Nigeria: Senator's defiance makes Sharia Law untenable

Ambiguity of the situation

The debate and recriminations about the marriage of a Nigerian Senator to a presumed 13-year old Egyptian girl as a fourth wife has been going apace with great difficulty in bringing the discussion to some objective and clear-headed assessments of the facts, the laws, the sentiments and the consequences.

Reviewing the matter, I had decided that under civil law, the Nigerian Constitution in its explicit guidelines appeared strict but ambiguous, to a legal miscreant it had enough loopholes and to a wily defendant it was provable that no laws had been broken.

Notwithstanding the moral outrage, there was enough mileage of interpretation between the provisions of the Age of Consent (13 in Nigeria), the Marriage Act, the Child’s Rights Act and the Criminal Code – if anything, this issue would hopefully lead to the harmonisation of laws to grant adequate protections to children being co-opted under duress into adulthood without acknowledgement of their individual rights, once we have moved on from the witch-hunt and persecution.

The refuge of Islam

Now, Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima who is 49 has spoken up [1] on this matter and this calls for some serious contemplation before our society falls into a chaotic morass of lawlessness predicated on each man’s conscience and personal justification for acts that derive validation from beliefs we might find ourselves unable to question let alone defy.

Speaking from Egypt by phone to the BBC Hausa Service – They seem to have the scoop on anything that pertain to Nigerian leaders of Northern origin, the same service broadcast the allegedly hoax interview with President Umaru Yar’Adua in January when it was believe he had no capacity to do so.

The Senator believes he broke no laws but rather than seek refuge in civil laws he has said he would not respect any law that contradicted his religious beliefs – I suppose that is fair enough on face value but one should examine in detail what he had to say which I take liberty to post verbatim from the BBC News site.

Copying Prophet Mohammad

“I don't care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned, history tells us that Prophet Muhammad did marry a young girl as well. Therefore I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around. If I state the age, they will still use it to smear Islam.”

“As a Muslim, as I always say, I consider God's law and that of his prophet above any other law, I will not respect any law that contradicts that and whoever wants to sanction me for that is free to do that.”

This raises a number of questions and issues that lie at the matter of separation of State and Religion – in this case, the religious force is being dictated by the weight of Sharia Law.

An absence of accountability

At first, the Senator asserts that the age of the girl he married is not 13 but does not offer to tell the real age by citing privacy even though there is now a public interest and moral standing to be satisfied to clear up this issue if the girl is indeed above 13 and of sensibly marriageable age.

The preponderance of Islam is brought to bear on a civil issue for which we cannot find a recognised authority to adjudicate which by default almost makes this man unaccountable to anyone but God’s law and the prophet. One then wonders if Nigeria is a democracy, a theocracy or a non-descript quagmire of conflicts between laws derived from a seeming Judeo-Christian perspectives with its origins in British Law and indigenised Sharia Law.

With defiance he goes on to contend that even if the child is 13, he is answerable to no one and plugs equality with Prophet Mohammad by taking the example of the Prophet having married a young girl too.

Bringing Islam into disrepute

But the truth can be found in this statement, “If I state the age, they will still use it to smear Islam.” In other words, despite the precedents and force of Islamic law he can proffer, this singular act of marrying the young girl is at risk of bringing Islam into disrepute and dragging the holy names of the prophets and deities down with it.

For that alone, if there be any authorities within Islam with the power to pronounce judgement or the dreaded Fatwa on this matter, this is the time to save the face of Islam, Sharia and all that makes it a belief system from the embarrassment of a man whose main objective is to satisfy his propensity for young girls rather than be an example of pious Islamic living.

Should Islam suffer a battering because one man had to satisfy his lust for young flesh or shall other Islamic leaders turn a blind eye to this just as they are resisting the adoption of the Child’s Rights Act in Northern Nigeria because they also have a secret craving for the same?

Presaging the repeal of Sharia

It would be a shame if the Senator having extricated himself from the grasp of civil law there is no sanction based on commonsense and principle within the religion he strongly adheres to apart from one outside the realms of human capability and pronouncement.

If that be the case, then Islamic Law cannot and should be allowed to have precedence over civil laws if practitioners are not answerable to some humanly constituted legal authority and sanction for acts that would be termed morally reprehensible when examined under the plain like of sound reasoning without the taint of belief, creed, dogma or tenet.

For this alone, the repeal of Sharia law should gather pace immediately.

Source

[1] BBC News - Nigerian senator Sani denies marrying girl of 13

Relevant material Nigeria: Senator's teenage marriage is lawful though reprehensible

Nigerian Criminal Code Act Part III-IV The Relevant part is Chapter 19

Age of consent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Age_of_Consent.png (PNG Image, 1393x628 pixels)

Age of consent

Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 - Marriage Act

Child's Rights Act of 2003

Somali woman mercilessly stoned to death

This Islam is strange

This aspect of Islam is one I find so unfamiliar and devoid of any iota humanity, it loses the real function of religion and lets a kind of evil barbarity lose on a hapless people.

A 20-year old “adulteress” was stoned in Somalia [1] whilst her boyfriend was given 100 lashes of the blessed rod for his sins.

Sometimes I wonder who gives the judges the domineering influence over people to the extent that they can take life without mercy on the premise of the adherence to a religion or creed.

My Muslim heritage

At the risk of being labelled as someone who does not understand the vagaries of Islam or Sharia law, it is really beside the point that I do have a Muslim heritage in that my paternal grandfather was Muslim and so is my uncle.

If I ever met any two people who ooze with humanity, compassion and humility, I would put those two Muslims at the front of the line, so it really baffles me when I hear of these rather heinous acts of crime and punishment procedures that terrorise people in conformity rather than persuade of them of a goodly situation.

Does Sharia law know mercy?

This was a 20-year old girl who really could have been mercifully forgiven, put under the care of a matriarch who could help her mend her “immoral” ways and make her a better citizen in the society in which she lives.

In fact, the harbingers of “real” Sharia law whose outlook does not include the concept of leniency surely should in their prayers for mercy and forgiveness to God not expect to find any mercy from the god they worship, who in their minds allows for this kind of violence in the name of justice and purity.

Casting the first stone

What I even find most primitive as to label it Neanderthal is that they can find people who would willingly pick up stones and stone a half-buried woman to death with all the blood, screaming and goriness of it all – is our humanity really that inured to any feeling that people cannot for once constrain themselves and jointly appeal for some sympathy?

At this point one wishes there were a Rabbi like in the times of Jesus [2] who whilst not condoning the adulteress highlighted the fact that sin is sin, from the little white lie to the seemingly egregious act of adultery. He sanctioned the punishment of stoning but asked that the one without sin cast the first stone – even amongst the most pious of the adherents in Somalia, none can be so pure to have been able to cast the first stone.

Entertained with death

In what can only be a kind of bizarre sense of satisfaction, no men ever get stoned for adultery – women always seem to get the rotten end of justice – as if the public enjoy the wail of death as the woman’s blood gets splattered all over the ground and the judges applaud themselves for having such great control over the people.

The last thought in this matter should be deep enough for anyone to understand and it must be true for all intents and purposes in this world and hereafter. “They who show no mercy, no matter what cause they stand for; deserve no mercy ever.”

Sources

[1] BBC News : Somali woman stoned for adultery

[2] John 8:3-11 - Passage Lookup - New Living Translation - BibleGateway.com

Habiba Garba: Religion and violence against women

Picture courtesy of the BBC

An attack most evil

Ababoy covered this topic last week, but I have not seen enough clamour about this issue that I have decided to contribute to this matter and hopefully gather a head of steam to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done.

Mrs. Habiba Garba, a women’s leader of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in Kano, Kano State had crossed political party carpets from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); politicians change allegiances all around the world, it is a matter of persuasion or conscience, no big deal.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Garba seems not to have realised she had left the company of Neanderthals, chief of whom was a Labaran Abdu Madari who being a member of the PDP employed thugs to harass and threaten her with violence, then he eventually committed her to hospital having beaten her to a pulp in the presence of witnesses that included the police.

The photographs are the evidence

As she lay in hospital, photographs were taken of her condition including bruises and effects of body blows which naturally exposed parts of her body that would normally be decently covered.

Any court of law that would judicious determine this case if assault charges are brought and pressed to the limits of the law for the harshest sanctions, should and must see both a doctor’s report which would have involved exposing selfsame these parts to non-relations of possibly the opposite sex and the photographs taken by a professional and certified to be of her.

Mullahs of disgust

It is saddening to hear that the publication of these photographs which show the level of barbarity and utmost disregard for women in the Nigerian society is being condemned by religionists who contend that nudity is forbidden under Sharia Law.

Nudity for lascivious purposes, I can understand; nudity revealing the extent of criminal assault in order to expose an unacceptable barbaric act - I disagree. Nobody should be above the prospect of being exposed as an animal unworthy of existing in a civilised community. Religion can take a back seat.

What really is the purpose of Sharia Law if such despicable violence by men in authority against a fellow human-being regardless of sex is not condemned outright and the victim given succour?

What is the purpose of religion when it has lost its compassion and service to humanity?

How did people witness this utterly criminal act and not intervene, if not take the man and beat him to a pulp?

What was the function of the onlooking policemen who witnessed a crime on the premises of the police station and only acted to arrest the man rather than prevent the blatant abuse of rights?

No safety with the police

Mrs. Garba, went to seek redress at the police station for the harassment she was receiving from thugs in the employ of Mr. Madari, it is impunity that allowed Mr. Madari to challenge that arrest and then set on the woman without fear of being dealt with.

This is the culture that needs to be eradicated in Nigeria. One that places the needs of foreign religions over the present need for human compassion.

One that allows men to maltreat women without fear of the heavy sanction of the law and harsh judicial process.

One that makes men think that they have domineering authority over any woman to abuse them if they do not submit to the wishes or commands of men.

Ekaette’s wrong-headed crusade

This is the crusade that stupid (forgive my intemperance, I am incensed) Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette should be fighting, not that nonsense about indecent dressing, we have more pressing issues at stake.

Yesterday, I watched with heart-rending sorrow the CNN World’s Untold Stories about Nigerian women being trafficked in Denmark and the way they had been abused, dehumanised, defiled, denigrated and treated like dogs by unscrupulous men and women, I almost cried.

Women used in prostitution that unwittingly get pregnant and are forcefully taken for abortions in underground clinics then put back on the street the same day.

This is a ready-made crusade

That is the depth of depravity and human misery meted out to Nigerian women, if Madam Ekaette needs a crusade she has a ready-made one which she can spearhead to a conclusion that would bring accolades untold.

If there is anyone who can bring persuade the honourable senator of this better purpose, I would be most obliged.

As for the fate of Mr. Madari; not only should he be prosecuted with the prospect of the harshest penalties, he should be made an example of – we must not again tolerate violence against women to aggrandise male chauvinism.

It is unacceptable in any modern society; Nigeria needs to rise up to that worthy cause. As for the religious leaders, shame on them, we really should be done with you utterly outrageous lot.

Academic theologians creating Islamic disquiet

The Purview and the voice

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI are superb intellectuals and formidable theologians – it would be far from me to suggest with my little learning and experience the ability advice on any matter that decides to offer an additional erudite perspective on their pronouncements.

However, I can recall that when the Pope gave an academic lecture at Regensburg University in September 2006 entitled Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections; he touched on a topic that should probably entertain the purview of the learned but not the voice of the powerful.

Debate and reason

There, he alluded to the seventh conversation between a Byzantine Emperor and a Persian scholar on the subject of the truth of Christianity and Islam.

Emperor Manuel II Paleologus said “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

This was a conversation recorded in the 14^th Century and I am sure the Persian scholar would have reasoned intelligently and probably answered with views and ideas that validate Islam and Muhammad positively whilst trying to broaden the view of the Emperor to an enlightened perspective of Islam.

Unfortunately, very few would have taken time to put this all in context of the 14^th Century conversation or the academic lecture of the 21^st Century.

Whilst that question or statement should have offered the opportunity for those most concerned to reflect and offer a “gospel” of Mohammedanism that makes that view insignificant, many rose to the gathering of the mob and gave credence to that contention.

Stirring troubled waters

The wisdom of the Pope in giving voice to a latent view of the violence of Islam is still a matter for debate and history; in the end, he was able to placate the offended and make peace with those who mattered.

Lessons should have been learnt from the fact that Christian leaders are better suited to commentary on their areas of specialisation than on their appreciation, understanding or even ignorance of other religions where they hold no offices.

For Sharia Law relevance

Whoever the advisors of the Archbishop of Canterbury are, they surely must be pensioned off because in an academic lecture - Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective - delivered to lawyers in London preceded by an interview (BBC audio) on Radio 4’s World at One the archbishop did touch on viewing aspects of Islamic law in a favourable light but it has created another set of unintended consequences.

It is quite revealing not a squeak has been heard from any of the major Anglican Archbishops in England in support of Dr. Rowan Williams, he might just weather this storm with the voice of support from the Presbyterian Prime Minister .

Considering the furore this has created, this great knight of the Anglican faith might just fall on his sword.

Allowances of the law for conscience

One cannot dispute the fact that certain aspects of conscience or conscientious inclinations by reason of religious belief are given the benefit of exception from legal duress in civil law.

However, the primacy of civil law must remain when a conflict arises that either removes the premise of equality before the law or religious law allows for illegal or unlawful actions.

Sharia law might be used to settle disputes for adherents of that faith but in cases where the female sex does not have equal access, evidence and representation before those courts; it becomes incompatible to existence in broad Western democratic societies as the interviewer stated when chatting to the Archbishop.

The popular Sharia view is scary

Obviously, the concern that has drawn the greatest opprobrium has been the vision of the more dramatic Sharia law judgements that include floggings, amputations and beheadings – these definitely have no place in the Western criminal justice systems, they should for all intents and purposes of a modern civilised world be consigned to history.

Meting out those punishments are considered deterrents that instil fear in the general populace acting as an opiate of contrived civility though they are as cruel and as barbaric as anything dragged out of the darkest ages.

Failed to convey understanding

Dr. Williams whilst understanding these complexities in his interview failed to demonstrate those differences clearly enough for people to appreciate the facts and temper their reactions to the possible visitation of the presumed evils of Sharia on our liberal Western comforts.

As one commentator stated on one of the Daily Telegraph columns; it is amazing that a man whose job it is to be clearly understood failed to convey understanding that he has become so misunderstood and left many seriously displeased.

Like smart person knows well to stick to their own knitting; the leaders of the church should stick to matters that concern the church and stop peering over the wall into mosques with academic lectures that get delivered to select audiences but create an unedifying rumpus amongst the masses.

If he survives, the grace of God with the munificence of Allah does abound towards him, he might find mercy but he would need to do a lot for the forgiveness of men. I, for one can see their points but the wisdom in giving voice to issues that can be so easily hijacked, misinterpreted and manipulated for unintended ulterior ends leaves one rather suspect of their good judgement.

The Archbishop of CounterBury

The Bishop's bad move

The furore over the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments about the inevitability of Sharia Law in the UK is gathering considerable moss and it might just roll over the man who started it off.

Now we have to deal with clarifications and re-interpretations of what the archbishop said so that we do not all get in a tizzy about the balance of conservative adherence to the role of the Church in the State and the development of liberal contemporary ideas from the headship of the church that questions the basis of our faith.

One only has to read the synopsis of the Bishop's Gambit episode of Yes, Prime Minister to realise that the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury is probably more a political than a spiritually lead anointing.

The Prime Minister of the day recommends names to the Queen who is the defender of the Faith on the advise of the Church of England and influenced by political and religious leaders.

Between adherents and atheists

It was interesting to note that Sir Humphrey Appleby argued that the government had to keep a balance of bishops in the Church between those who believed in God and those who were agnostic bordering on atheists.

The problem is, unlike the papacy, this position is only available to archbishops in England, and if any ethnic minority of the larger representation of the church in Africa were to assume that position, they would have to lead diocesan archbishoprics in England.

The greater risk is to find a heretic or an apostate leading the Church.

In a time when the Anglican Communion worldwide is undergoing the turmoil of schism regarding the ordination of woman bishops and the acceptance of homosexual clergy, it beggars belief that the Archbishop of Canterbury would suggest that the cradle of Anglican Christianity, flawed as its inception might be would suggest that Sharia law be juxtaposed with civil law in the UK.

This is England NOT Arabia

Indeed, The UK is now accommodating larger numbers of Islamic faith adherents, but they very well recognise that the UK is not an outpost of Arabia, we all have a clear equality before the law in terms of civil law.

One is however not encouraged when even in the Netherlands, a Calvinist/Catholic entity that it once was, not one person in my office challenged the view that Easter was 27 days after Ash Wednesday - maybe, it is indeed time to allow all these alien cultures and traditions to subsume our traditional identities.

The need for conservatism

This encroachment however, should never be encouraged by the leader of the Church, having veered into Pentecostalism; I still hold my High Church Anglican upbringing dear and would rather be at a traditional Christmas service than the raucous cacophony of a happy-clappy bazaar.

Before long, with this man at the helm, would allow the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to be infiltrated with references to Quranic Suras and worse. Gone are the days when the tower served its function, then it was believers in God would were executed, it is time for apostates, just as you have in Sharia Law to be decapitated forthwith.

In other words, maybe, it is time for Dr. Rowan Williams to vacate his office and seek the counsel that returns him to the core tenets of the Faith.

He is acknowledged as a formidable theologian but cannot continue to counter our beliefs and bury the faith, erudite and liberal as his thinking might be.

Homosexuality in Nigeria - Condemning bigots who seek death

Suffering a different sexuality

It is no more a surprise that people whose sexuality does not align with the majority can get persecuted in some societies; however, African societies tend to prosecute them.

Add religious intolerance and tyrannical moralising to the mix and you have the result of people being condemned to death for being different.

Now, there are certain punishments which might serve as deterrents to others when it comes to crimes, but how would capital punishment serve as a deterrent to a situation that is inherently accepted as genetic?

Homosexuality a norm

Medical science no more considers homosexuality a mental disease, an aberration or treatable condition, it is a norm for the people who exhibit those tendencies and the same people have been, are and will continue to be worthy and contributing members of our societies whether we accept them or not.

Nigeria comes to the fore on this matter again as 18 men were remanded in custody for transvestism and homosexual practices (for those who seek great revulsion – sodomy) in a state that practices Sharia Law – Bauchi State.

When I was in Paris in June, I observed the Gay Pride march where a group against capital punishment highlighted a number of nations that imposed the death penalty on homosexuals (See Slideshow) - Sign their petition if your are concerned.

Stoning a taboo

Nigeria prominently featured in that list and it got me worried and quite concerned that all death sentences imposed through Sharia Law have yet to be carried out in Nigeria, but the possibility of execution is getting closer than is comfortable to countenance.

What better way to excite a lynching mob since the stoning of these people would most likely be done by the public who would be provided the stones to commit a public murder than to present them with a homosexual?

This is a human rights issue has been hijacked by irrational religionists and painted with the epithet of a taboo – but whose taboo is it anyway? And what right has anyone to make their taboo a crime on others who do not subscribe to that taboo?

Bigots deserve no tolerance

However, beyond the news of these arrests comes the comments (scroll down the linked page to see selected comments) that accompany the news, people who want to appear objective and rational spew out the most savage and primitive notions predicated on nothing but religious adherence and the willingness to sacrifice fellow human beings on the altar of fanaticism and irrational thought, with the hope that it makes them better human beings or committed religionists in line for great heavenly reward. I think not.

These selfsame people are the cancer that eats into our societies and deprives our humanity of talented, reasonable, tolerant and albeit different people to perpetuate an illusion of ridding our societies of corruption and moral laxities.

In my view, if anyone so advocates the death penalty for people being who they naturally are and are found committing supposedly victimless crimes amongst consenting partners then the accuser does not deserve justice for wanting to unnecessarily punish the innocent to validate their bigoted and prejudiced views, they should be first in line for the stoning - be they bishops, disciples, imams, politicians, fanatics or people who just refuse to use their God-given right to think and rationalise.

Our societies can tolerate and accept homosexuals but we must not tolerate or accommodate bigots and religious fanaticism that fork lifts Scripture for their own selfish ends seeking evil rather than mercy, speaking death rather than saving life.

Stoners required for Sharia execution

Punishing crime against women

Crime and violence against women is still something men and society seem to be able to do with impunity in Africa, one report suggests it is seldom punished. There are civilising voices that are being raised to highlight these issues and bring focus to the need for radical and positive change.

Unfortunately, one such voice for change in the blogging community seems to have lost the desire to continue this thankless activity and I very well sympathise, social issues in Africa cannot gain prominence where the quest for basic survival is the primary pre-occupation.

Apathy reigns whilst hedonistic pursuits leave us in need for things to improve our society and raise our quality of life, one would miss the voice of Black Looks on these matters.

Sharia in the headlines

The law and religion collide again in Nigeria's north where a man has been sentenced to be stoned to death by Sharia Law.

His heinous crime is the forcible raping of two teenage girls, an act he committed with an accomplice who got off lightly with just a six-month sentence.

I would not argue the disproportionate difference in sentencing, as to how a rapist and an accomplice cannot both be accessories to the same crime and how not even a corporal punishment element appears in the sentencing of the supposedly lesser criminal.

The logic escapes me that the horridness of the crime of rape has been belittled in some way that would make it arguable for a participant in encouraging a rape might get off quite so lightly. Am I expressing surprise at Sharia judgements being so lenient?

There is a risk of imputing tribalism, in noting the ambiguous name of the main criminal which is indeterminately Southern Nigerian (Ade Debo) as compared with the more Northerly sounding and Muslim name of the accomplice (Shagari Abubakar), but I would contend that greater principles of due legal process, albeit Sharia Law prevailed in the execution of justice and judgement.

The punishment

In the West, rapists do get quite stiff sentences, even up to life imprisonment, in America, it would exact a capital punishment, especially if it leads to murder - I would argue that rape should and must be severely punished if proven.

The points of interest arise when you hear the proclamation of the judge; Aliyu Mohammed, "For your action, you will be stoned to death as ordained by Allah".

I would not dispute this statement, but how many times have we seen certain actions of men carried out in the name of God so as to be considered credible, unassailable and inviolable.

The we read that the men have 30 days to appeal the sentence where man in the assumed capacity of Allah can commute what Allah ordained to a lesser punishment - maybe I am being a bit pedantic here.

Are you a stoner at heart?

If the sentence does not get commuted, in the 21^st Century, would there be a wolf pack of Nigerians available to pick up specially selected stones to throw at a fellow human-being till he were dead?

Would people be compelled by their Islamic leaders to do the Allah-ordained task of stoning or face the wrath of Allah?

Surely the execution of criminals should be the function of the state and this should be carried out in a humane and civilised manner, to set this activity in the marketplace of a mob of bloodthirsty people creating images too savage for Allan Quatermain's Africa is beyond the pale.

The bizarre nature of this whole thing would be if certain adherents of Sharia principles offer their services as professional "stoners", or rather, they are catalysts that help instigate and encourage the mob to pick up stones and finish off the criminal as he bellows out blood-curdling screams of pain to the hearing of inured children.

The role of civil law

We should punish crime appropriately, but at this juncture, civil law is probably the better tool to handle cases like this than traditional religious methods which would take the focus away from the crime and place it on the criminal as activists move to prevent this sentence from being carried out.

Somehow, Sharia Law does have its place in society, but it also has to adapt to modern values in such a way that social matters are handled with the adjudication of the Sharia court whilst felonies and serious criminal matters are forwarded to the civil law division.

The way Sharia Law grabs the headlines when these punishments are given persuades people to highlight the fossilised aspects of this code of conduct and creates resistance to the more civilising forces for social cohesion that Sharia Law might bring to communities.

The only progress I have seen in this matter is where the female victims of this sex crime have not been charged with some absurd offence of encouraging the rape; amazing perspective, but too valid in Africa to be ignored.

AIDS cure or homosexual lure in Iran

Between herbs and chemicals

Any development in alternative or herbal medicine that offers to give palliative comfort, therapeutic cures or prophylactic remedy for the diseases that rage amongst mankind today is very welcome.

I have many a time refused synthetic medicaments that pump the body full of chemicals providing temporary respite to a point that the body can handle no more and the person expires not so much from the illness but from the treatment – but who would own up to that?

Cures for serious pain that then lead to heart attacks, treatments for cancer that leave the person hanging on to a thread of life, in fact, I am convinced that many have not died for the reason that they have a stronger will to live rather than them reacting to the effect of the toxins they have to ingest with side effects, if recounted, would make a Stephen King horror novel look like a kindergarten colouring book.

Herbal clams making me puke

Even so, the big healing, cure or remission people are looking for is one for HIV/AIDS, this has been hitting the headlines faster than I could raise commentary, only last week the President of Gambia suggested he had been curing AIDS with herbs, in people who have been invited to his harem, my views on this were not half derisive, I was enraged.

Now, I read that Iran has also laid claims that it also has a cure for AIDS, a claim that has been out since September 2006 and reported by the Science Daily – this has been further developed to a herbal cure for AIDS or in some cases used in some combination therapy with existing chemical compounds that make up current HIV/AIDS treatments.

Of nuclear herbalists

Iran being a closed country and one with which countries like America has not had any diplomatic relations for 37 years, it is unlikely that we might really get essential corroborative detail of this development just as we cannot ascertain if Iran’s nuclear programme is purely peaceful or has militaristic tendencies.

Now, I would hope that the quest to find a cure is altruistic and compassionate to a larger degree than commercially driven for the benefit of blockbuster inventions and profits that Big Pharma is too indulged in to offer benefit to mankind.

Institutions like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also spearheading research sponsorship to develop drugs that impoverished countries and their people need and this is laudable.

A cure or a lure

Concerning Iran, my concern is whether this cure for AIDS is really one that its people should flock to for treatment or it is a lure to encounter the wrath of Sharia Law in the administration of punishment to the extreme.

At least, up till last year a number of teenagers were executed for being homosexual and that raised hackles in the Netherlands when our matronly Minister of Integration had to be forcefully dissuaded from deporting homosexual asylum seekers back to Iran on the whim that she had been assured they would come to no harm.

Thankfully, the young men were saved from the ideology of rule-keeping to the exclusion of commonsense and compassion, we all did breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Numbers to numb some

However, Iranian statistics suggest that most HIV/AIDS sufferers 62.3% are drug addicts who inject drugs and would have been infected through needle sharing, 27.9% have acquired the disease through unknown causes and 7.4% by possible sexual contact.

It would be interesting if checks are first made for needle marks to determine the druggies, background checks to determine the heterosexuals and possibly what is left over might be fit for the mob and the gallows – it does not bear thinking about.

Believing the best

Again, I want to believe the best of this situation, if indeed the Iranians have had a breakthrough on something that has foxed the whole of Western civilization over the last 30 or so years, they have a gift for mankind that far outweighs a prissy little nuclear tiff that is getting America too hot under the collar.

My only other concern about these herbal remedies is after the Gambian President’s announcement, maybe one of the reasons President George W. Bush is against stem cell research funding is because the Crawford Shrub or the Prairie Chapel Flower is being tested as an efficacy against Alzheimer’s disease – you never know.