The Supreme Council of Islam in Nigeria warned the...

The Supreme Council of Islam in Nigeria warned the National Assembly not to pass into law a bill currently before the House of Representatives seeking to adopt as part of Nigeria's laws, certain aspects of the United Nations (UN) convention which the council said constituted an attack on Islam.
The council said President Olusegun Obasanjo was the sponsor of the bill which among other things, seeks to review the death penalty as well as other forms of judicial punishment said to constitute cruel and inhuman treatment.
The council's president, Dr. Dati Ahmed, alleged that Obasanjo decided to introduce the bill as a way of attacking the Islamic code in force in parts of the North.
"The UN wants every country in the world to ratify and adopt the UN Convention. After scrutinising provisions of the convention, we feel they are against Islam.
"Most European countries have abolished the death penalty as punishment for murder and they want the rest of the world to do the same.
"(But) Islam is clear on this; life for life, if you kill, somebody then you have to die."He described as unfair, the non-establishment of Sharia courts in the South-east and the South-west.
He argued that states in the North with predominant Muslim population, have high courts and magistrate's courts, to serve the interest of non-Muslims saying that courts should be established in the Christian South for the minority Muslim population.