Christian woman to be stoned to death

UPI ^ | Feb 1, 2002 | UWE SIEMON-NETTO

[BP2]

Christian woman to be stoned to death

By UWE SIEMON-NETTO, UPI Religion Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch appealed to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir on Friday to intervene on behalf of a young pregnant Christian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The New York-based organization asked Bashir "to prevent this cruel and inhuman punishment from being exercised against her." The accused is Abok Alfa Akok, an 18-year-old Dinka tribeswoman from southern Darfur in western Sudan.

According to HRW spokeswoman Jemera Rone, information available about this case is spotty. However, in its letter to Bashir, HRW stressed, "The man with whom (the woman) allegedly had sex was not tried, because the court lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him."

The trial was conducted in a criminal court -- not a religious tribunal -- in the city of Nyala. As HRW pointed out to Sudan's soldier-president, Abok Alfa Akok "did not have legal representation during the trial."

"The trial was conducted in Arabic, which is not her language, and there was no translation of the proceedings in order to ensure that she understood fully the case against her."

Faith O'Donnell, coordinator of the Church Alliance for a New Sudan, reminded the Khartoum government that it had promised to change its ways after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"We expect them to rethink their position in this present case," she told United Press International on Friday. She added, "We understand that the sexual act this young woman is charged with was coerced." The case is now on appeal.

According to HRW, "The Sudanese government has in the past claimed that its Shari'a (religious) laws would not be applied to Christians, but this case shows otherwise. The sentence was based on Article 146 of Sudan's 1991 Penal Code, which is based upon the government's interpretation of the Shari'a."

This article, HRW went on, stipulates that adultery should be punished with:

"1. Execution by stoning when the offender is married; one hundred lashes (when) the offender is not married."

While reiterating its opposition to capital punishment, Human Rights Watch stated in its letter to Bashir, "Stoning to death is additionally painful and brutal."

Under the Shari'a, the stones thrown during the execution should not be so large that the offender dies after a few strikes. Neither should they be as small as pebbles and fail to cause serious injury.

Executions by stoning are not mentioned in the Koran, Islamic legal scholar Tarik Abdul-Rahman wrote, but they are part of the Hadith (collections of sayings and acts of Mohammed). As Abul-Rahman has pointed out, this punishment goes back to the Pentateuch, or first five books of Hebrew Scripture.

In radical Muslim countries, stoning has experienced a major comeback in recent years. "Since the inception of the mullahs' rule, hundreds of women of various ages have been and continued to be stoned to death throughout Iran," the National Council of Resistance of Iran claimed.

One recent such execution was described in vivid detail by local newspapers: Maryam Ayoubi, a 38-year-old mother of three, was convicted of adultery and being her lover's accomplice in her husband's death.

The execution occurred on July 11, 2001. According to Iranian press reports, she was first flogged 50 times, then given a ritual bath, wrapped in a white shroud and carried to the execution site on a stretcher.

There she was buried up to her armpits and subsequently bombarded with rocks. Her lover was hanged.

Human rights activists charge that male adulterers often fare much better than women in strict Islamic countries. In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman sentenced to be stoned to death is awaiting the outcome of her appeal in her blind father's small hut.

The only evidence against Safiyatu Huseini had been her pregnancy. The father of her child was an older man, already twice married. She claims he had raped her. But the same court that sentenced her acquitted him after two months on death row.

In some countries, the stoning of women is a welcome popular entertainment. When a lesbian couple was sentenced to die last year in Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland, several hundred people "cheered as the judge handed down death sentences on the two women," according to a BBC report.

Islamic legal scholar Abdul-Rahman confirmed that the Prophet Mohammed personally prescribed death by stoning for married men and women indulging in illicit sex.

Abdul-Rahman added, however, that the death sentence could only be passed if some strict criteria had been fulfilled: "The act must have been publically witnessed by four pious people ... The person must be sane and not under the influence of alcohol."

Moreover, the scholar stressed, "Nobody is allowed to spy or invade your private space. The prophet has said that if anyone peeps into your house, you are allowed to poke out his eye."

[mustapha mond]

I was not playing a word game. I simply used the exercise to prove to double D that even though he claimed to be an athiest he failed to come to the proper athiest conclusion that (based on present proven scientific knowledge based on the standards of anthropology)humans are the highest form of life in the universe. This is a form of egoism. Double D instead used faith to help him believe unproven scietific theory about life on other planets. This is a form of idolitry.

I am a Christian who wanted to show an athiest that everyone has a subject of worship. No one is a passive observer. We all make a choice. I think I know what Neo felt like when he first defeated an agent.-MM

[Pistias]

OK, then both the original and your reply need to specify the criteria of judgement before an adequate statement of the possibility of the existence of beings closer to that criteria than humans can be attempted (that was a mouthful!).

And I agree as to the difficulty of understanding "higher"--it comes down to the fundamental question of human life: "what is the best life to live, and/or what is the best life I can live?"

We may be faced with inferring the best life from the goods we experience (but then we assume what we think are goods, are; and that our reason is capable of drawing out the curve in light of the rest of the variables in the equation, so to speak) and/or taking our bearings from an authoritative tradition.

[mustapha mond]

I find your behavior to be rather odd. You attack my answer as one that defends Islam when I clearly attack it. Yes the Muslims behave as savages but that behaivor comes in part from the words of Mohammed. It is important to Know and understand the Islamic enemy that threatens us all. If you wish to simply rant and rave incoherently that is your affair.-MM

[mustapha mond]

Well said. -MM

[pariah]

Gee, thanks.

[Dimensio]

I was not playing a word game. I simply used the exercise to prove to double D that even though he claimed to be an athiest he failed to come to the proper athiest conclusion that (based on present proven scientific knowledge based on the standards of anthropology)humans are the highest form of life in the universe.

Except that I don't think that it's the "proper atheist conclusion". My "atheist conclusion" is that there is insufficient scientific knowledge to determine whether humans are the highest form of life in the universe. I do not assert that there exist life on planets other than Earth (much less "higher" life forms) but I also have no evidence to assert that such life does not exist -- does my refusal to make a conclusive statement due to insufficient evidence make me an "egoist"?

[anniegetyourgun]

Seems there are those here who worship science and not the One who created it. They also seem to be willing to put their "faith" in myth and speculation. Those who have no truth will fall for anything and "doom" is their chosen result.

[Exigence]

Thanks for the ammo. It will come in handy in future "discussions" with those that want to pin all of the evils of the world on Christianity.

[jlogajan]

those that want to pin all of the evils of the world on Christianity.

As an athiest and Libertarian, I can assure you that there is plenty of blame to go around. No Christianity doesn't have such a good record. But they've been largely out of political power for a couple centuries now, so whether they've cleaned up their act or had it cleaned up for them, it is true that they haven't had buckets of blood on their hands lately.

Now it is true that there have been some athiest authoritarians like Stalin. But that's why you need a good political philosophy like Libertarianism. Atheism itself is just an acknowledgement that there is no creator entity. It isn't a life philosophy. Stalin had communism as his life philosophy. Well, we all know where that leads -- same place as fanatic religionism -- to the slaughter.

There is room in Libertarianism for both theists and atheists -- it is a political philosophy of maximum freedom and tolerance. That doesn't sit well with communists or fanatical religionists. But it works just fine for the rest of us.

[Exigence]

There is room in Libertarianism for both theists and atheists -- it is a political philosophy of maximum freedom and tolerance.

Curious. Why have some of the most vicious posts I've received come from "tolerant" Libertarians? All I have to do is turn on "Politically Incorrect" to hear more?

I agree that there are some good philosophies in Libertarianism. But, there are some smelly ones too.

As to tolerance, your own post in favor of Libertarianism smacks of intolerance to Christians. The "buckets of blood" comment was hardly neutral.

[keats5]

These people need Jesus.

[Doctor Doom]

You're a coward who likes to speak about people behind their back.

Yellow punk.

[strela]

"The man with whom (the woman) allegedly had sex was not tried, because the court lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him."

I did not post these words, nor had I expressed an opinion in or posted to this thread until now. Why did you flag me to this post?

[mustapha mond]

I had said " based on present proven scientific knowledge". pay attention.-MM

[wardaddy]

Well DD...it is and it isn't. Marxism is Messianic Humanism hell bent on creating a new uber -being devoted to the collective will and benefit and therefore he is bound to eschew any religion which supercedes the importance of the "new man". He has to be by default an atheist and hence Marxism is by default bound to spread atheism.

One cannot argue that Christianity warts and all has been used as an excuse to kill near the numbers of folks historically that the quest for the "new man" has. Even more startling is that Marxist murdering is only a 100 year old trend where as folks have warred under the guise of Christianity for 2 millenia.

[Mojo-jo-jo]

Islam is a peaceful religion.

All cultures are equally good.

Truth is relative. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Profiling is wrong.

Can't we all JUST get along?

This offends me...can anybody give me Al or Jesse's number?

SARCASM OFF!!!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

There's never been any doubt that they are barbarians. It's just time to shelve the PC pieties and have a close look at the strange non-Christian world of Islam.

[Doctor Doom]

But let's not forget the collectivists of the 20th Century had the dubious benefit of "industrial" killing methods and higher populations of victims not available to those in the past. WWI was amongst Christendom, and managed to rack up a high body count because of the machine gun, the tank, gas, etc.

I don't blame Christianity for the religious wars and crusades and inquisitions - I blame that same collectivist, individual-denying mentality putting group above individual that the Marxists and socialists embraced.

[wardaddy]

Agreed in part except that WWI was not exactly over Christendom conflicts....nor am I aware that the Ottoman Turks (Muslims of course) were the in the fight because of Christian frictions as much as just old fashioned land based hegemony.

[Doctor Doom]

I'm sorry - I meant that it was fought mostly among "Christian" nations, not over religious issues.