jonathan’s national >ban has redoubled the zeal against gay people here and elsewhere, according to >officials and residents in Bauchi, where Shariah law prevails and >green-uniformed Hisbah, or Islamic police officers, search for what is >considered immoral under Islam. > >“It’s >reawakened interest in communities to ‘sanitize,’ more or less, to talk about >‘moral sanitization,’ ” Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s >International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said of the >law. >“Where it was quiet before, it’s gotten people thinking, ‘Who is behaving in a >manner that may be gay?’ It’s driven people into the closet.” > >Officials >here in Bauchi say they want to root out, imprison and punish gays. Local >lawyers are reluctant to represent them. Bail was refused to the gay people >already jailed because it was “in the best interests of the accused,” said the >chief prosecutor, Dawood Mohammed. In the streets, furious citizens say they >are >ready to take the law into their own hands to combat homosexuality. > >Officials are also inflamed. “It is detestable,” >said Mohammed Tata, a senior official with the Shariah Commission here, which >controls the Hisbah. He added: “This thing is an abomination.” >Complaining of the difficulty in distinguishing >gay people from others, Mr. Tata said: “They don’t do it in the open. You get >one or two, you see how they speak, you see how they dress, then you might have >reasonable grounds to suspect.” Mr. Tata, speaking in the whitewashed two-story >Shariah Commission headquarters here, said that happily, “we get information >from sources interested in seeing the society cleansed.” > >The >prisoners’ only local support comes from two gay activists who slip into and >out >of the area, not daring to stay overnight. “They started crying when they saw >us, begging us to take them out of this place,” said one of the activists, >Tahir, 26, after returning from the prison, where he and his friend Bala, 29, >had taken the men food. The two activists feared being prosecuted themselves, >so >they said they were relatives of the prisoners to try to avoid suspicion. > >Most of the >prisoners have been abandoned by their families, Tahir said, declining to give >his last name for fear of reprisals. They are mostly young men, he said — >tailors, students, “just working youths.” One is a married school principal >with >eight children, four of them adopted. > >The young >man who was whipped has gone into hiding. Inside the prison, the guards mock >the >gay men, comparing them to “pregnant women,” Bala said. > >At a >downtown restaurant in Bauchi, under suspicious glances from other patrons, >Bala >said, “Let us leave this place.” Hurriedly concluding the interview, the two >left for a town farther south and not under Shariah law. “We are not safe >here,” >Bala said. >His words >were borne out by the mood on the street. “God has not allowed this thing; we >are not animals,” said Umar Inuwa Obi, 32, a student who said he was in the mob >that hurled stones and bottles at the court and the prison van transporting the >gay suspects two weeks ago. > >“In Shariah >court you are supposed to kill the man,” Mr. Obi said, adding that he favored >this judgment. “But the government has refused. That’s why they started >throwing >stones and bottles.” > > Frightened, the judge retreated to his chambers, the van >forced its way through the crowd and gunshots were fired to disperse it. >“People are >out to kill,” said Abdullahi Yalwa, a sociologist who teaches at a Bauchi >college. >“The stones >increased,” said Musa Kandi, a lawyer who briefly represented one of the men on >his bail application. “They wanted to have those people, so they could kill >them.”Civil >authorities here, handed the case by the Hisbah, say the suspects have been >charged with a very serious crime. “They had been meeting among themselves, >which is quite prohibited — religiously prohibited, socially unacceptable and >morally wrong,” said Mr. Mohammed, the chief prosecutor. >In the >prison, the men are separated from other prisoners, not for their protection, >but “so that they should not indoctrinate the other inmates,” said Mr. >Mohammed’s deputy, Dayyabu Ayuba, who is handling the case. > >Officials >and activists here agree that the new law signed by President Jonathan has >given >added impetus to the country’s anti-gay sentiment, encouraging prosecutors and >citizens alike to take action. The law “completely prohibited anything that is >gay,” Mr. Mohammed said. > >The >Nigerian news media have been largely supportive of the law — “Are Gay People >Similar to Animals?” was the headline on a recent op-ed article in a leading >newspaper, The Guardian — and government officials have reacted angrily to >criticism from the United States and Britain. > >The acting >foreign affairs minister, Viola Onwuliri, recently praised the law as >“democracy >in action,” and suggested that Western critics were hypocrites to promote >democracy and then complain about a law that the populace supports. In a Pew >Research Center survey conducted last March, 98 >percent of Nigerians said they do not believe society should accept >homosexuality. > >“Every >culture has what they regard as sacrosanct or important to them, and I don’t >believe what our president and lawmakers have done in that respect is contrary >to our culture,” former President Olusegun Obasanjo said Thursday in an >interview. In 2004, while he was president, he told African bishops that >“homosexual practice” was “clearly >unbiblical, unnatural and definitely un-African.” > >For gay >Nigerians, the risks of coming out could not be higher. “In the north, you will >be killed,” Tahir said. “You will bring total shame to your family.”
