PENALTY

The Union for Reform Judaism has appealed “to our congregants
and to our co-religionists and to all who cherish God’s mercy and
love to join in efforts to eliminate this practice [capital punishment]
which lies as a stain upon civilization and our religious conscience.”
ISLAM
The mercy of God is at the centre of Islam’s vision about the death
penalty. But of Arab and Islamic countries, only Albania has repealed
capital punishment. Several countries with a large Muslim population,
such as Algeria, Bosnia, Morocco, and even Pakistan, with the
largest death row in the world, have a de facto moratorium. Thus,
there is no automatic relationship between being strongly rooted in
Islam and using capital punishment.
Forgiveness is in principle always preferable to retribution, since forgiveness
and peace are crucial Koranic themes. The mainstream of
Islam prefers forgiveness and peace; the umma or Muslim community
is spread across a huge variety of nations, uniting more than one billion
people with many diverse traits. In 2005, Muslim scholar Tariq
Ramadan called in Geneva for a global moratorium of executions in
the Islamic world.
The Koran (6:151) says: “Take not life, which God has made sacred,
except by way of justice and law.” Some Islamic countries have established
sharia (Islamic law), while others follow secular law. The 2011
Moroccan Constitution says that Islam is the religion of the State, but
not that Morocco is an Islamic State. Article 20 says: “The right to life
is every human being’s right.” In February 2013, the group Moroccan
Parliamentarians against the Death Penalty was organized, a few
months before the Fifth World Congress against the Death Penalty
took place in June 2013 in Madrid, where the process of creating an
international network of World Parliamentarians against the Death
Penalty was begun.
In Islamic law the death penalty is related to two types of crime. One
is intentional murder. In these cases, the families of the victims are
given the option to insist on the death penalty, ask for compensation
instead, or simply forgive. Their decision is binding on the state.
The second type of death-penalty-eligible crime, according to the
Koran, includes fasad fil-ardh—spreading mischief in the community
or in the land. This can have a broad meaning or a strict one,
but it includes acts thought to undermine the authority of the state
or destabilize the community. This can be a way for authoritarian
regimes to control opposition, spread terror or eliminate political
opponents. Treason, but also apostasy, terrorism, rape, piracy, adultery
and homosexual activity may fall in this group of capital crimes.
The Koran (5:32) says: “Whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter
or for
“THE CRUEL ULTIMATE
PUNISHMENT HAS LITTLE
CHANCE OF HEALING
SOCIETY.” —Mario Marazziti
mischief in the land,
it is as though he slew
all men; and whoever
keeps it alive, it is as
though he kept alive
all men.”
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, the President of the Minaret of Freedom
Institute, said:
The views of American Muslims on the death penalty
vary somewhat, but the range is narrow compared to the
enormous disagreements among Christians. All Muslims
accept the permissibility of the death penalty because it
is addressed in the Qur’an. However, our views range
from those who would apply it for a moderately short list
of crimes (short compared to the enormous list of capital
crimes in the Old Testament) to those who would apply it
to a somewhat shorter list still, and finally, to those who
would call for a moratorium on the death penalty in America
altogether.
In fact, those references in the Koran may be read as narrowing dramatically
the circumstances in which a murderer’s life can be taken,
and as well as providing an exemption from the general prohibition
on killing a human being.
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