A Nigerian Islamic group said today that saying the punishment of death by stoning for having sex outside marriage was in line with Islamic law.
Mounting international outrage has greeted the death sentence pronounced against 30-year-old Ms Amina Lawal by an Islamic court in the northern city of Funtua on Monday.
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Ms Amina Lawal: Faces death by stoning for having sex outside marriage
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The court ordered that Ms Lawal be taken to a public place, buried up to her neck and put to death by stoning once her eight-month-old daughter is weaned, the court said.
The Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) said in a statement that criticisms against the death sentence were misplaced.
"It is most unfortunate that some people could interfere in an issue that does not bother them," JNI secretary general Mr Abdulkadir Orire said.
He said adultery is an offence punishable by death under Islamic law, or Sharia, which has been reintroduced in 12 northern states since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in May 1999.
"A billion eyes of the whole world cannot make us abandon our religion and jettison our faith as dictated by the Sharia," he added.
Governments and human rights groups in the United States and Europe have also denounced the court's ruling.