Is Islam a Barbaric Cult?
In response to my article Virgin Girls Raped Before Execution in Iran, reader matrix_the_beginning78692 (from Port Louis, Mauritius) vehemently disagreed with my assertion that nothing in Islam prohibits the execution of virgins regardless of age:
What I think or understand is barely important but making readers realise what's written here is purely more than questionable and crazy..."At first glance, one may think that it is the religion, Islam, that forbids the execution of virgins, but this is not so. Islam has no problem executing virgins no matter how young they are", do you really understand just what you stated here or are you just mixing words, just like that, to make an offensive sentence??? When has Islam promoted the execution of Virgins and for what motive??? For a marriage to take place, the bride has to accept without any pressure,etc...so please do not say things that are not true...
Allow me to call this reader Ahmed instead of matrix_the_beginning78692, it sounds so much better.
My dear Ahmed, I was not offering an opinion in my article, I was merely repeating a news story which reported that girls as young as 9 (and virgins at the time) were ordered to be executed by the Islamic court system in Iran. Since the Imams did not want these girls to go to paradise (virgins, even criminals, automatically go to heaven), they had prison guards rape/marry them before execution for spite. And because Iran currently has one of the strictest interpretations of the Qu`ran, they found nothing in their so-called holy text to prohibit the execution or the rape of these poor girls.
So Ahmed, I did not write that Islam promotes the execution of Virgins, but rather that seemingly nothing in the Qu`ran prevents it. That those executions occurred in one of the most Shariah-compliant Islamic countries in the world is a fact, not an opinion.
It took America slightly over 200 years to have the moral decency to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed, see Roper v. Simmons; before that, the age limit was for those under 16 when their crimes were committed.
It should be noted that nearly all countries in the world today prohibit the execution of individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes; however at least five Muslim countries (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen) are known to have executed juvenile offenders in the past decade (1). I am not surprised it is only Muslim countries who are still so barbaric. I mention the names of these countries so that Ahmed cannot complain that Iranians are Shi'a Muslim and so only represent a small portion of Islam, or that Saudis are Wahhabi Muslims and so only represent a small portion of Islam, or that the Sudanese are mostly Sunni Muslims and so only represent a small portion of Islam, or that nearly all Pakistanis are Hanafi Fiqh Muslims and so only represent a small portion of Islam, or that the majority of Yemenites are Shafi'i Muslims and so only represent a small portion of Islam.
So please dear Ahmed, no excuses for all these small portions of Islam. If the Qu`ran had any prohibition against executing mere children (let me repeat: Iran executed children as young as 9 years old), certainly there wouldn't be at least five Shariah compliant countries doing so.
Islam has had 1400 years to evolve a system with modern standards of decency. It has not. It was a barbaric cult in the 7th century and it's still a barbaric cult today.
Notes
(1):
Human Rights Watch, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan: End Juvenile Death Penalty
Only three countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan - are known to have executed an individual since the beginning of 2009 for a crime committed before age 18, Human Rights Watch said today. In advance of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, October 10, Human Rights Watch called on the three countries to immediately end the practice.
The juvenile death penalty is prohibited under international law, and the prohibition is absolute. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which all three of the countries are parties, prohibits capital punishment for individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime.
"Countries around the world have banned this barbaric punishment for children," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan should seize the opportunity to end this practice around the world once and for all."
In 2009, Iran executed at least five juvenile offenders, Saudi Arabia executed two, and Sudan one. This year, only one known juvenile execution has been carried out to date - in July by Iran for a crime committed at age 17.
From 2005 through 2008, five countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen - were known to have executed juvenile offenders.
