Stoning
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Stoning, or lapidation, refers to a form of capital punishment whereby an organized group throws stones at an individual until the person dies, or (in ancient Judaism) the condemned person is pushed from a platform set high enough above a stone floor .
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[edit] Stoning within present day Islam
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Islamic scholars argue both for and against stoning within Islam. In Islam, stoning (which is the penalty for committing adultery out of wedlock and concubinage)[citation needed] is the only capital punishment which requires four reputable eye-witness "accusers" to state that they saw the defendants sexually interact. In strict Sharia-governed countries, stoning is still widely practiced.
It is also important to note that in Islam a person who confesses to adultery can be his own witness, yet according to sharia law he must oath on himself four times[citation needed] before he can be punished with the appropriate punishment, which is stoning if the person is married or 100 lashes if the person is not married.[citation needed]
Husbands can also launch a charge against their spouses, and have (in support) no evidence but their own - their solitary evidence (can be received) if they bear witness four times (with an oath) by Allah that they are solemnly telling the truth. The fifth (oath) (should be) that they solemnly invoke the curse of Allah on themselves if they tell a lie. But it would avert the punishment from the wife, if she bears witness four times (with an oath) by Allah, that (her husband) is telling a lie. The fifth (oath) should be that she solemnly invokes the wrath of Allah on herself if (her accuser) is telling the truth.[1]
[edit] Usage today
Among the world's countries with Muslim majorities, very few (the unofficial sharia court which runs in parallel with judicial court) exercise this form of punishment.
[edit] Afghanistan
Before the Taliban government, most areas of Afghanistan, aside from the capital, Kabul, were controlled locally by warlords or tribal leaders, the Afghan legal system depended highly on an individual community's local culture and the political and/or religious ideology of its leaders. Stoning also occurred in lawless areas, where vigilantes decide to commit the act for political purposes. Once the Taliban Government took over Stoning became the official punishment for many crimes although once the U.S.-led occupation started stoning had ended as an official court ruling but still occurs unofficially.[2]
[edit] Iran
The Iranian judiciary officially placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002, although the punishment remained on the books, and there were a few cases of Judges handing down stoning sentences in 2006 and 2007 [3], until Iran's judiciary decided in 2008 to fully scrap the punishment from the books in a legislation submitted to parliament for approval.[4] As of June 2009, Iran's parliament has been reviewing and revising the Islamic penal code to omit stoning as a form of punishment.[5]
In Iran, stoning as a punishment did not exist until 1983, when the contemporary Islamic Penal Code was ratified. Many Muslim jurists in Iran are of the opinion that while stoning can be considered Islamic, the conditions under which it can be sentenced are nearly impossible to occur. Because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery, its penalty is hardly ever applicable. Furthermore, while legally on the books, because of the enormity of both domestic and international controversy and outcry over stoning in the early years of the Islamic republic, the government placed official moratoriums on the punishment and, as a result, it was rarely practiced. Nevertheless, much of the public was outraged that such a backward and tortuous ritual became instituted in the laws of their country[citation needed]; finally, in 2002 Iran's judiciary indicated that stoning will no longer be practiced in Iran.[6] In 2008, Iran's judiciary decided to scrap the punishment of stoning in draft legislation submitted to parliament for approval.[4]
[edit] Somalia
In October, 2008, a girl, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow was buried up to her neck at a football stadium, then stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people. The stoning occurred after she had allegedly pleaded guilty to adultery in a sharia court in Kismayo, a city controlled by Islamist insurgents. According to the insurgents she had stated that she wanted shari`ah law to apply.[7]
However, other sources state that the victim had been crying, that she begged for mercy and had to be forced into the hole before being buried up to her neck in the ground.[8] Amnesty International later learned that the girl was in fact 13 years old and had been arrested by al-Shabab militia after she had reported being gang-raped by three men.[9]
In December 2009, another instance of stoning was publicized. Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim was accused of adultery by the Hizbul Islam militant group.[10]
[edit] Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates
Stonings, with and without legal proceedings have been reported in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[11]
[edit] Support for the practice of stoning
A survey carried out in August 2009 found that[12] 83% of Pakistanis believe that adulterers should be stoned. In another survey carried out in 'moderate' Indonesia (at 220 million, the world's most populated Muslim country) it found that "almost half the respondents back stoning as a punishment for adulterers."[13]
[edit] Groups against the practice of stoning
Stoning has been condemned by several human rights organizations. Some groups, such as Amnesty International[14] and Human Rights Watch, oppose all capital punishment, including stoning. Other groups, such as and RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), oppose stoning per se as an especially "cruel" practice.
Specific sentences of stoning, such as the Amina Lawal case, have often generated international protest. Groups like Human Rights Watch,[15] while in sympathy with these protests, have raised a concern that the Western focus on stoning as an especially "exotic" or "barbaric" act distracts from what they view as the larger problems of capital punishment. They argue that the "more fundamental human rights issue in Nigeria is the dysfunctional justice system."
In Iran, the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign was formed by various women’s rights activists after a man and a woman were stoned to death in Mashhad Iran in May 2006. Their main goal is to legally abolish stoning as a form of punishment for adultery in Iran.[6]
[edit] Stoning in Judaism and Christianity
[edit] Bible and Judaic prescriptions
In historical times, the laws for stoning in Judaism dictated that two reputable people must have witnessed the offense (and must witness the stoning). Stoning in Judaism has long been abolished.[16]
[edit] Torah
The Torah of the Jews, which is contained in the Old Testament of the Bible and as such serves as a common religious reference, prescribes death by stoning for a series of offenses, namely:
- Touching Mount Sinai while God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:13)
- An ox that gores someone to death should be stoned (Exodus 21:28)
- Breaking the Shabbat (Numbers 15:32-36)
- Giving one's "seed" (presumably one's offspring) "to Moloch a form of human sacrifice" (Leviticus 20:2-5)
- Having a "familiar spirit" (or being a necromancer) or being a "wizard" (Lev. 20:27)
- Cursing God (Lev. 24:10-16)
- Engaging in idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2-7) or seducing others to do so (Deut. 13:7-12)
- "Rebellion" against parents in a disgusting way (Deut. 21,21)
- Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman engaged to another man (both should be stoned, Deut. 22:23-24), unless in case of rape.
[edit] Mishna
The Mishnah gives the following list of persons who should be stoned (Sanhedrin Chapter 7, p. 53a [1])
- A man who has sexual intercourse with one of the following (see Lev. 20, which however does not specify the form of execution):
- his mother
- his father's wife
- his daughter-in-law
- another man
- an animal ("bestiality")
- A woman who allows an animal to have sexual intercourse with her
- A blasphemer
- An idolater
- One who gives his seed to Moloch
- A necromancer or wizard
- One who desecrates the sabbath
- One who curses his father and mother
- One who has sexual intercourse with a betrothed maiden
- One who incites or instigates (toward idolatry)
- A sorcerer
- A wayward and rebellious son
[edit] In practice
There are only scarce mentions of such a punishment being actually legally inflicted. There are three cases in the Bible (see list below) in which a person was stoned to death as a punishment. But there are also five or six cases where someone was stoned by a mob, or not in a legal fashion. A detailed recorded case of stoning occurs in the Book of Joshua (7, 24) when a man named Achan (עכן) was found to have kept loot from Jericho, a conquered Canaanite city, in his tent.
As manifest also in Jewish sources contemporary with and prior to early Christianity, particularly the Mishnah, doubts were growing in Jewish society about the morality of capital punishment in general and stoning in particular. For example, according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel in the time when the religious courts had authority over capital punishment, a court that executed more than 1 person in 70 years was a "bloody court".[17]
In the following centuries the leading Jewish sages imposed so many restrictions on the actual implementation of capital punishment — especially, many difficult to fulfill conditions for a testimony to be admissible (Sanhedrin) - as to make the imposition of capital punishment virtually impossible in practice.
The Talmud limits the use of the death penalty to Jewish criminals who: (A) while about to do the crime were warned not to commit the crime while in the presence of two witnesses (and only individuals who meet a strict list of standards are considered acceptable witnesses); and (B) having been warned, committed the crime in front of the same two witnesses.[18] The Talmudic method of how stoning is to be carried out differs from mob stoning such as implied by the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in the Gospel of John. According to the Jewish Oral Law, after the Jewish criminal has been determined as guilty before the Great Sanhedrin, the two valid witnesses and the sentenced criminal go to the edge of a high place. From there the two witnesses are to push the criminal off. After the criminal has fallen, the two witnesses are to drop a large boulder onto the criminal - requiring both of the witnesses to lift the boulder together. If the criminal did not die from the fall or from the crushing of the large boulder, then any people in the surrounding area are to quickly cause him to die by stoning with whatever rocks they can find.
Josephus reports that the Sanhedrin, under the instigation of Hanan ben Hanan, put James the Just to death by stoning.
[edit] People who were stoned to death
- James the Just, in AD 62, after being condemned by the Sanhedrin.
- Saint Timothy, after AD 67
- Pancras of Taormina
- Constantine-Silvanus, founder of the Paulicians, stoned in 684 at Armenia
- Saint Eskil, Anglo-Saxon monk stoned to death by Swedish Vikings
- Moctezuma II, last Aztec Emperor (although the Aztecs claim he was executed by the Spanish.)
- Du’a Khalil Aswad, stoned to death in Iraqi Yazidi Kurdistan (2007)
- Soraya M., stoned to death in Iran after being falsely accused of adultery
- Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, d. 100 BC, grandfather of later triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
- Savas Menikou, supporter of AKEL (Cypriot Communist Party), stoned to death by the right-wing EOKA
[edit] People who were almost stoned
- Amina Lawal, sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria, but freed on appeal
[edit] People stoned (in religious texts)
In the Tanakh and Old Testament:
- The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man, for cursing God (Leviticus 24:10-23)
- A man who gathered wood on Shabbat (Numbers 15:32-36)
- Yeshu, a person mentioned in the Talmud as a sorcerer and an inciter to idolatry
- Achan (Joshua 7)
- Adoniram, King Rehoboam's tax man (I Kings 12:18)
- Naboth, (I Kings 21)
- Zechariah ben Jehoiada, who denounced the people's disobedience to the commandments (II Chronicles 24:20-21, perhaps also Matt. 23:35)
In the New Testament:
- Saint Stephen, sentenced for blasphemy c. AD 31(Acts 6:8-14Acts 7:58-60).
Others:
- Palamedes (mythology), stoned to death as a traitor.
[edit] People who were almost stoned (in religious texts)
In the Tanakh and Old Testament:
In the New Testament:
- The Gospel of John chapter 8 gives the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, in which people wanted to stone the woman.
- Jesus (John 10)
- The captain of the Temple and his officers (Acts 5:26)
- Paul of Tarsus, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 14:19, as being stoned at Lystra at the instigation of Jews. He was left for dead, but then revived.
[edit] Stoning in literature
- Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" depicts a lottery in which one member of a small, isolated American community is stoned to death ritually each year as a sacrifice. It explores themes of scapegoating, man's inherent evil and the destructive nature of observing ancient, outdated rituals. The music video for Man That You Fear by Marilyn Manson is based on these events.
- Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land reaches its climax with a stoning execution.
- Friedoune Sahebjam's The Stoning of Soraya M. is a true story of a woman who was stoned to death in Iran in 1986.
[edit] Stoning in film and television
- Seven Sleepers (English translation), 2005 - A series running on Iranian TV, in which medieval (300-400 AD) Jews stone Christians.[19]
- A Stoning in Fulham County, 1988 - A made-for-TV movie surrounding the vigilante stoning in an American Amish community.[20]
- Monty Python's Life of Brian presents a Jesus of Nazareth-era stoning in a humorous context, ending with a massive boulder being dropped on the Jewish official (John Cleese), not the victim. The film mentions that women are not allowed at stonings, yet almost all of the stone-throwers turn out to be women disguised as men.
- Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" made into a short (20 minute) film by Larry Yust [2] in 1969 as part of an educational release for Encyclopædia Britannica's "Short Story Showcase".
- The film The Kite Runner depicts the stoning of an adulteress in a public stadium during a football match, by the Taliban.
- The film Mission Istanbul depicts the stoning of an adulteress in Kabul, by the fictional terrorist group Abu Nazir until it is interrupted by the protagonist Vikas Sagar. After Vikas leaves, the adulteress is shot dead.
- The Stoning of Soraya M. 2009
- Year One
[edit] See also
- Capital punishment in Iran - Stoning
- Ishikozume (Japan)
- Rajm (Islamic stoning)
- Stoning of the Devil
- Shab Qadar Incident
- Individuals
[edit] References
- ^ Verse 24.006 - 24.009
- ^ Afghan Police Probe Woman Stoning Over Adultery
- ^ [Stop Stoning Forever Campaign. See http://www.meydaan.net/UserFiles/File/Terman_stoning-2.pdf]
- ^ a b [Iran to scrap death by stoning. See http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iZ7aTbPW-vzYtgdxmx1O5Iok-CMQ]
- ^ http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/06/23/iran-parliament-plans-to-end-stoning
- ^ a b http://www.meydaan.net/UserFiles/File/Terman_stoning-2.pdf
- ^ "Somali woman executed by stoning". BBC News. 2008-10-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7694397.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7708169.stm
- ^ "Somalia: Girl stoned was a child of 13". Amnesty International. 2008-10-31. http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/somalia-girl-stoned-was-child-13-20081031. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
- ^ "Pictured: Islamic militants stone man to death for adultery in Somalia as villagers are forced to watch". Daily Mail. 2009-12-14. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1235763/Pictured-Islamic-militants-stone-man-death-adultery-Somalia-villagers-forced-watch.html. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
- ^ Abolish Stoning and Barbaric Punishment Worldwide!
- ^ Pew Report: Pakistani Public Opinion - Growing Concerns about Extremism, Continuing Discontent with U.S.Religion, Law, and Society Page 3
- ^ 50% Support Stoning for Adultery in 'Moderate' Muslim Country - The Jawa Report, March 18, 2006
- ^ "Amina Lawal: Sentenced to death for adultery". Amnesty International. 2003. http://web.amnesty.org/pages/nga-010902-background-eng.
- ^ "Nigeria: Debunking Misconceptions on Stoning Case". Human Rights Watch. 2003. http://hrw.org/update/2003/09/#4.
- ^ http://judaism.about.com/od/orthodoxfaqenkin/f/adultery_punish.htm also http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/160978/jewish/Is-the-Torah-Timeless.htm
- ^ makkot 1:10 March 11, 2008
- ^ http://judaism.about.com/od/orthodoxfaqenkin/f/adultery_punish.htm
- ^ "Iran TV: 'Evil' Jews stoning Christians". January 5, 2005. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42250.
- ^ "A Stoning in Fulham County". release date 1988. http://movies.aol.com/movie/a-stoning-in-fulham-county/1089236/main.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stoning |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stonings |
- REALITE-EU Amnesty International Report condemns Iran’s practice of death by stoning
- Frequently Asked Questions About Stoning
- Stoning and Human Rights
- Stoning and Islam
- Stoning Cases
- Report on Stop Stoning Forever Campaign in Iran
- Extract of the Kitab Al-Hudud (The book pertaining to punishments prescribed by Islam)
- Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates: Fujairah Shariah court orders man to be stoned to death for adultery - 11 June 2006)
- Muslims against stoning
- QuranicPath - Qur'an against stoning
- 1991 Video of Stoning of Death in Iran: WMV format | Real Player (Note: may be disturbing to some viewers)
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