A few weeks ago I posted an article that described how an Islamic court in Nigeria has sentenced a young woman to death by stoning after she gave birth out of wedlock (click here for the original story). Today I received an email from my good friend Jennifer, and learned that Oprah picked up on the story:

Last Friday, the Oprah show covered a story of a Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, who has been sentenced to death by stoning because she had a baby out of wedlock. She has tried to appeal the decision but has been unsuccessful thusfar.

The head of Nigeria disagrees with these stonings but has so far done nothing -- partly because of the fear of not being re-elected. I should also note that the father of the baby denied fathering the child and, hence, has escaped any form of punishment.

Amina Lawal's stoning will occur as soon as she is finished nursing her child. She will be buried up to her neck in dirt and townsmen will throw stones at her head until they kill her--which has been known to take hours. I send out a plea to all the women receiving this e-mail and to all the men raised by women to join me and many others to help prevent this horrific and inhumane event from occuring.

All you have to do is visit the Oprah website:

http://www.oprah.com/tows/
pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20021004.jhtml

Click on the Amina Lawal pop up screen or search using Amina's name and you will see a pre-written letter addressed to the Nigerian Ambassador. Just fill
out your information on the bottom of the page and send it. It's as simple as that. You can even go one step further and forward this e-mail to your friends so they can be part of the mission to save Amina Lawal. It's your chance to save one woman's life.

We can claim ignorance when doing nothing to stop vicious atrocities that we know nothing about from occuring but there is no justification if we standby and allow for these events to take place when we are fully aware of them. Thank you very much for reading this.... now the ball is in your court.

Although not all Muslims are stuck in the Middle Ages, this Islamic "court" that sentences women to death by stoning certainly is. It's as bad as the Islamic court in Saudia Arabia that cuts off hands of petty thieves.

Please take a second to click on the above link and send a message - Amina's life could be saved.

Posted by David Melle
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