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| Monday, 25 November 2002 |
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The first stone Amina Lawal. Hauntingly beautiful, with eyes that look at the world and ask "What is it that I have done that you haven't?" Death by stoning! Where the indicted woman is put into a deep pit with only her head sticking out and then stoned, till she dies. Barbaric! In an age where man has moved from the medieval ages into an age of enlightenment, do we still have such inhuman and cruel ways of punishment? Amina Lawal, a Nigerian, accused of adultery. Punishment: Death by stoning. In the twenty first century..! Two thousand years ago the Jews had the same law. Its strange isn't it how man condemns a woman who has slept with another man, and punishes her with such butcherish methods but has no such punishment for himself. The Jews had the same law, two thousand years ago, and a woman accused of adultery was brought before the Lord by the Pharisees and other religious men. They wanted to see what the Lord would say to a woman who had committed such a deadly sin. She had actually been caught in the very act. Again there is no record of what happened to the man, for if she had been caught in the act , there must have been a partner also somewhere around? She was brought before the Lord. "Lord," cried those who had brought her. "This woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to kill her. What do you say?" He did not look up as the Amina Lawal of two thousand years ago stood before him. He continued writing something on the ground. The men with stones in their hand came closer and looked to see what the Lord had written. The Lord had answered: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone" The men walked away, their stones falling guiltily from their hands. I would like to put this answer to all those in Nigeria who are getting ready to stone this woman Amina Lawal. I would like to put this same answer to many of us who are so good at condemning and criticising the Amina Lawal's all around us. You who sit in your self righteousness, in your churches and temples and mosques and monasteries. You who lecture and preach and pretend that you are the moral teachers of the world. Do you dare throw the first stone? And then the Lord stood up and said to the accused woman. "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them stay to condemn you?" "No sir," she said. And then Lord said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more." |
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