Islamic law mandates a lesser penalty for the killing of a non-Muslim than for the killing of a Muslim. It looks as if this notion has a lingering influence in modern, moderate Indonesia, where a court just handed out strongly for penalty and repentance, giving the Islamic jihadists who beheaded three Christian schoolgirls appallingly light sentences.
“Indonesian militants get jail terms for beheadings,” from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:
JAKARTA, March 21 (Reuters) – An Indonesian court jailed three Muslim militants on Wednesday for the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls from religiously divided Central Sulawesi province.
Judges found the main defendant, Hasanuddin, guilty of masterminding the beheadings of the Christian girls in 2005 in Central Sulawesi’s Poso region and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
A separate bench sentenced Hasanuddin’s accomplices, Lilik Purnomo and Irwanto Irano, to 14 years in prison.
Chief judge Binsar Siregar said Hasanuddin asked his accomplices to put the severed heads in plastic bags and place them outside Christian houses.
Hasanuddin scrawled a warning on a piece of paper saying: “A life for a life. A head for a head”, and put it in one of the bags, the judge said.
The attacks were aimed at avenging the killings of Muslims during the 1998-2001 inter-religious violence in Poso.