| | Alright, so I just couldn't resist.
I'm going to "go on" about Muslim-based, inhuman action which has been taken on earth. Please, Mr. Roche, take these 2 posts in 2 parts (2 separate responses -- if you have it in you) ...
From:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engACT530042001?open&of=THEMES/DEATH+PENALTY
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In October a 30-year-old woman, Safiya Tungar-Tudu, a divorcee, was sentenced to death by stoning by the Upper Sharia Court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto State, after allegedly pleading guilty to the offence of fornication. In both cases the governors of the states have to give their approval for the sentence to be carried out.
Over the past two years several northern states in Nigeria have introduced penal legislation for Muslims based on the principles of Sharia. Stoning to death has been introduced for a number of existing offences previously punishable to a lesser degree. In the legal tradition of Sharia the rules of evidence, rights of appeal, rights to legal representation and possible punishments are different from the laws which apply to citizens who are not Muslims.
DEATH SENTENCE FOR BLASPHEMY IN PAKISTAN
Dr Younis Shaikh, a medical school lecturer, was sentenced to death on 18 August by a criminal court in Islamabad for blasphemy. He had allegedly remarked during a lecture that the Prophet Mohammed was not a Muslim until the age of 40 when Islam was revealed to him. His comments were taken up by an Islamist organization, the Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-i-Nabuwat (Committee for the Protection of the Finality of the Prophethood), which brought a complaint to the police. Dr Shaikh, who has been detained since October 2000, has filed an appeal.
The death penalty for blasphemy is a mandatory sentence in Pakistan which is usually commuted by a higher court. Earlier this year, however, Ayub Masih, a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy, had his sentence upheld by a high court. Ayub Masih, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in October 1996 and is currently held in solitary confinement in Multan, 200 miles southwest of Lahore, has appealed for commuation to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the final court of appeal.
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PUBLIC HANGINGS IN IRAN
More than 28 executions were carried out in Iran in August, some of them in public. Three men, convicted of armed robbery, were hanged in public on 16 August in the town of Semnan. In the city of Mashhad, Reza Nadi and Kazem Alayemi were publicly hanged and there were three public executions in Tehran. According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, public protests at one execution in Tehran led police to fire tear gas into the crowd. The protests reflect concern expressed by President Mohammad Khatami and other reformers that public hangings damage Iran's reputation abroad.
There have been 120 recorded executions in Iran this year to the end of September though the true figures may be much higher. More than 80 people are under sentence of death some for offences with non-lethal consequences such as economic sabotage.
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From:
http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging2.html
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An Iranian hanging in 2001.
Fariba Tajiani-Emamqoli (pictured) and her 4 male accomplices, Ali Alipour, Ibrahim Qaemshari, Ali-Kazem Aslani and Framan Qaremani-Aazara were taken to a piece of waste ground in the Khak-e Sefid district of Tehran at dawn on Monday, the 19th of March to be executed for drug trafficking.
Each was placed on the back of one of 5 modern recovery trucks and there blindfolded and their hands tied behind them. As Fariba looked up at the yellow crane jib with the noose dangling from it, she muttered, "May God forgive me," to the woman overseeing her execution. The coiled noose, fashioned from thin green nylon rope, was placed over her head and adjusted loosely behind her right ear. Seconds later, the cranes on the flat-bed recovery trucks began to lift their jibs, tightening the nooses and then sweeping all 5 prisoners from the lorry's backs leaving them dangling, their legs initially kicking in the air. The crowd of about 200 men, women and children chanted "Allah akbar" - God is great and "Death to the traffickers, death to the traffickers." The executions took about 25 minutes, with the bodies being left suspended for 10 minutes before being taken down.
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From:
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.20229/pub_detail.asp
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The question was simple: "Do you want an Islamic Republic?" According to revolutionary authorities, 98.2 percent said yes.
Khomeini claimed victory. "By casting a decisive vote in favor of the Islamic Republic," he told enthusiastic crowds, "you have established a government of divine justice, a government in which all segments of the population shall enjoy equal consideration, [and] the light of divine justice shall shine uniformly on all. . . ."
So began a quarter century of tyranny. In the weeks that followed, Iranians would awake to see pictures splashed across the front page of the official daily Ettelaat of government officials, intellectuals, and liberals before and after execution. Khomeini gave vigilantes tacit approval to sack the U.S. embassy
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Over the last five years, Iranian authorities have closed more than 50 newspapers. According to Reporters Sans Frontiers, the Islamic Republic has the second-greatest number of imprisoned journalists in the world. On July 11, 2003, Iranian authorities murdered Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi while she was in detention. Nevertheless, with Iranian state television tightly controlled and satellite access limited, it was possible on March 30, 2004, for Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi to claim with a straight face, "No country enjoys freedom, democracy, and the press freedom that currently exists in our country."
The fight against capital punishment is among the European Left's most popular causes. When it comes to Iran, however, there is only the silence of hypocrisy. Executions in Iran have risen proportionally to European trade. During the Khatami administration, application of the death penalty has ballooned. Iranian newspapers regularly document executions. For example, on February 14, 2004, Jomhuri Islami announced the public hangings of several youths, some less than 18 years old, in an orchard in the southwestern town of Mahshahr. Four days later, Sharq reported public hangings in Bandar-e Gaz's main square. On February 25, Jomhuri Islami announced the public hanging of Mohammad Ali Firouzi, only after he received 173 lashes.
Iranian women today mark a quarter century of oppression. While the American media applauds the struggle of women to win new rights throughout much of the Middle East, correspondents often fail to mention that in Iran, women fight for the restoration of basic rights taken away by the Islamic Republic. Human-rights groups may march against the French government's decision to ban the veil in French public schools, but they remain conspicuously silent about the Islamic Republic's enforcement of mandatory veiling.
The Islamic Republic's constitution does guarantee limited rights, but Iranian authorities use vigilante gangs to sidestep even these. Police fail to respond to calls as vigilantes break up crowded lectures in Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. In the late 1990s, Fedayin-e Islam, a shadowy group linked to Iran's intelligence ministry, assassinated a series of writers and intellectuals, a crime as yet unsolved, which has cast a pale over the reform movement. In 1999, armed vigilantes from Ansar-e Hezbollah attacked a student dormitory, setting off widespread protests. Authorities used the unrest as reason to crackdown on freedom of expression. Scores of students and dissidents arrested in the aftermath of the crisis still languish in Tehran's Evin Prison.
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Twenty-five years after Khomeini declared the Islamic Republic, nearly 70 million Iranians struggle to be free.
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From:
http://www.slate.com/id/2106547/
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Sharia is a centuries-old system of justice based on Quranic law, and while it includes general provisions about the importance of justice and equality, as practiced throughout the world it has been used to justify stonings, the flogging of rape victims, public hangings, and various types of mutilation. In her weird and provocative book, The Trouble With Islam, Canadian commentator Irshad Manji reminds us that on average, two women die each day in Pakistan from "honor killings" (a husband's revenge for adultery, flirtation, or any perceived sexual shaming) and that, in Malaysia, women may not travel without the written consent of a male. Saudi Arabian women may not drive. Moreover, under sharia, male heirs receive almost double the inheritance of females. Spousal support is limited from three months to one year, unless a woman was pregnant before she was divorced. Only men can initiate divorce proceedings, and fathers are virtually always awarded custody of any children who have reached puberty.
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From:
http://www.corpun.com/irj00107.htm
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Briton lashed for going to 'depraved' party
ABOUT 50 young Iranians, including one with British nationality, received between 30 and 99 lashes each for attending a "depraved" party, a local newspaper said yesterday.
Many of the 18 to 25-year-old men and women were said to have been "dancing half-naked" at the party in a north Teheran suburb at the weekend.
The Foreign Office was unable to confirm or deny the report that one of those punished has a British father.
Mingling with the opposite sex, dancing with non-family members and not wearing Islamic dress in public are illegal in Iran and are usually punishable by fines or flogging.
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Iran flogs 20 in public for selling 'obscene' CDs
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Twenty Iranians were flogged in a square in the capital Tehran yesterday for selling "obscene" compact discs and videotapes, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The dealers had been convicted of selling the illegal material, usually pirated Western films and music videos by U.S.-based Iranian artists. The agency did not say how many lashes the men received.
Western-style tapes and CDs are illegal under Iran's strict censorship rules which ban images of women without an Islamic dress covering most of their body. But the material is widely available in the Islamic republic anyway.
IRNA said other dealers continued to sell similar material not far from the square as the flogging was being carried out. Plainclothes police barred Iranian press photographers from taking pictures of the public flogging, it added.
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Iranians flogged for drinking, sex offences
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Twelve men have been flogged in public in Iran's capital for a range of offences including drunkenness, selling "sinful" CDs and harassing women, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami said the "thugs" were whipped in southeastern Tehran on Saturday, each receiving 75-80 lashes for their offences, which also included arranging illicit sexual liaisons. The whippings took place in three large squares in the city.
On Thursday, 14 male youths were flogged in northern Tehran for harassing women and public drunkenness, a punishable offence in Iran, which implements strict Islamic Sharia law. Witnesses said the youths beaten on Thursday were aged between 18-25 and received 20-70 lashes, with their hands roped to a police car. Hardliners who dominate the judiciary have recently stepped up their campaign against liberal influences which they blame on reforms carried out by newly re-elected President Mohammed Khatami.
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Apart from public floggings, the stoning of women for adultery and public hangings for various crimes have been on the increase since Mr Khatami's second landslide election victory last month.
Public floggings have rarely been carried out in Iran in recent years, but in the past few weeks alone, at least 50 young men have been whipped in three separate incidents.
In the latest case, the 25 men beaten in Tehran on Friday each received between 70 and 80 lashes.
Last bastion
The Iranian judiciary is seen as a bastion of hardline conservatives, and it appears that Mr Khatami and his reformist allies are powerless to stop its controversial decisions.
It appears that the judiciary is resorting to such severe punishments in an attempt to undermine President Khatami's popularity among the young.
President Khatami has promised respect for human rights and the rule of law.
But hardliners in the Iranian leadership blame Mr Khatami's reforms for what they see as the increased flouting of religious rules.
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Iranian men flogged for drinking, harassing women
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Twenty-two men have been flogged in public in Iran's capital for offences that included drinking alcohol and harassing women, the official news agency IRNA reported yesterday. IRNA said 14 men aged 20-35 were whipped in a busy northern Tehran street on Tuesday evening, each receiving 70-80 lashes.
Another eight young people, aged 20-25, were publicly flogged in a northern Tehran square the same day for drinking alcohol and creating a public disturbance, the agency said, adding they also received 70-80 lashes each.
The agency said a large crowd gathered to watch the beatings, and some women wept as the men were flogged. Photographers were prevented from taking pictures of the lashings.
Only members of Iran's non-Muslim community are allowed to make or consume alcoholic beverages, whose production, sale and drinking is otherwise strictly forbidden. Five public floggings have been reported in Tehran in recent weeks.
Hardliners, who dominate the judiciary, have recently been stepping up their campaign against liberal influences which they blame on reforms carried out by newly re-elected President Mohammad Khatami.
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New floggings in Iran
By Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba
A hardline court in Iran has ordered another group of young men to be flogged in public despite opposition from the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami.
Five men were whipped in the western town of Boroujerd on Sunday on charges of public disorder and breaking shop windows.
In the past few weeks about 100 young men have been flogged in several incidents in Iranian towns.
The Iranian interior minister and pro-reform political organisations have condemned these severe punishments.
Public spectacle
The five young men were whipped in a busy square in Boroujerd.
They each received more than 70 lashes for public disorder offences.
The head of the judiciary in the town said unemployment was the main cause of such behaviour.
He justified the use of public flogging against young offenders by saying it would make an example of them for others.
Dozens of young men have also been whipped in public in the capital, Tehran, mainly for drinking alcohol and chasing women.
This kind of punishment has rarely been carried out in Iran in recent years.
Youth concern
But its increasing use over the past weeks has created anxiety among the Iranian youth who have been enjoying more social freedoms since President Khatami came to power four years ago.
Reformists fear that the hardline conservative judiciary is ordering such punishments in an attempt to undermine Mr Khatami's credibility.
The Iranian pro-reform interior minister has recently said the whipping of people in public places had serious political and social consequences.
Other reformists have said such punishments hurt the country's image.
But hardliners blame Mr Khatami's tolerant policies for encouraging young people to defy religious rules.
Reports from Iran say most people disapprove public floggings.
Other severe punishments such as stoning of women for adultery and public hangings for various crimes have also been on the increase in recent months.
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Like I said, Mr. Roche, please take these 2 posts showing "Muslim" inhumanity as 2 separate issues. My curiosity is to see what it is that you are actually defending here.
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 4/24, 10:54pm)
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