This is odd. After all, the renowned scholar of Sharia Reza Aslan has said: “There’s really no such thing as just Sharia, it’s not one monolithic Continuum – Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it’s understood in many different ways…”
1,500 years! That would take us back to the year 514 — so apparently Aslan thinks that Sharia predates Islam, which according to the canonical view came into being nearly 100 years after that, in 610, when Muhammad supposedly received his first revelation from the angel Gabriel.
Anyway, I am confident that Aslan is jetting to Riyadh right now in order to explain to Mohammed Al Eissa that he is misunderstanding Sharia, and that it is actually amorphous beyond categorization, and need not involve stonings, amputations and beheadings at all.
“Saudi minister says beheading, lashings ‘cannot be changed,'” by Courtney Trenwith, Arabian Business, June 11, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
Saudi Arabia’s Justice Minister has defended tough Sharia punishments such as beheading, cutting off hands and lashing, claiming they “cannot be changed” because they are enshrined in Islamic law.
“These punishments are based on divine religious texts and we cannot change them,” Mohammed Al Eissa reportedly said during a recent speech in Washington.
The minister said Islamic law had helped to reduce crime in the conservative kingdom.
Capital punishment was carried out in many other countries, including the US, and was not isolated to Islamic states, he said.
He said lashings were only given to those convicted of serious crimes related to “honour”, while Sharia – or Islamic – law did not approve of cutting off the hands of suspected thieves.
“Islam sympathises with the victim, not the criminal,” Al Eissa said.
“Islam is a religion of wisdom that calls for dialogue with other religious faiths and peaceful coexistence with other communities.
“If it was not a good religion, it would not have lasted for more than 1400 years and won millions of followers around the world.”
Speaking to American lawyers, legal consultants and academics, Al Eissa criticised international human rights groups that call for changes to the kingdom’s judiciary, claiming they made “big mistakes” because they misunderstood the country and Islam.
“Any attack on the judiciary will be considered an attack on the kingdom’s sovereignty,” he said.
International organisations have deplored Saudi Arabia’s high number of capital punishment sentences.
Nearly 80 people were executed in the kingdom during 2012, the fourth highest number in the world, according to Amnesty International. That was nearly half the 143 executions in 2007.
During the same year, the US executed 39 people, placing it fifth on the Amnesty International ranking.
Al Eissa said his country’s criminal justice system had improved in recent years.
“At Saudi courts, criminal proceedings are undertaken publicly to ensure transparency and fair justice,” he said.
Reality Check says
“If it was not a good religion, it would not have lasted for more than 1400 years and won millions of followers around the world.”
The only reason this turd of a religion has lasted for more than 1,400 years is that it threatens to kill anybody who makes up his mind about leaving it.
And those followers were not won through the peaceful means of persuasion but through the threat of the sword.
London Jim says
That’s no lie, RC.
London Jim says
That’s no lie, RC.
logdon says
No less than the Sunni grand master, Yusuf al-Qaradawi on how Islam has survived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMu8ihDlVA
Or…
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3572/islam-apostasy-death
Jay Boo says
Why Islam?
Is Islam a “Monolithic Continuum” or a collection of sayings scavenged and stolen from Muhammad’s victims. Even Reza Aslan can’t defend this.
Let’s begin with Abraham.
Who is the historical Abraham? Does anybody really know?
Can anyone easily disprove Islam’s (or any other religion) supposed connection to Abraham?
How convenient this is for Islam, except that Muhammad did overlook at least one detail.
When he ordered the massacre of Jews at Medina the supposed prophet of Islam turned then his to Jerusalem to pray in the direction of an ‘idol’ rock in Mecca therefore, Muhammad turned his back to the religion of Abraham and the god of Abraham which invalidates the claim that Islam is a religion of Abraham.
The claim that Muhammad was later permitted to ascend to heaven from Jerusalem after committing such a gross infidelity as turning his back to Jerusalem is outrageously preposterous.
Jay Boo says
When he ordered the massacre of Jews at Medina the supposed prophet of Islam (then turned his back) to Jerusalem to pray in the direction of an ‘idol’ rock in Mecca
john spielman says
the old mantra that “Islam is an Abrahamic religion” is a lie! There is NO history of Arabs ( descendants of Ishmael EVER having a monotheistic religion like Judaism( or its fulfilment- Christianity) until Muhammed spoke to Satan masquerading as God’s archangel Gabriel. In fact just the opposite is true! Even Muhammed affirmed the poltheistic nature of religion in the 7th century Arabia(except for the Jewish tibes that Muhammed eventually slaughtered) when he cleansed the Kaaba of idols.
J says
Amen Amen!
john spielman says
yes AND Satan/Allah will not allow his word (sharia law) to be changed without a fight!
EYESOPEN says
Hear, hear, RC! Absolutely correct. The other thing is that those infidels who were not immediately slaughtered had their lives made so miserable by the mohammedan savages, that many figured that it was better to convert and live, than remain steadfast and die.
One other thing about what was in the article. Here is a quote from this savage who claims the absolutely ridiculous title of “Justice Minister”:
“Islam sympathises with the victim, not the criminal,” Al Eissa said.
I say tell that to muslim women and girls who have punished by izlam’s system of [in]justice because they had been been raped by mohammedan thugs whose only working “head” seems to reside below their knees.
joyfulpig says
Islam is like mafia: Easy to get in, almost impossible to get out.
Reality Check says
Well said!
John O'Neill says
Islam is pro-choice. It offers all a choice of conversion, subjugation or death.
BC says
Can it be made any clearer that Islam is completely incompatible with Western values and Western civilisation. I like the way he obfuscates by saying that Western and other countries have death penalties. Yes they do but only for the most heinous of crimes like murder. They do not execute people for blasphemy or falling in love witha non approved person, or having sex outside marriage etc. They do not punish women for ahving been raped. Even then they choose the least cruel method of execution not the most brutal and prolonged like stoning. They do not amputate limbs for theft and so on.
Islam treats people in the most barbaric and cruel ways they can think of.
It is pure nonsense to say it cannot be changed. They were written by man not by some non existant super being, which only ‘talks’ to Muslims
el-cid says
And, the biggest difference between Saudi legal system and ours is exactly what the man said:
The Saudi system CANNOT be rewritten or abridged;
Whereas,
Our system is in continuous evolution based on experience and evolving sensibilities involving laws written by the elected representatives of the people, justice meted out by juries composed of average citizens, and the interpretations by various levels of learned Judges whose positions are based on merit.
boakai ngombu says
“These punishments are based on divine religious texts and we cannot change them,” Mohammed Al Eissa reportedly said during a recent speech in Washington.
ah, the Allah god of Islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) bears the blame for the lack of righteousness in the kingdom. it is not a JUST god and is very vengeful. it hardly cares for the innocent and helpless, which it subjugates through it’s enslavement tool – the wonderful SHARIA -which sucks life and thought and conscience out of the adherent … a poor substitute for what Moses received from the LORD.
incompatible with everyone, except those who are enslaved, blinded to more helpful alternatives, who obey in fear. (SHARIA being unable to instill LOVE for God, as the first command requires, so it instills IDOLATRY, the guilt for which cannot be removed by the deceiver, as the ideal).
john spielman says
AMEN, Brother to what you’ve written!
duh_swami says
He is right about sharia…The rest is just the usual taqiyya loaded propaganda.
el-cid says
Mohammed Al Eissa’s logic is unassailable. State Terror is the tool of choice for totalitarian regimes to keep absolute control over the citizens. Islam has the added impact of making these acts of terror against civilians ordained by God himself! The system demands complete surrender of the average person who is supposed to feel powerless and afraid of the state/”church”. In return, there is very low crime. For this the population is grateful (Stockholm syndrome?)
Hitler, Mao and Stalin, for example, each had a certain “man-made” ideology to export that some idiots in the west adopted here and there. How much more dangerous is an ideology cloaked in the language “If it was not a good religion, it would not have lasted for more than 1400 years and won millions of followers around the world”. And, that is supposed to be based on divine revelation! And, is backed by billions of Petro dollars.
We would be best to prepare ourselves with good answers to the challenges he presents in his speech. They are not stupid. Indeed, his ideology will win many converts–the desire of man to be enslaved should not be underestimated.
mariam rove says
I kid you not. I thought this article was a joke at first!!! Look how closely this guy resembles Obama!!! Or is it just me? M
Salah says
“These punishments are based on divine religious texts..”
Divine? can they prove it? of course they can, they’ve got “Khadija’s Thighs”!!!
“The Test of Khadija is the Proof of Revelation”
Biography of the Prophet by Ibn Hisham p. 93-94
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/06/khadijas-thighs.html
john spielman says
the punishments are based on Satan’s interpretation of the Mosaic laws and are NOT ORDAINED BY GOD!
gravenimage says
Saudi Justice Minister defends tough Sharia punishments, says they can’t be changed
This is odd. After all, the renowned scholar of Sharia Reza Aslan has said: “There’s really no such thing as just Sharia, it’s not one monolithic Continuum – Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years…
………………………………………..
And it’s not just Reza Aslan who regularly makes such claims (except, perhaps, for getting Islamic history wrong by over 100 years—it is myriad Taqiyya artists, hoping to whitewash Islam for the hopeful Kuffar.
Just yesterday, while researching the board of directors for the Olive Tree School in Luton, England—which had materials teaching children about lashings and stonings—I found that one of them had a book where he described Shari’ah law in just such allegedly malleable terms—never mind that the very presence of such material rather belied his implication that Shari’ah could be civilized in any way.
But Saudi Arabia practices the real deal—with flogging and beheadings in chop-chop square.
More:
Saudi Arabia’s Justice Minister has defended tough Sharia punishments such as beheading, cutting off hands and lashing, claiming they “cannot be changed” because they are enshrined in Islamic law.
“These punishments are based on divine religious texts and we cannot change them,” Mohammed Al Eissa reportedly said during a recent speech in Washington.
……………………………………….
Yup…
More:
“At Saudi courts, criminal proceedings are undertaken publicly to ensure transparency and fair justice,” he said.
……………………………………….
Does that include prosecution *for sorcery*? Good to know the proceedings are transparent…sarc/off
More:
“If it was not a good religion, it would not have lasted for more than 1400 years and won millions of followers around the world.”
………………………………………..
Izzat so? The Maya civilization lasted for over 1400 years, and they practiced bloody *human sacrifice*…
And actually, Islam itself is little different. They don’t refer to it as human sacrifice, but I imagine that makes little difference to the victims. In any case, they body count is shockingly high…
More:
“Islam is a religion of wisdom that calls for dialogue with other religious faiths and peaceful coexistence with other communities.
………………………………………..
Sure—what is more indicative of coexisting with other religious faiths than allowing no religion but Islam to be practiced in Saudi Arabia? What is more indicative of “peace” than amputations and beheadings?
This just shows that even the primitive and sanguinary Saudis are adept at trotting out empty, pro-forma blather about “coexistence”—and that very few Infidels will call them on it…
gerard says
“Islam is a religion of wisdom that calls for dialogue with other religious faiths and peaceful coexistence with other communities.”
Mohammed Al Eissa
“Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”
Groucho Marx
ACADP - Australia says
The truth is that all major religions in the world preach compassion, forgiveness and mercy over vengeance. The brutal human punishments are inconsistent with these religious teachings. Proponents of capital punishment often and unfairly use religion to justify state-sanctioned killing, torture and violence.
gravenimage says
I’m sorry, ACADP—there is *nothing* inconsistent in Islam with these brutal punishments. What Saudi Arabia practices is orthodox Shari’ah law.
If you read the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sira, you will see that the baleful “Prophet” Muhammed and his companions practiced amputation, stoning, crucifixion, and beheadings.
Every Muslim country that islamizes imposes Shari’ah law, and these vicious punishments. And this includes places as diverse as Iran, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Aceh in Indonesia, Somalia, and Brunei—the only thing these far-flung places have in common is Islam.
citycat says
Islam is a prison.