Talk about the craziest laws of all…

It is difficult for me to even imagine beating my spouse to keep them in check, murdering my daughter for being a teenager or selling another to the highest bidder… and being within the law and serving God by doing so.
The sickest laws of all are the ones imposed by a groups spiritual beliefs, onto all. Actually, If religion was never invented, half the misery and suffering on the planet would most likely have never occurred. I would bet that more people have been killed over organized religion in our written history than all our non-religious wars put together… the non-religious ones being very few, if any. Even modern wars like WWII and IRAQ were fueled by religious beliefs.

This in fact may be the best example of why criminal and civil law should not be combined with ones personal spirituality.

Islamic laws have long been a source of controversy.

Last week I read a story about a young teen girl murdered by her family. Her crime? liking another teen boy and rejecting the 55 year old man her family wished her to marry. The choice was of her heart, the punishment, death, was imposed by her family and accepted by all. No one will stand trial or be jailed for murder.

Rape in many Islamic countries also has harsh punishments, not for the rapist, but for the victim. Many times the women are jailed for being raped. The laws are strict and normally protect the men and punish the victimized women.

For which crimes does the Quran mandate specific punishments?

Five crimes known as the Hadd offenses, committing them is considered an affront to God. They are:

• Wine-drinking and, by extension, alcohol-drinking, punishable by flogging
• Unlawful sexual intercourse, punishable by flogging for unmarried offenders and stoning to death for adulterers
• False accusation of unlawful sexual intercourse, punishable by flogging
• Theft, punishable by the amputation of a hand
• Highway robbery, punishable by amputation, or execution if the crime results in a homicide.

Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.

In 2001, Iranian officials sentenced three men to flogging not only for illicit sex , but also for drinking alcohol.

In 2005, in Nigeria a sharia court ordered that a drinker should be caned eighty strokes.

In 2005, in the Indonesian province of Aceh, fifteen men were caned in front of a mosque for gambling. This was done publicly so all could see and fear. Eleven others are scheduled to undergo the same penalty for gambling.

After going through two previous confusing stages before coming down hard on drinkers and gamblers, the Quran finally prohibits alcohol and gambling in Sura 5:90—91; they do not prescribe the punishment of flogging, but the hadith does. A poor ‘criminal’ was brought to Muhammad who became angry:

The Prophet felt it hard (was angry) and ordered all those who were present in the house, to beat him [the drinker dragged into Muhammad’s presence]. (Bukhari, Punishments, nos. 6774—6775)

Islam commands that a male and female thief must have a hand cut off.

Never lose sight of the fact that this punishment is prescribed in the Quran, the eternal word of Allah. It does not exist only in the fevered imagination of a violent and sick radical regime like the Taliban, which once ruled in Afghanistan.

Islam allows husbands to hit their wives even if the husbands merely fear highhandedness in their wives.

In 2004, Rania al—Baz, who had been beaten by her husband, made her ordeal public to raise awareness about violence suffered by women in the home in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi television aired a talk show that discussed this issue. Scrolling three—fourths of the way down the link, the readers can see an Islamic scholar holding up sample rods that husbands may use to hit their wives.

The Quran says:

4:34 . . . If you fear highhandedness from your wives, remind them [of the teaching of God], then ignore them when you go to bed, then hit them. If they obey you, you have no right to act against them. God is most high and great. (MAS Abdel Haleem, the Qur’an, Oxford UP, 2004)

This hadith shows Muhammad hitting his girl—bride, Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr: Muslim no. 2127:

‘He [Muhammad] struck me [Aisha] on the chest which caused me pain.’

It is claimed that Islamic societies have fewer incidents of fornication and adultery because of strict laws or customs, for example, women wearing veils over their faces or keeping separate from men in social settings.

Islam commands that highway robbers should be crucified or mutilated.

In September 2003, Scotsman Sandy Mitchell faced crucifixion in Saudi Arabia. He was beaten and tortured until he confessed to a crime he did not commit: a bomb plot masterminded by the British embassy. The article says of this punishment that it is the worst kind of execution and that two have been carried out in the last twenty years.

These are also the same sets of laws that beat teens to death for holding hands and lynched gay men for being gay. Many of these executions for moral law breaking are held in public to teach society the nature of Gods punishments… too bad God has very little to do with any of this and its all done for men to play God and show off their power and commitment to terror to keep that power.