Islam and Violence: Difference between revisions

Amputation is the removal of part or all of a body part enclosed by skin. It is a prescribed punishment in the Qur'an, and within the context of Islamic law, it refers to the removal of the hands or feet. Today, amputation is used as a punishment for theft in Saudi Arabia and Northern Nigeria, which reintroduced Shari'ah law in 1999. In Somalia, a court run by an extremist Islamic group sentenced four Somali men in June of 2009 to each have a hand and a leg cut off for allegedly stealing mobile phones and guns. In 2008, the Islamic Republic of Iran saw five double amputations in a single week -- five convicted robbers were each sentenced to have their right hands and left feet amputated. When the Taliban, an Islamic militant group, took over Afghanistan in 1996, within a year, public executions, amputations and stonings were a regular Friday event in Kabul.  

Stoning to death, according to traditional interpretations is primarily a punishment for persons who engage in unlawful sexual relations (which include homosexual relationships). The criminals "hands are tied behind their backs and their bodies are put in a cloth sack." They are then "buried in a hole, with only the victims heads showing above the ground. If its a woman, she is buried upto her shoulders." The stones which are to be thrown at the criminal "should not be so large that the offender dies after a few strikes, nor so small as to fail to cause serious  injury." Due to the Islamic laws on rape requiring four male eye witnesses before guilt can be ascertained, many rape victims end up being charged with 'adultery.' As was the case for a 13-year-old girl in Somalia who in October of 2008 was buried up to her neck and stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people in a football stadium. She was the victim of gang-rape. Incidents of stonings have been reported in Iraq and Pakistan, and forms a part of Afghan, Iranian, Nigerian, Indonesian, Sudanise, Saudi Arabian, and United Arab Emirate law. The Qur'an itself does not explicitly mention the act, but there are several sahih (authentic) hadith which speak of Muhammad ordering people to be stoned to death. According to a sahih hadith, the Qur'anic verses of stoning were written on a piece of paper and were lost when a goat ate the paper.

Crucifixion typically refers to the method of execution and/or torture by tying and/or nailing someone to a cross, stake or tree. It can also refer to the method of public display of a body after execution, such as the incident in Saudi Arabia when a convicted killer was beheaded and his body was "crucified." Despite the fact that Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in ad 337, out of veneration for the most famous victim of crucifixion, Jesus Christ, Muhammad perpetuated this practice by declaring it a prescribed punishment in the Qur'an. Crucifixion as a method of torture and execution is reportedly still being used in Sudan and Iraq, both Islamic countries, and it is still a part of Iran's criminal code. Hamas, the Islamic governing body of Gaza, reinstated the penalty of crucifixion in 2008.

There are nearly 500 verses (roughly one out of every twelve) in the Qur'an which speak of Jahannam (Hell). We are told it was specifically created and prepared with eternal fire by Allah, so that he could torture disbelievers. In fact, disbelievers are the fuel of Allah's fire, and he even says that he had the option of 'giving every soul its guidance' but has decided instead to 'fill Hell with jinns and men', for a reason beyond human comprehension. Some of the tortures include: wearing garments of liquid pitch and fire, being bound in yokes and chains, spending eternity in a blazing fire with exchangeable skins so that they can be roasted over and over again, faces being covered in fire and lips being burned off, boiling water being poured over heads and used to scald skin and internal organs, being dragged by the face through boiling water and fire, beaten with maces of iron, and being fed painful, noxious, choking foods (shaped like the heads of demons) which will leave people hungry and boil their insides.