Will King Abdullah heed the call of Human Rights Watch, or the call of Sharia. Hmmmm. Tough call, eh? From AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
NEW YORK – Saudi King Abdullah should move urgently to ensure that a court sentence to gouge out an Indian migrant worker’s eye is not carried out, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.
A Saudi court has ordered the removal of Indian worker Puthen Veetil Abdul Latheef Noushad’s eye as punishment for blinding a Saudi national in 2003.
“This literal eye-for-an-eye sentence is torture masquerading as justice,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “King Abdullah must prevent the imposition of corporal punishment in violation of the country”s obligations under international law.”
Noushad, 32, had been working at a petrol pump in Dammam on the Saudi east coast since 1995. He had a fight with a Saudi customer over payment in April 2003 that put him in jail.
The Saudi man later lost his eyesight, but Noushad says it was not because of the injuries he inflicted, and he only ever acted in self-defence during the altercation….
The only option for the Noushad family now is to appeal to the Saudi king for royal clemency, which is granted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Saudi Arabia acceded to the Convention against Torture in 1997. However, Noushads case is the third known instance over the past year in which a Saudi court has issued a sentence of eye-gouging, Human Rights Watch said. Saudi law allows for maiming, including the severing of limbs and severe flogging, as judicial punishments, according to HRW.
The Qur’an, Al-Maeda 45 (5:45):
“We ordained therein for them: “Life for life, eye for eye, nose or nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal.” But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (No better than) wrong-doers.”
Yes, yes, the Bible also prescribes “an eye for an eye” (Leviticus 24:20). So where are Jews (for Christians, Matthew 5:38-39 mitigates this) carrying out this sentence today? They aren’t, because they understand the command differently. All too many Muslims, however, take the Qur’an’s words fully at face value.