Iran: Stoning as a punishment

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Diba
by Diba
08-Jul-2011
 

By:Bahman Aghai Diba

The human rights organizations and activists have called upon the officials of the Islamic Republic in Iran many times to refrain from imposing the barbaric punishment of stoning, which has roots in the rituals of the ancient Bedouin Arabs (1). According to this practice, the convicted women are buried up to their chests in a pit, and men are buried up to their waists, while their hands are tied behind their backs. And they are struck with rocks until they die. It is a slow and painful death, because as the Islamic code prescribes the stones should not be so big to kill the concerned person with one or two stones. (2)

At the same time, the Iranian regime has been criticizing the judicial systems exiting in the world and it keeps propagating that Islam has a solution for every problem and if the instructions of the Islamic jurisprudence are observed, those problems will go away. For instance, the solution of Islam for removing adultery from the society and saving the family is the stoning of the adulterers. As such, the regime of Iran is not only proud to be in a position to impose such practices, but it seeks opportunities to teach the others about the benefits of these practices.

There are two major kinds of punishments in the Islamic regime of Iran. According to the Islamic Code of Punishment in Iran, these are: Hodood and Tazirat. The first category is those that Islam has set a certain punishment for them and the legislators in the Islamic countries can not change them. Hoddod are set by God and they have to be observed under any conditions. For example, the Haad (single form of Hodood) for drinking alcoholic beverages is lashing. If this is repeated three rimes, the convicted person must be executed. (3) The Haad for Zena (Adultery) is stoning.

Tazirat are the punishments set by the Islamic legislators and as such they are subject to change according to the expediency. Therefore, asking the Iranian Islamic judiciary to change the law of “Hodood” and delete the stoning as a form of punishment for adultery is like asking a shopkeeper to close his shop and go home.

The Islamic regime is “living” in Iran because of imposing such laws and regulations that the officials of the Islamic regime believe will “save” the human beings from falling in the same miserable situation that the Western cultures have fallen. The mission to impose such laws (as cutting the hands of the thieves), is the resone d’eter of the regime. Until the day that the Islamic regime collapses in Iran, these practices will continue, no matter what the officials of the regime claim (4).

The Islamic law has one important “loophole” for the adultery that should be used by the people who try to abolish the practice of stoning for adultery. This loophole is the way to prove the occurrence of adultery. According to the Islamic jurisprudence (5) about adultery, in order to make sure that adultery has happened “Four religiously qualified men should testify that they have seen directly and without any doubt, the actual practice of the intercourse between the concerned persons.” This is really hard that “four men” (not less than four men and not women at all. ), that are “religiously qualified” (this means that if they are followers of any religion except than Islam, or they are not known as being persons that strictly observe their religious-Islamic duties, such as praying five times a day and observing down to dusk fasting one-month a year, they are not qualified) testify that they have “seen with their own eyes (any kind of doubt, including repeating what one has heard from others, makes the testimony invalid)the act of adultery. If the number of the “direct witnesses” do not reach four men, then the remaining three persons will be subject to sever punishments. What the Islamic courts do in Iran in order to avoid such difficult criteria is getting “illegal” confession from the concerned persons. It seems that the best way to stop such barbaric practices of nomadic Arabs as stoning is concentrating first on the “conditions to prove adultery” and second the “illegality of getting confession under pressure and torture” in Iran.

(1) //www.speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=6333

(2) Ibid.

(3) He can be hanged, thrown down the mountain in a sack, or stoned to death.

(4) In the past, the officials of the Islamic regime of Iran have claimed to set a kind of moratorium on the practice of stoning and they have not actually done so. //www.speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=6333

(5) As practiced by the regime of Iran. There are differences in the Islamic sources about these practices. The Iranian version of Islam is called Shiite Ithna-ashariah (Twelve-Imam Shiites). It is not even clear how much the Islamic Code of Punishment in Iran is compatible with the Islamic jurisprudence in general or Shiite jurisprudence in particular.

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divaneh

Stoning was the rule

by divaneh on

Stoning of adulterer was ordered by Mohammad according to hadith. Islamic feghh is not only about Quran but also the deeds of the prophet. For some of the recorded hadith see the link below.

//www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/001-adultery_punishment.htm

Although stoning was not practiced by Christians, they did not have the same presence as the Jewish people in the Hijaz. Mohammad for sure was influenced by Judaism and hardly talks about Jesus in Quran whilst it keeps going on about Ibrahim, Yaghoub, Yosef, Noah, Lout, Davod, Suleiman, etc.

A wise person look at religions as any other aspect of history and judges the prophets as humans with certain objectives whilst a simple person believes in god, supernatural and guidance coming from the sky.

I wish these personal beliefs had not turned into tools of oppression, but now that they are, their futility has to be shown. 


Soosan Khanoom

............

by Soosan Khanoom on

Before Islam there was another religion .... Christianity!!  another religion which came.  Jesus made some corrections of old Jewish laws,some of which were nothing but  pure fabrications of the Jewish Clergies. Jesus  banned stoning ..... and after chrisitanity came another religion ... Islam ..... 

Even if it is proven as you insist by using the word four witness .... Stoning as the punishment with all its bull shit above and under ground thingy does not exits in Quran and was not practised by Mohammd the same way that it was not practised by Jesus and the same way that it had never been practised by Moses ........  Why is it too hard for you to get it?  Yes Abrahamic Religions are each other's carbon copy but of the original laws not the man made ones ...... and the clergies in all those are also carbon copy of each others devilish mentality ..... that is why we have been witnessing the occurrence of dark ages in all these Abrahamic religions ...

What was written and what is now practicing after centuries of deviation from the original teachings in all the Abrahamic religions are two different things that only a wise can see and a fool can not .........


divaneh

Thanks Diba for a good article

by divaneh on

A very informative article about the barbaric Islamic rituals that are practiced in Iran. I am however not sure that the poor Bedouins are to blame and as far as I know this barbarity that is defended by some people here has entered Islam from Judaism. In fact Islam is nothing more than a copy of the Judaism and Quran does nothing but tell the same Judaic tales.

The need for four witnesses means that only the porn actors and actresses can be stoned to death. This leaves me with this question. If someone films the act and shows it to four religiously qualified men, would that be enough? I still think passing a string between the couple is a surer way to test for intercourse.


پندارنیک

::)))))

by پندارنیک on

 

 

Where is the supporting document which traces back stoning to "the ancient Bedouin Arabs"? In a link to Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty?..........then why have I been called a joker in this site....

And then:"It is not even clear how much the Islamic Code of Punishment in Iran is
compatible with the Islamic jurisprudence in general or Shiite
jurisprudence in particular."

So why didn't you make it clear?

And here: "The Islamic regime is “living” in Iran because of..."

Is the regime living as opposed to be dying ?  or is it in the CCU and on the life support...........had never heard of that expression for a regime....Oh boy...

 


Soosan Khanoom

.......

by Soosan Khanoom on

There is no such thing as stoning in Quran and it was never practiced after Islam during prophet's time....  It is an old Jewish law  which was dismissed by Jesus ..... "  Let The One Who Is Without Sin Cast The Stone

There is also no punishment for drinking alcohol in Quran ....but again who reads Quran yet alone act upon it  .....