Nigeria: Senator marries 13-year old, rights activists appalled, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Nigeria: Senator marries 13-year old, rights activists appalled

A Nigerian senator, who introduced and implemented Sharia Law in a Northern Nigeria state, has married a 13 year old girl from Egypt, and women rights group have sprung in protest against the allegedly disingenuous senator. An investigation into his marriage to a minor has been demanded by the Nigerian senate.

Reports claim that Ahmad Sani Yerima, 49, married a 13 year old Egyptian girl at the national mosque in Abuja. Nigeria’s human rights commission has already begun an investigation, following reports of the marriage in newspapers.

"What we are concerned with is that our minors, the girl child, should be allowed to mature, before going into marriage. This very evil act should not be seen to be perpetrated by one of our distinguished legislators ... that is what we are saying," President of the Women’s Medical Association, Mma Wokocha was quoted by reporters.

Ms. Wokocha who is behind the petition demanding that the Senator be taken to court, to face a fine and a jail sentence.

According to reports, the whereabouts of the teenager are unknown - and it is not clear whether she has any parent or guardian with her.

Senator sani Yerima has also been accused of having previously married a 15-year-old girl in 2006. He is reported to have paid a dowry of $100,000 to the parents of his latest teenage bride - and to have the minor flown into Nigeria from Egypt.

However, an investigation into these claims is to be carried out by a Senate committee. In 1999, Senator Sani Yerima oversaw the introduction of Sharia law - for the first time in northern Nigeria, while he was the governor of Zamfara state.

http://newageislam.com/nigeria--senator-marries-13-year-old,-rights-activists-appalled/islamic-world-news/d/2776

Saudi Girl, 12, Married Off to 80-Year-Old Man, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Saudi Girl, 12, Married Off to 80-Year-Old Man

Buraidah, Saudi Arabia (TML) – Saudi women’s rights advocates are outraged after a 12-year-old girl was sold by her father into marriage with an 80-year-old man.

A Saudi father, whose name has not been released, sold his 12-year-old daughter to his 80-year old cousin for the equivalent of $22,600. The elderly man, who lives in the city of Buraidah, stands accused of raping the girl after the wedding. He has previously married three other young girls.

“She was raped and they took her to the hospital after the wedding night,” Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi journalist who has been banned from reporting by the government told The Media Line. “Usually when the girl is very young, the authorities tell the husband not to touch her until after puberty. When he was interviewed, the guy just said she was old enough and he didn’t know she would get hurt.”

The girl, already in the custody of the elderly man, was reported to have shouted “I don’t want him, save me!” when contacted by phone by a journalist from the Al Riyadh, a local newspaper in the Saudi capital.

The girl’s mother, who had objected strongly to the marriage, took the case to local media after her lawyer’s efforts to get it legally annulled failed.

After the case was publicized, the public prosecutor of Al-Qassim Province is said to have set up a special committee to look into the case.

“They say they’re going to look into it but nothing will really happen,” Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi blogger and women’s rights advocate told The Media Line. “Even if they solve this case, they are not going to recommend a new law to the king. We should set a legal minimum age at which girls can be married.”

“Without a law we get people like this 80 year old guy who takes advantage of the system to fulfill his sick obsession with little girls,” she wrote on her blog. “Where else in the world can a man openly say that he is in a polygamous marriage with four underage girls and not get arrested? At this rate we might as well start a tourism industry to attract rich Muslim pedophiles.”

http://newageislam.com/saudi-girl,-12,-married-off-to-80-year-old-man/islamic-world-news/d/2411

A post-secular Europe, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology

A post-secular Europe

By Rafia Zakaria

Habermas argues that the old sociological truism that asserted that modernisation would lead to secularisation and the increased irrelevance of religion has in recent years and with recent historical developments been proven wrong in societies previously considered “secularised”. In support of his thesis, Habermas asserts the reality that the developmental path of Europe, considered in previous years to be the model for the rest of the world and hence the core of the secularisation/modernisation thesis has proven instead to be the deviation from the norm, with most societies including the United States not experiencing a decline in religious affiliation concurrent with modernisation.

The vibrancy of existing faith communities around the world is in Habermas’ opinion further evidence of the death of the secularisation hypothesis. As he says: “orthodox or at any rate conservative groups within the established religious organisations and churches are on the advance everywhere.” In addition, both fundamentalist religious groups such as Christian evangelicals and radical Protestants, and more syncretist new age faith groups such as the Falun Gong have become increasingly popular.

http://newageislam.com/a-post-secular-europe-/islamic-ideology/d/394