Various media outlets are reporting the latest outrage from Sharia courts. Iranian authorities have reportedly executed Mohsen Amir-Aslani, 37, for allegedly “insulting” the prophet Jonah and accused him of committing adultery. For that exercise of free speech and freedom of religion, a Sharia court had him hanged.
Amir-Aslani was arrested nine years ago for what is described in the Guardian article as “making innovations in Islam and providing his own interpretations of the Qur’an.” He was later accused of insulting prophet Jonah and having sex outside marriage.
Leila, his wife, said that the court declared his religious views as “spreading corruption on earth” and denounced “innovations in the religion.”
The specific charge regarding Jonah is based on his simple observation that the story of Jonah, which appears in Chapter 10 of the Qur’an, is “symbolic.” The Sharia court viewed that as insulting since Muslims believe that he was swallowed by a fish and imprisoned before he “glorified Allah” and repented for his actions.
The charge of illicit sex with people in his classes was added later and one can only imagine what officials may have done to his students and associates to support such a charge.
Human rights groups have charged that Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind Amir-Aslani’s arrest. The case was given to a notorious judge, Abolghassem Salavati, who is known for denying basic rights and consistently ordering executions.
It is telling that these “judges” are so fearful of “innovation” or commentary on their religion. Such disgraceful executions only serve leave the impression of men who are insecure about the viability of their faith in the modern world or its ability to withstand commentary. The destructive legacy of these Sharia courts continues to mount as various Muslim countries disguises blind religious Orthodoxy and intolerance as forms of “law.” Salavati is not a judge in any plausible interpretation of that word. Likewise, this is no more of a “court” than was the tribunals of the Spanish inquisition. These atrocities will continue until the Muslim world embraces the concept of separation of mosque and state and rejects such crimes as apostasy.
RIP Mohsen Amir-Aslani
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.
Job, 3. 17
Source: Guardian
From “Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law (Shafi’i School):”
pg. 595 “APOSTASY FROM ISLAM (RIDDA)…. When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.”
pg. 610 “THE PENALTY FOR FORNICATION OR SODOMY…. If the offender is someone with the capacity to remain chaste, then he or she is stoned to death….”
“pg. 613 “THE PENALTY FOR THEFT…. A person’s right hand is amputated, whether he is a Muslim, non-Muslim subject of the Islamic state, or someone who has left Islam….”
pg. 616 “THE PENALTY FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY…. If he steals the equivalent of 1.058 grams of gold…, both his right hand and left foot are amputated…. If the highwayman robs and kills, he is killed and then left crucified for three days.”
pg. 617 “THE PENALTY FOR DRINKING…. The penalty for drinking is to be scourged forty stripes, with hands, sandals, and ends of clothes. It may be administered with a whip, but if the offender dies, an indemnity… is due… for his death.” [This penalty applies only to Muslims.]”
And if anyone is interested in how Sharia Law is implemented in everyday life, one has only to peruse the past month or two on Professor Turley’s blog to find plenty of examples.
Here are some lovely examples of actual Sharia Law. Do take note of the woman begin prepared for stoning, the flogged man, and the tiny little boy having his arm crushed under a car for theft. Don’t forget, a member of my own family personally witnessed the brutal beheading of 2 gay men under Sharia Law.
There is just no way anyone could be familiar with Sharia Law, as it is practiced, and not find it horrifying:
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pages/radicalIDEOLOGY/sharia-law.htm
And when discussing Islam with a radical, you must recall taqiyya mandates that they lie to non-believers in order to further Islam.
Believe me, the moderate Muslims I’ve known do NOT want Sharia Law here in the US. That’s why they moved her – to escape all that.
Karen, Now the end begins is a fire eating end times publication that is not accurate. Please cite accurate sources
happypappies:
Have you actually read any Sharia Law?
Karen Sharia Law is different everywhere. It is how they live. Hope you read Pos informative link by now. Islamophobia is not helpful
Sad. Examples of the terrible abuses of human rights by Sharia Law are unfortunately plentiful.
Karen, do you have any idea of what kind of abuses the United States have done in the past also? Very Very Plentiful. Not so far in the past We have no room to talk. It is sickening to hear you preach about Sharia Law. You don’t even know what that means.-
shari'ah
a law code drawn up by Muslim scholars after Muhammad's death; it provided believers with a set of practical laws to regulate their daily lives; , literally, "the way to the watering hole." came to mean the Islamic law based on the Qur'an and the sunnah. The **** is the whole body of rules guiding the life of a Muslim in law, ethics, and etiquette; sometimes called Sacred Law (or Canon Law).
And no, I am not a Muslim, I am a Christian, a practicing one.
So, The United States should have stayed out of it when the Shah of Iran was ruling happily over there as a Benevolent Despot for 250 years and not sent the CIA over in covert operations.
happypappies – you do realize the Shah did not rule for 250 years. 😉
Shahszzzz with a little interference from Russia until the Cold War Coup. – you want history???? – well at least here is some Wiki – lol In 1729, an Iranian Khorasan chieftain and military genius, Nader Shah, successfully drove out, then conquered the Pashtun invaders.
During Nader Shah’s reign, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sassanian Empire, reestablishing Persian hegemony over all of the Caucasus, other major parts of West Asia, Central Asia and parts of South Asia, and briefly possessing what was arguably the most powerful empire in the world.[24]
In 1738-39, he invaded India and sacked Delhi, bringing great loot back to Persia. Nader Shah’s assassination sparked a brief period of civil war and turmoil, after which Karim Khan came to power in 1750, bringing a period of relative peace and prosperity.[84]
Another civil war ensued after Karim Khan’s death in 1779, out of which Aga Muhammad Khan emerged victorious, founding the Qajar Dynasty in 1794. In 1795, following the disobedience of their Georgian subjects and their alliance with the Russians, the Qajars sacked and ravaged Tblisi, and drove the Russians out of the entire Caucasus, reestablishing Persian suzerainty over the region.
It indirectly sparked another series of Russo-Persian Wars led by subsequent Shahs and Tsars, after the last of which Russia would eventually prevail. Apart from Agha Mohammad Khan, Qajar rule is characterised as a century of misrule.[83]
Around 1.5 million people, or 20–25% of Persia’s population, died as a result of the Great Persian Famine of 1870–1871.[89]
Whilst resisting efforts to be colonised, Iran suffered in the 1800s as a result of Russian and British empire-building, known as ‘The Great Game’, losing much of its territory in the Russo-Persian and the Anglo-Persian Wars. A series of protests took place in response to the sale of concessions to foreigners by Nasser al-Din Shah and Mozaffar ad-Din Shah between 1872 and 1905, the last of which resulted in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and establishment of Iran’s first national parliament in 1906, which was abolished in 1908. The struggle continued until 1911, when Mohammad Ali was defeated and forced to abdicate. On the pretext of restoring order, the Russians occupied northern Iran in 1911. During World War I, the British occupied much of western Iran, not fully withdrawing until 1921.
Mohammad Mosaddegh, democracy advocate and deposed Prime Minister of Iran
In 1921, Reza Khan, Prime Minister of Iran and former general of the Persian Cossack Brigade, overthrew the Qajar Dynasty and became Shah. In 1941 he was forced to abdicate in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, after Iran came under British and Russian occupation following the Anglo-Soviet invasion that established the Persian Corridor and would last until 1946.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Imperial Family, Coronation of the Shah of Iran in 1967.
In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected prime minister. He became enormously popular in Iran after he nationalized Iran’s petroleum industry and oil reserves. He was deposed in the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had overthrown a foreign government during the Cold War
This man was executed because he lives in a society where natural rights are not recognized. He was hanged because he believed in a natural right of conscience and his government did not. Citizens in Hong Kong are testing their governments respect for natural rights as well.
“Question everything you think. Very little of it is actually true.”
Doglover,
I agree but with the emphasis that we need to be able to admit we had it wrong (humility). They key will be an ability to use reason and logic to overcome any long established bias.
This article is a great read on this:
http://thefederalist.com/2014/09/30/the-prove-it-to-me-society/
When people are immersed in a given dogma from childhood, they tend to believe what they have been told, no matter how irrational it may be. When their job, their salary, their social status depends on it, they believe it even more. Question everything you think. Very little of it is actually true.
Mr. Amir-Aslani was executed for the crime of rejecting biblical literalism.
I don’t personally agree with Iran’s system of laws, but what they do or don’t do is of less interst to me than what we do, or fail to do, in this country. Look at the people we don’t execute in this country. For example, we don’t execute most of our murderers. Then, we sit around and b!tch about the murder rate and the number of people we have in jail.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I want to post a comment as a “test” of how my ISP, my computer, and the browser (Opera) I use for blog reading, performs now…after I’ve changed several things on my end. Although I swore no-more here due to the issues I’ve had, the blog is a good read and I’d now like to see if I can connect without further issues. I have had repeated invasion by a well known Trojan/Virus and a denial of service attacked, most when I’ve been commenting here, and possibly as an attachment of some kind to an Israeli news outlet. 6 attacks total, in the past 30 days, all when I was on line with Turley’s blog or with the Israeli newspaper. Of course the Trojan can be “hitchhiker” on some part of a web page not unde the control of Turley or the Israeli Times. Of all the blogs I read regularly, Turley’s is the only one that requires I click on the tab, then click on cancel update, and request update again…just to get the page view.
Thank you for the patience and just scroll over this if it makes it. There are just to many good commenters here, on all sides of an issue, to just have a snit and walk away. I have reasons for my paranoia and it relates to whatever hits me may hit anyone I deal with subsequently, and in one instance that cannot be allowed to happen.
Aridog – I do hope things are cleared up. It took me $300, 6 hours and an in house service call to get rid of a virus I pick up from updating a free program.
What is our foundation for criticizing the rule of law in other nations? What is the foundation for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Language.aspx?LangID=eng
We have people within our own country; within this blog that deny the existence of unalienable rights. They believe ALL rights come from a democratically-elected government and are the expressed will of sovereign people.
If we as a nation cannot even agree on the first principles of our founding and the purpose for our own government then are we in any position to pass judgment on any other country?
Didn’t take long for the “We’re just as bad” folks to chime in. Matthew Thomas wins the kewpie doll @ 8:13am.
In response to Paul C writing, “- frankly there is little that can be done about cases in other counties once the deed is done. ”
Iran should NOT sit on the Human Rights Commission in the United Nations, should they?
Sandy – I do not think the USA should be a member of the UN or that the UN should be headquartered in the United States. I was thinking Somalia would be a nice place to move them.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. we routinely execute men whom we know to be mentally impaired. Fortunately we don’t let such acts of barbarism stop us from asserting our “exceptionalism”. U.S.A! U.S.A!
The Jews used to have the concept “the just man” who died in a German concentration camp.
If Muslims wish to remain under Sharia law, then they should have that right. However, those who come to the U.S. or any country that has different laws must learn to accept our laws and not infringe on our rights and liberties.
So, hanging is not against Shaira law. I know that Professor Turley takes up the cause, but frankly there is little that can be done about cases in other counties once the deed is done. Their country, their rules. We don’t allow other countries to interfere in our judicial proceedings, why should we interfere in theirs.
Obama better get going on those blaspheme laws to give these poor judges some guidance.
JT wrote a great piece in USA Today on Holder. The “sin eater” history was something I didn’t know. History is key to being progressive.
There are no moderates in Iran or anywhere else in the ME. Until we in the West are willing to understand this, we will always make the wrong choices.