I know, I know, I live in the Seattle area, typically vote Democrat or even *gasp* third party, I was a vegetarian for a while, I'm a proponent for gay rights AND I'm against child marriage. I'm a walking progressive stereotype. Well one man is fighting the good fight so that skeevy old Muslims everywhere can marry kids in the name of their religion. Thank Mighty Atheismo there's someone out there willing to speak up for traditional religious values and traditional religious marriage.
Nigerian group slams trial of senator over child marriage
ABUJA — A Nigerian Islamic group on Tuesday challenged a suit filed by a government agency against a senator, Ahmed Sani Yerima, under fire over his marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.
The Registered Trustees of Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria is seeking an order of the Federal High Court to restrain any government agency from interfering with the rights of the senator.
Defendants in the suit are the government-backed National Human Rights Commission, National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), and senate president and the speaker of the lower house of parliament.
Investigators of NAPTIP last May questioned Yerima, ex-governor of Muslim-dominated northwest Zamfara State, over the marriage.
Yerima, 49, who provided investigators with an affidavit of marriage from the Sharia Court of Appeal in Abuja, slammed the Nigerian Child Rights Act of 2003 which he said "must have been enacted in error".
The lawmaker said that he and his government had rejected the law -- which forbids marriage to anyone under 18 -- when he was governor between 1999 and 2007.
The Islamic body is seeking court declaration that Yerima's rights to privacy and practise his religion have been violated.
"We are saying that the honourable senator, as a Nigerian, fundamentally as a muslim, (that) the constitution guarantees him the right to practise his religion... the way and manner it is prescribed," the body's lawyer, Etigwe Uwa, told journalists after a court session on Tuesday.
"His religion allows him to marry four wives without restriction on age," he said.
Uwa said the section of the Child Rights Act which forbids marriage of a girl under the age of 18 contravenes the country's constitution which guarantees citizen's rights to practise his religion.
Uwa said a Muslim has the liberty to "even marry a child in the womb of her mother."
Judge Adamu Bello adjourned the case till October 21.
The Nigerian Senate has ordered a probe after the national rights watchdog.
Media reports have alleged Yerima paid a 100,000-dollar dowry before marrying the girl.
He faces 500,000 naira (3,270 dollars, 2,680 euros) fine or five years jail term, or both on conviction, NAPTIP officials said.
This freedom of religion bullshit is getting out of control. No. Your freedom of religion does not make it OK for you to marry children. Not in the womb, not when they're 13, not ever. Freedom of religion does not trump basic human rights, and I think the right for a kid to grow up before being bought and made to be some gross old man's wife is pretty fundamental. Now, before all you Jesus lovers start in on how terrible Muslims are and how this very behavior discredits their religion (but not yours) - how is this any different than the Catholic church trying to avoid legal responsibility for the child abuse scandal? I would say moving those priests around and pressuring the kids not to say anything and, oh yeah, trying to seek immunity from being held legally responsible for the abuse in the US is pretty similar to a guy wanting the religious freedom to marry a child. In fact, I'd say the Muslim has more balls because at least he's being open about it.
And that seems to be the Christians main issue with the Muslims. Their tenacity. Their transparency. They have no shame in the archaic and socially reprehensible demands of their religion. Christians are sneaky and two faced about their desire for special treatment. The fundamental ones, like the Phelps, seem to come the closest to real faith and belief and adherence to Christianity as it's written in the supposedly holy book and everyone else dislikes it because it's ugly and cruel. That's what religion is. Religion is the good and the worthless, the saved and the damned, the chosen and the cast offs. It's not hugathons and canned food drives and feeling all high on Jesus at Christmas and Easter, it's segregation, slavery, rape, torture, and simplistic caste system of the ones who are righteous and everyone else, who is essentially kindling for the endless fires of hell.
That's why we need to stop regarding freedom of religion as some greater or more sacred freedom than everything else. Freedom of religion does not mean that Christians have the right to discriminate against gays. Freedom of religion does not give adults the right to be child molesters. Religious rights do not trump other rights and it's time we rational, logical, socially responsible people stopped being afraid of the inevitable social backlash and started making some real noise in saying so.
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Posts
Casey · 768 weeks ago
Standing up and opposing it (which I feel our show does on a regular basis) only gets us so far. Our rhetorical opposition will not result in a change in political direction, ideological orientation or in actual circumstances in these failed state theocracies. It's clearly just a question of law, and each society determines what laws it sees more fit.
pinko_commie 65p · 768 weeks ago
I have a lot of respect for cultural diversity, which is actually where I feel this issue becomes seriously muddled. On one hand, I don't think it's right for me as an American to impose my standards of morality or cultural expectations on other cultures, but I do think it's becoming necessary to recognize practices, for instance genital mutilation, child brides and child abuse, that are globally unacceptable. Who gets to set the standards of what is and isn't acceptable? Well, yeah, that's why global human rights is a sticky wicket.
Freedom of religion is something I respect as well, as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. I think socially, freedom of religion has been given a pass for far too long in that people tend not to question someone if their actions are done seemingly for religious reasons which, you're right, can be anything they want them to be. My hope is that in my lifetime, more people are able to see through the guise that somehow religious belief is beyond reproach and they start holding religions accountable for this kind of thing - at least when it happens in their communities. Is that going to directly impact other cultures with theocratic governments? Probably not, but I think if we can at least get more people vocally questioning religious privilege, it will lead to eventual cultural changes for the better.
Maybe? Maybe I'm full of shit. Haha. :D