Peaceful Buddhist Terrorist Navy Yard Shooter Aaron Alexis What We Don’t Know?
Peaceful Buddhist Navy Yard Shooter Aaron Alexis What We Don’t Know?
Just Thirteen are dead at the Washington Navy Yard after a gunman opened fire Monday morning. But who was Aaron Alexis? From his Buddhism to his Navy career, Nina Strochlic on what we know so far.
It’s now being called one of the top 12 deadliest shooting sprees in America. But before Aaron Alexis opened fire at Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning, killing 12 before being shot to death by law enforcement, he was a peaceful Buddhist, friends say. Clues to his motives are sparse, but Nina Strochlic runs down six things we know about him so far.
This handout photo provided by the FBI shows Aaron Alexis. Alexis launched an attacked Monday morning inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard, spraying gunfire on office workers in the cafeteria and in hallways, authorities said. At least 13 people were killed, including Alexis. (AP; Getty)
(1) He was a New York City native living in Washington, D.C.
Alexis spent four years in the Navy, mostly based at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve in Ft. Worth, Texas, before being discharged in January 2011. During that time, he rose to a petty officer third class as an aviation electrician’s mate and received the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, which apparently are commonly awarded to military personnel. The reasons behind his discharge are unclear, but a former landlord says Alexis told him he quit because “somebody doesn’t like me.” A Navy official told ABC Alexis’s departure was due to a number of misconduct problems.
(3) He had an arrest record.
A year prior to leaving the Navy, Alexis was arrested for allegedly discharging a firearm within the city limits of Ft. Worth, which is considered a Class A misdemeanor. According to the police report, a neighbor called 911 after a shot was fired into her apartment. “June told me that she is terrified of Aaron and feels that this was done intentionally,” the responding officer wrote. Alexis said he was cleaning the gun when it accidentally discharged into the ceiling, and he was taken into custody for questioning. It appears charges were never filed, but his landlords began an eviction process against him shortly after.
In 2004 Alexis was arrested in Seattle for allegedly shooting out a man’s car tires in what police say he called “an anger-fueled ‘blackout’” and claimed not to remember. A detective wrote in the police report that in speaking with Alexis’s father, he learned that Alexis “was an active participant in rescue attempts of September 11th, 2001.” The father also said his son had anger-management problems that were thought to stem from PTSD.
Before authorities identified Alexis as the shooter, media outlets like NBC and CBS made crucial mistakes reporting on the breaking story.
(4) He had a history of mental health issues.
The Veterans Administration had been treating Alexis for mental problems since August. He reportedly suffered from paranoia along with a sleep disorder, and had been hearing voices in his head. The host of ailments didn’t affect his security clearance, which would have been recalled if the Navy declared him mentally unfit.
(5) He was working for a Hewlett-Packard private contractor.
According to Alexis’s father, Algernon, his son was studying and working in a computer job for a private firm in Washington, D.C. On Monday evening Hewlett-Packard said he was employed by a subcontractor called the Experts, which “refreshes equipment used on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet networks.” Though it originally appeared that Alexis wouldn’t have had access to the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, the secure building where the shooting occurred, the company confirmed that Alexis had security clearance, which had been updated in July. “Discharge from the military does not automatically disqualify a person from getting a job as a military contractor or a security clearance. It depends on what the circumstances are,” said CEO Thomas Hoshko.
(6) He was a hard-drinking Buddhist.
According to Alexis’s landlord, friends, and a former roommate, Alexis was a practicing Buddhist who frequented a temple in Ft. Worth to meditate and help out. He had begun learning Thai and recently returned from a trip to Thailand. The owner of a restaurant where he once worked expressed disbelief, calling Alexis “a 13-year-old stuck in a 34-year-old body” and telling a reporter that Alexis was a heavy drinker who played videogames and always carried a gun. (He also had a concealed-weapons permit.) His friends also appeared incredulous that Alexis could be involved in the violence. One told reporters Alexis “could not be the shooter.” An aunt who says the family hasn’t seen him for a few years said she’d “be shocked if it was him.”
(7) He was a student.
Alexis was earning his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics online at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The school has a branch that caters to military personnel and others seeking “flexible learning” opportunities. He is believed to have taken classes solely online, but the details of his enrollment haven’t been released.
Peaceful Buddhist Navy Yard Shooter Aaron Alexis What We Don’t Know?
Just Thirteen are dead at the Washington Navy Yard after a gunman opened fire Monday morning. But who was Aaron Alexis? From his Buddhism to his Navy career, Nina Strochlic on what we know so far.
It’s now being called one of the top 12 deadliest shooting sprees in America. But before Aaron Alexis opened fire at Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning, killing 12 before being shot to death by law enforcement, he was a peaceful Buddhist, friends say. Clues to his motives are sparse, but Nina Strochlic runs down six things we know about him so far.
This handout photo provided by the FBI shows Aaron Alexis. Alexis launched an attacked Monday morning inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard, spraying gunfire on office workers in the cafeteria and in hallways, authorities said. At…
Police in India’s capital New Delhi have used tear gas and water cannons on people demonstrating in the wake of a brutal gang rape of a female student on a bus last weekend.
Some female protesters were injured after the police charged them when they tried to approach a key federal government building near the India Gate monument in the heart of the capital on Saturday.
Many of the protesters clashed with the police, pelting stones at them, local network NDTV reported.
On Sunday, police imposed orders prohibiting public assembly in the area, calling on protesters to demonstrate at alternate locations.
“Security has been tightened in the heart of New Delhi, with police in riot gear in every area of possible demonstration. Section 144, a criminal code that prohibits assembly of more than five people, has been imposed. The situation turned quite ugly on Saturday, after protesters clashed with police, and the police retaliated with water cannon and tear gas,” reported Al Jazeera’s Subina Shrestha from New Delhi.
The gang rape in New Delhi has sparked
public outrage across India [AFP]
Television footage of Saturday’s clashes showed several hundred protesters shouting, “We want justice”, as police struggled to stop the crowd from smashing flower pots and other symbols of the capital’s beautification drive.
The gang rape in New Delhi has sparked public outrage across India, bringing thousands of people onto city streets. Marches, demonstrations and candlelight vigils have spread during the last week.
A silent march was also organised in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday.
In the northeastern state of Assam, hundreds of women and girls marched through the city of Guwahati, carrying placards and shouting “Hang Rapists” and “Stop Violence Against Women“.
On Friday, hundreds of students and activists blockaded roads in New Delhi and marched to the president’s palace, breaking through police barricades, despite the use of water cannons, to demand better safety across the country.
Last week’s case – covered intensively by TV news networks – provoked uproar in parliament earlier this week, prompting the authorities to announce measures to make the capital safer for women.
These include increased policing and fast-tracking court hearings for rape.
Stricter policing
The Indian government vowed on Friday to press for life sentences for her six attackers and promised stricter policing.
RK Singh, the home secretary, said the government would pay the medical bills of the 23-year-old victim, who is fighting for her life after suffering serious injuries to her intestines in the attack on Sunday night.
Six drunken men were joyriding on a bus when they picked up the physiotherapy student and her 28-year-old male companion and took turns raping her. Afterwards, they threw the pair off the speeding vehicle.
Police say the woman was attacked with an iron rod after being raped.
The public verbal and physical sexual harassment of women, known as “Eve-teasing“, is routine in New Delhi, which has come to be known as India’s “rape capital”.
New Delhi, home to about 16 million people, has the highest number of sex crimes among India’s cities.
Police figures show rape is reported on average every 18 hours and some other form of sexual attack every 14 hours in the capital.
Five of the suspects were arrested soon after the crime and a sixth was caught on Friday, the Press Trust of India reported.
Ranjana Kumari, the director of the Centre for Social Research, told Al Jazeera that activists wanted quick dispensation of justice in the case, but also changes in the way that police deal with such cases.
“We want more effective policing. We want police to be gender-sensitised so that a woman after being sexually assaulted or [being the victim of] any sexual crime, when she walks into the police station, the police must not start blaminig her,” she said.
In the modern era, various forms of state terrorism continue by the Israeli armed forces on the Palestinians. While with the backing of Burmese military regime and the covert assistance of Hindus, recent bloodshed of the minority Rohingya Muslim community at the hands of the Rakhine extremist Buddhists in Burma (Myanmar) presents another such example. Similarly, during the Bosnian War (1992–1995), Serb forces slaughtered more than 10,000 Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and buried them in the unamed mass graves. That genocide was repeated in Kosovo where several men and women were murdered.
While, these atrocities are still fresh in the minds of every Muslim, but with the official backing of the government, massacre and harassment of Muslims by the Indian military including paramilitary troops in the Indian-held Kashmir has become a permanent feature.
In this regard, instead of granting the people their genuine right of self-determination and holding plebiscite in the controlled territories of Kashmir in accordance with the UN resolutions, various sorts of state terrorism have become part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian army against Muslim Kashmiris, especially since 1989. It has manifested in brutal tactics such as crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacre, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounter.
In this respect, in its report released on October 13, 2012 about detentions under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) 1978, Amnesty International disclosed under the title, “PSA Still a Lawless Law” that despite pressure on Indian government, the PSA has not been reviewed and amended. Therefore, new records are being made by Indian law-enforcing agencies and security forces in human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
In its previous report, Amnesty International has pointed out: “The Indian government’s disregard for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir means that in practice people reportedly died in custody and that the whereabouts of the disappeared persons continue to be unknown…government forces continue to commit serious violations of humanitarian law…the Muslim majority population in the Kashmir Valley suffers from the repressive tactics of the security forces. Under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act, security forces personnel have extraordinary powers to shoot suspected lawbreakers, and to destroy structures suspected of harboring militants or arms.”
Notably, after visiting more than 50 villages, similarly Citizen’s Council of Justice (CCJ) published a report in Srinager in September, 2012 on human rights violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir. On the basis of its survey, research and analysis, the CCJ report under the caption, “Atrocity and Suffering” revealed that a total of 502 people were either murdered or enforcedly disappeared, 2048 individuals were physically tortured, 6888 were subjected to forced labour and 40 people were killed in custody by Indian Security Forces. 234 Mosques and 700 civilian properties worth 103.8 crores were destroyed in the garb of anti-Mujahideen operations, while after being released from jails freedom fighters, faced different detention periods.
But it was a limited survey, as All Parties Hurriyet Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir disclosed that from 1989 to 15 October 2012, there have been deaths of 93,274 innocent Kashmiris, 6,969 custodial killings, 117,345 arrests and destruction of 105,861 houses. Indian brutal security forces have orphaned over 107, 351 children, widowed 22,728 women and gang raped 9,920 women in the Indian held Kashmir.
Over the two decades of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, Human Rights Watch has documented several failures to ensure protection of human rights. It has called for the repeal of those laws which provide the armed forces with extraordinary powers to search, detain, and use lethal force, leading to numerous human rights violations. They also provide immunity for security forces—their prosecutions, even where the facts are well established, are rare.
In the recent past, Kashmir Quarterly also reported, “Indian Forces killed a number of citizens, torched mosques, shops and houses in various parts of the valley. As a result, there were protest demonstrations in many cities. Troops desecrated the central Srinagar mosque and tortured worshippers whom they found inside.”
It is of particular attention that in 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in 55 villages across the northern regions of Baramulla, Bandipore and Handwara. Then researchers and other groups reported finding thousands of single and mass graves without markers. In this context, in the last few years, rights groups discovered nearly 3,000 unnamed graves in the various districts of Kashmir.
It is mentionable that in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked graves. The report indicated 2,156 unidentified bodies which were found in mass graves in various regions of the Indian-held Kashmir. Notably, foreign sources and human rights organisations have disclosed that unnamed graves include those innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and paramilitary troops in the fake encounters including those who were tortured to death by the Indian secret agency RAW.
Recently, China’s leading News Agency Xinhua has unearthed more gruesome details on world-stunning unmarked graves in Poonch of the Indian occupied Kashmir. It pointed out the statement of Sofi Aziz Joo, caretaker of a graveyard as saying, “Police and Army used to bring those bodies and direct me to bury them. The bodies were usually bullet-ridden, mutilated, faces disfigured and sometimes without limbs and heads.”
While, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and rights groups have stated that more than 10,000 people have disappeared, accusing government forces of staging fake gun battles to cover up killings. They also revealed that suspected persons had been arrested and were murdered through arbitrary executions, and then buried in unmarked graves.
Besides, on June 28, 2010, BBC reported, “three men went missing in Indian-administered Kashmir in April…but their bodies were discovered near the Line of Control…a senior officer of the Indian army had kidnapped them by offering them jobs as porters. The troops later informed the police that they had killed three militants. Kashmir’s law minister, Ali Mohammad Sagar says there have been several proven cases of fake encounters in the past 20 years.”
BBC explained, “There are hardliners in the Indian Army and intelligence agencies, who think that by raising the bogey of infiltration and gun battles near the border they can create terror among people and also put pressure on Pakistan.”
It seems that non-condemnation of Indian massive human rights violations and non-interference for the seettlement of this issue by the so-called civilized international community, especially the US have further encouraged New Delhi to keep on going with its atrocities on the armless Kashmiri masses. Ignorence of the dipute by them involves the risk of nuclear war between Pakistan and India.
Indian authorities are not willing to talk with Kashmiri people on political grounds. New Delhi has reached a conclusion that only bullet is the right way of dealing with them. Surprisingly, Indian successive governments are trying to ignore the dynamics of the freedom movement of Kashmiris to maintain their alien rule.
However, despite the employment of various forms of massacre and harassment in the Indian occupied Kashmir, the war of liberation by the Kashmiri people will continue until they get their legitimate right of self-determination. If New Delhi could not suppress the movement in the past, it could also not do so in present and future.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
“We will never surrender; we win, or we die. And don’t think it stops there. You will have the next generation to fight, and after the next, the next. As for me, I will live longer than my hangman.”
Omar Al-Muktar, the leader of the Libyan struggle for freedom against the Italian fascists.
,,,
,,,
,,,
,,,
Omar Mukhtar (عمر المختار Omar Al-Mukhtār) (1862 – September 16, 1931), of the Mnifa, was born in the small village of Janzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa (Cyrenaica) in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. The Italians captured and hanged him in 1931.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Early life
Omar Almukhtar was born in eastern Cyrenaica, Al Butnan District, in the village of East Jaghbub east of Tobruk. He was orphaned early and was adopted by Sharif El Gariani, nephew of Hussein Ghariani, a political-religious leader in Cyrenaica. He received his early education at the local mosque and then studied for eight years at the Senussi university atJaghbub, which was also the headquarters of the Senussi Movement. In 1899 he was sent with other Senussi to assist Rabih az-Zubayr in the resistance in Chad against the French.
Italian invasion
In October 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, an Italian naval contingent under the command of Admiral Luigi Faravelli reached the shores of Libya, then a territory subject to Ottoman Turkish control. The admiral demanded that the Turkish administration and garrison surrender their territory to the Italians or incur the immediate destruction of the city of Tripoli and Benghazi. The Turks and their Libyan allies withdrew to the countryside instead of surrendering, and the Italians bombarded the cities for three days, then proclaimed the Tripolitanians to be “committed and strongly bound to Italy.” This marked the beginning of a series of battles between the Italian colonial forces and the Libyan armed opposition in the East of Libya (Cyrenaica) under Omar Mukhtar for 22 years.
Guerrilla warfare
Main articles: Libyan resistance movement and History of Libya as Italian colony. A teacher of the Qur’an by profession, Mukhtar was also skilled in the strategies and tactics of desert warfare. He knew local geography well and used that knowledge to advantage in battles against the Italians, who were unaccustomed to desert warfare. Mukhtar repeatedly led his small, highly alert groups in successful attacks against the Italians, after which they would fade back into the desert terrain. Mukhtar’s men skillfully attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and cut lines of supply and communication. The Italian army was left astonished and embarrassed by his guerrilla tactics.
In the mountainous region of Ghebel Akhdar (“Green Mountain”) in 1924, Italian Governor Ernesto Bombelli created a counter-guerrilla force that inflicted a severe setback to rebel forces in April 1925. Mukhtar then quickly modified his own tactics and was able to count on continued help from Egypt. In March, 1927, despite occupation of Giarabub from February 1926 and increasingly stringent rule under Governor Attilio Teruzzi, Mukhtar surprised Italian troops at Raheiba. Between 1927 and 1928, Mukhtar fully reorganized the Senu site forces, who were being hunted constantly by the Italians. Even General Teruzzi recognized Omar’s qualities of “exceptional perseverance and strong will power.”
Pietro Badoglio, governor of Libya from January 1929, after extensive negotiations concluded a compromise with Mukhtar (described by the Italians as his complete submission) similar to previous Italo-Senusite accords. At the end of October, 1929, Mukhtar denounced the compromise and re-established a unity of action among Libyan forces, preparing himself for the ultimate confrontation with GeneralRodolfo Graziani, the Italian military commander from March 1930.
A massive offensive in June against Mukhtar’s forces having failed, Graziani, in full accord with Badoglio, Emilio De Bono (minister of the colonies), and Benito Mussolini, initiated a plan to break Cyrenian resistance: the hundred-thousand population of Gebel would be moved to concentration camps on the coast and the Libyan-Egyptian border from the coast at Giarabub would be closed, preventing any foreign help to the fighters and depriving them of support from the native population. These measures, which Graziani initiated early in 1931, took their toll on the Senusite resistance. The rebels were deprived of help and reinforcements, spied upon, hit by Italian aircraft, and pursued on the ground by the Italian forces aided by local informers and collaborators. Mukhtar continued to struggle despite increased hardships and risks, but on 11 September 1931, he was ambushed near Slonta.
Mukhtar’s final adversary, Italian General Rodolfo Graziani, has given a description of the Senusite leader that is not lacking in respect: “Of medium height, stout, with white hair, beard and mustache. Omar was endowed with a quick and lively intelligence; was knowledgeable in religious matters, and revealed an energetic and impetuous character, unselfish and uncompromising; ultimately, he remained very religious and poor, even though he had been one of the most important Senusist figures.” Today Mukhtar is a famous man in Libya.
Capture and execution
Mukhtar’s struggle of nearly twenty years came to an end on 11 September 1931, when he was wounded in battle near Slonta, then captured by the Italian army. The Italians treated the native leader hero as a prize catch. His resilience had an impact on his jailers, who later remarked upon his steadfastness. His interrogators stated that Mukhtar recited verses of peace from the Qur’an.
In three days, Mukhtar was tried, convicted, and, on 14 September 1931, sentenced to be hanged publicly (historians and scholars have questioned whether his trial was fair or impartial). When asked if he wished to say any last words, Mukhtar replied with a Qur’anic phrase: “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.” (“To God we belong and to Him we shall return.”).
On September 16, 1931, on the orders of the Italian court and with Italian hopes that Libyan resistance would die with him, Mukhtar was hanged before his followers in the concentration camp of Suluq at the age of 70 years.
Legacy
Today, Mukhtar’s face appears on the Libyan ten-dinar bill.
His final years were depicted in the movie Lion of the Desert (1981), starring Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, and Irene Papas. It was based on the struggles of Mukhtar against Rodolfo Graziani’s forces.
In 2009, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wore a photograph of Mukhtar in Italian captivity on his chest while on a state visit to Rome, and brought along Mukhtar’s elderly son during the visit.
With the Libyan civil war beginning 17 February 2011, Omar Mukhtar again became a symbol for a united, free Libya and his picture is depicted on various flags and posters of the Free Libya movement. Rebel forces named one of their brigades the “Omar Mukhtar brigade” after him.
A street is named after Mukhtar in the Gaza Strip. It’s known locally as The Street of Omar Al Mukhtar.
P.S. Message to All Zionist and Fasiest and Nazi’s and Dictator’s and Invaders
The first and most basic source of all Islamic teaching is the Qur’an. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the unchanging, revealed word of God. The Qur’an provides the Muslim with both guidance and inspiration: “Say: ‘The holy spirit [angel Gabriel] has brought the revelation from your Lord in truth, in order to strengthen those who believe, and as a guide and glad tidings’” (Qur’an 16:102).
Muslims do not have a binding religious authority, a Muslim equivalent of the Pope. Muslims read the primary Islamic sources, refer to the opinions of legal scholars, and then determine their individual course of action based on the evidence at hand, the advice of the scholars, and their own conscience.
The Qur’an serves as a primary source of guidance to Muslims around the world. Although many of its verses are general and spiritual in nature, it also contains specific legislation about the rights and duties of human beings. Laws regarding marriage and divorce, punishment of criminal behavior, diet, inheritance, business transactions, and personal etiquette are outlined in detail.
When the Qur’an does not directly address certain issues or does not discuss them in detail, Muslims turn to secondary sources of guidance.
A Beautiful Exemplar;
The Qur’an describes Muhammad’s role as follows: “Allah is the One who sent among the unlettered ones a messenger from among themselves, reciting to them Allah’s verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom. Truly they had been before in manifest error” (Qur’an 62:2). Muslims are ordered in the Qur’an to follow the words and acts of Muhammad (as presented in the Sunnahand verified by the hadith): “Whatever the Prophet ordered you to do, you should do, and whatever he forbids you, you should reject” (Qur’an 59:7).
The Lawful and Unlawful;
As a fundamental principle, everything is permitted in Islam except those things that have been expressly forbidden by Allah. In Islam, forbidden things are known as haram, and permitted things are known as halal.
Muslims rely on scriptural text, reasoning, and the conclusions of scholars when deciding on the legality of a particular matter. In the end, there is no individual or governing body that has the sole duty or right to interpret Islamic law. Muslims are left to follow the clear guidance as they best understand it.
Muhammad advised his followers to steer clear of doubtful things and stick to what they know for sure. He said: “The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, and between them are things which are doubtful and not known to most of you. So anyone who keeps away from the doubtful things, in fact he is protecting his faith and honor, and he who indulges in doubtful acts falls into fault.”
The word haram means prohibited, forbidden, or unlawful. The word halalmeans allowed, permitted, or lawful. Muslims also recognize a gray area, makrooh, which describes that which is not forbidden but is disliked, undesirable, or doubtful — thus, best avoided.
The Qur’an warns people against making lawful things forbidden, and vice versa, based on their own opinions. “And do not say concerning the falsehood which your tongues utter, ‘This is halal and that is haram,’ in order to fabricate a lie against Allah. Assuredly, those who fabricate a lie against Allah will not prosper” (Qur’an 16:116). Muslims are always very careful when determining or instructing others about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a course of action, for fear of leading other people astray and falling into this category of people who “lie” about God’s legislation.
Is it necessary for a Muslim to confess a sin to someone, either privately or publicly?
No. In Islam, repentance is directly between an individual and God, without any intermediaries.
In a chapter titled “Repentance,” the Qur’an says, “Do they not know that it is God Who accepts the repentance of His servants?” (Qur’an 9:104).
Bitter Truth And The History of Capital Punishments For Crimes
The Islamic Shari’ah is the entire legal system implemented in Islam. The word itself implies an endless source of water from which people satisfy their thirst; specifically, it refers to the divine law that was revealed in the Qur’an and exemplified in the life of Muhammad(PBUH).
Islam is concerned with the well-being and security of every individual in society. Any behavior that threatens or violates the rights of others is prohibited in Islam, and strict punishments exist to help deter potential criminals. In this way, the lives and property of all members of society are secured and protected.
In Islam, there are penal laws for major crimes such as murder, assault, theft, and adultery. The degree of punishment depends on the magnitude of the material or emotional injury resulting from the act. At all times, only an authorized court may mete out punishment. There is no vigilantism in Islam. However, victims or their families have the final say on whether the punishment is carried out. They may, at their discretion, forgive the perpetrator and accept compensation for the crime committed.
The Islamic penal code calls for the following punishments:
Murder: execution or monetary compensation to the victim’s family (discretion is given to the victim’s family in this choice).
Accidental homicide: freedom for one of the perpetrator’s slaves and monetary compensation to the victim’s family; if the perpetrator has no money, he or she must fast daily for two consecutive months. (Obviously, the injunction on freeing a slave is no longer relevant.)
Intentional injury: an injury equal to the one caused, or monetary compensation to the victim.
Land, sea, or air piracy: execution, crucifixion, cutting off of alternate hands and feet, or exile from the land. This category includes terrorism and rape.
Theft: cutting off of one hand, unless the individual stole out of true need and necessity.
Fornication (premarital sex): flogging of both man and woman.
Adultery: stoning to death of both man and woman.
False accusations about a person’s chastity: flogging and rejection of all future oaths and testimony.
Homosexual practices: execution of both individuals.
Drinking of alcohol: flogging.
It is important to remember that the punishments are harsh because they are meant to deter would-be criminals. Punishments such as these are meted out only for crimes that are considered transgressions against the community, because they put the entire society at risk. The punishments of the Hereafter are much more severe, but the door to forgiveness is always open through sincere repentance.
Only an Islamic court of law may order these sentences, and in reality, they are rarely carried out. Their presence in Islamic law is mainly to warn people about the consequences of wrongdoing.
A Short History of Capital Punishment
The Execution of Lincoln’s Conspirators
Capital punishment has been the hot subject of a very long-running debate. Even today it is assumed that a substantial proportion of the public want to see it restored, although governments are broadly against its return in places where it has already been abolished. When the UK parliament decided to ban all public executions – the last one was as recently as 1868 – the public were outraged, having always enjoyed a good hanging as a kind of spectator sport.
In the days when executions at Tyburn were routine, London’s busiest gallows stood on a spot close to modern Connaught Square at Marble Arch. These could accommodate 21 men or women at a time, convention dictating an order of precedence such that highwaymen as the ‘aristocrats of crime’ were despatched first, then common thieves, with traitors being left to bring up the rear.
Artist’s Impression of The Tyburn Tree
The condemned would be taken to the so-called Tyburn Tree from Newgate Gaol in the City, where the Old Bailey is today. Each would be presented with scented nosegays by crowds which could number up in the tens of thousands. Convicts could also enjoy a last drink free of charge at the Mason’s Arms, which is still open for business in Seymour Place, London W1. It wasn’t unknown for some to escape the drop, and in 1705 John ‘half-hanged’ Smith earned his nickname by taking so long to die that the crowd rioted and demanded he be cut down and let loose. Patrick O’Bryan also escaped, but deciding to murder his accuser he was boiled in pitch to stop any such crime happening again.
But hanging is not the only grisly method by which criminals were punished for their deeds.
The Barbarity of The Electric Chair
Some executions were more notorious than others. When Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, was executed for treason in 1685, it took his executioner Jack Ketch five blows with the axe to kill him. With Ketch almost certainly drunk, even then the job had to be finished off with a knife. Monmouth had attempted to topple his father, but lost the critical Battle of Sedgemoor.
According to legend, a portrait was painted of Monmouth after his execution. The belief is that after the grisly deed it was realised that there was no official portrait of the Duke. For a son of a King, and someone who had claimed the throne, albeit in vain, this was unheard of. So Monmouth’s body was exhumed, the head stitched back on the body, and it was sat for its portrait to be painted.
The Duke of Monmouth
Boiling to Death was legal punishment in olden times, though instances of it were not as frequent in the annals of crime as some of the other modes of execution. In the year 1531, when Henry VIII was King, an act was passed for boiling prisoners to death. The act details the case of one Richard Rouse, a cook in the diocese of the Bishop of Rochester who had, by putting poison in the food of several persons, occasioned the death of two, and the serious illness of others. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be boiled to death without the benefit of celery being present. He was brought to punishment at Smithfield, on the 15th of April, 1532; and the Act ordained that all manner of prisoners should meet with the same doom henceforth. In 1531, a maid-servant was boiled to death in the market-place of King’s Lynn for the crime of poisoning her mistress. Then March 28th, 1542, a maid-servant named Margaret Davy perished at Smithfield for poisoning persons with whom she had lived. However, the act was repealed in the year 1547.
The dreadful practice of boiling people alive
Captain William Kidd was hanged in London in 1700 after abandoning piety for piracy. The Scottish sailor started out on the right path but eventually turned to buccaneering at sea. Inevitably the legend is larger than the man, and it seems doubtful that his actual “depredations on the high seas” were any worse than many a lesser-known brigand.
Kidd’s capture and trial in 1700 caused a sensation, however, when he fell victim to political points-scoring. Hanged in the traditional manner for pirates – at London’s Wapping Stairs, where three tides washed over his corpse – he was then hanged in chains at Tilbury, and his body was left there to rot for 20 years.
Until 1772 the rich could opt for something known as peine forte et dure, French for ‘hard and forceful punishment’. This involved being pressed to death beneath a wooden board loaded with weights, a slow and hideously painful process whose sole advantage was avoiding one’s property being confiscated by the Crown.
The most famous case of peine forte et dure in the United Kingdom was that of Roman Catholic Martyr St Margaret Clitherow, who was pressed to death on March 25, 1586, after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured Catholic (then outlawed) priests in her house. She died within fifteen minutes under a weight of at least 700 pounds. Several hardened criminals, including William Spiggot (1721) and Edward Burnworth, lasted half hour under 400 pounds before pleading to the indictment. Others, such as Major Strangways (1658) and John Weekes (1731), refused to plead, even under 400 pounds, and were killed when bystanders, out of mercy, sat on them.
Example of Crushing Execution in India
The largest crowd ever assembled in Britain for a public execution was that which gathered outside Newgate Gaol on 30 November, 1824 to see a sentence of death carried out on Henry Fauntleroy. An estimated 100,000 people thronged the streets, some paying enormous sums for rooms with a clear view of the gallows.
Fauntleroy was a banker who had been convicted of successfully defrauding the Bank of England of £250,000, or more than £20 million at current values. He cheerfully squandered the entire sum, which somehow seemed to make the offence even worse and certainly took the biscuit as far as the crowd was concerned. He was the last person to be hanged for forgery in the UK.
Capital Punishment in Islam
“…If anyone kills a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he killed all people. And if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all people” (Qur’an 5:32).
Life is sacred, according to Islam and most other world faiths. But how can one hold life sacred, yet still support capital punishment?
The Qur’an answers, “…Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you, so that you may learn wisdom” (6:151).
The key point is that one may take life only “by way of justice and law.” In Islam, therefore, the death penalty can be applied by a court as punishment for the most serious of crimes. Ultimately, one’s eternal punishment is in God’s hands, but there is a place for punishment in this life as well. The spirit of the Islamic penal code is to save lives, promote justice, and prevent corruption and tyranny.Islamic philosophy holds that a harsh punishment serves as a deterrent to serious crimes that harm individual victims, or threaten to destabilize the foundation of society.
According to Islamic law (in the first verse quoted above), the following two crimes can be punishable by death:
Intentional murderFasad fil-ardh (“spreading mischief in the land”)
Intentional Murder
The Qur’an legislates the death penalty for murder, although forgiveness and compassion are strongly encouraged. The murder victim’s family is given a choice to either insist on the death penalty, or to pardon the perpetrator and accept monetary compensation for their loss (2:178).
Fasaad fi al-ardhThe second crime for which
capital punishment can be applied is a bit more open to interpretation. “Spreading mischief in the land” can mean many different things, but is generally interpreted to mean those crimes that affect the community as a whole, and destabilize the society. Crimes that have fallen under this description have included:
Treason / Apostacy (when one leaves the faith and joins the enemy in fighting against the Muslim community)
Terrorism
Land, sea, or air piracy
Rape
Adultery
Homosexual behavior
Actual methods of capital punishment vary from place to place. In some Muslim countries, methods have included beheading, hanging, stoning, and firing squad. Executions are held publicly, to serve as warnings to would-be criminals.It is important to note that there is no place for vigilantism in Islam — one must be properly convicted in an Islamic court of law before the punishment can be meted out.
The severity of the punishment requires that very strict evidence standards must be met before a conviction is found. The court also has flexibility to order less than the ultimate punishment (for example, imposing fines or prison sentences), on a case-by-case basis.
Most Brutal Execution Methods of Ancient Civilization
1. Hold your breath. You are about to witness some very severe historical penalties. Though our ancient cultures were said to be very civilized, there is evidence of their having used a wide variety of hideous torture methods throughout history to end the lives of criminals and traitors.
,,,
2. Death by Boiling
Can you imagine boiling someone alive in large pot? Though not common, this was an unusually cruel method of execution. There is plenty of evidence that it was practiced throughout human history. Archeologists have found human bones in cooking pots and hearths in China which were found to be around 500,000 years old.
In England in the 1500s this was the legal method of punishment. The victim was immersed in boiling water, oil or tar until dead. Imagine the fear the prisoner felt when they were taken to this deadly big pot to suffer their horrible fate.
,,,
3. Crucifixion
Crucifixion was among the most gruesome and painful of ancient execution methods and was practiced from about the 6th century BC until the 4th century AD, mainly among the Seleucids, Carthaginians, Persians and Romans. The condemned person was tied (or nailed) to a large wooden cross and left to hang till dead. Their dead body was then left on display as a warning. Sometimes, the victim was ordered to carry their own crossbeam – which weighed about 75-125 pounds (35-60 kg) – on their shoulders to the place of execution. Not only this, but to humiliate them, they were ordered to be hung up naked.
There is evidence of a practice much like crucifixion having taken place during World War I and II. A punishment known as ‘Field Punishment Number One’ was very similar – although it involved the victim being flogged rather than executed. In the British Army, especially during World War I, soldiers were punished for crimes such as refusal of orders and disobedience.
Nowadays, versions of crucifixion are practiced as a devotional ceremony in some part of New Mexico and the Philippines. Though the church greatly discourages this practice, followers of Jesus still imitate the suffering of Christ by being ‘crucified’ for a limited time on Good Friday. It has been seen in the town of Iztapalapa, just outside Mexico City, and also in San Pedro Cutud, during the ‘Passion Week Celebration’ of 2007.
,,,
4. Flaying
In this author’s opinion, this was the most uncivilized method of torture and punishment practiced during the Middle Ages. Brutal to the bone, it involved removing the skin from the body of a still living prisoner.
Flaying was an ancient practice, inflicted on criminals, captured soldiers and ‘witches’ around a thousand years ago in places such as the Middle East and Africa. The victim was flayed alive as part of a public execution, after which the skin was nailed to the wall as a warning, so that others would heed the lesson and never ever dare to defy the law.
,,,
5. Disembowelment
Disembowelment was among the most severe forms of punishments ever heard of or seen. This method was used to punish thieves and those accused of adultery. Some or all the vital organs were removed one by one from the body, mainly from the abdomen. Sources say it was practiced in England, the Netherlands, Belgium and in Japan.
In Japan, it was a ritualized suicide method for Samurai, referred as “seppuku”, in which two cuts across the abdomen were made. In another version, a fine cut was made in the victim’s gut, leaving him to catch an infection.
Also, in later medieval times, the torture was performed using small starving animals such as mice, which led to the victim’s death. Imagine the agonizing pain the prisoner must have felt when their 6-meter-long intestines were slowly eaten by the starving mice.
,,,
6. Breaking Wheel
The breaking wheel, also known as the ‘Catherine wheel’, was a medieval execution device. It was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use in the 19th century. It originated in Ancient Greece and from there spread through other countries such as France, Russia, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.
A wooden wheel was used to stretch the victim out, with their limbs extended along its many spokes. Then a hammer or a large iron bar was applied to the limb through the gap to break all its bones. This process was repeated with every limb, leaving the victim alive but in pieces.
Sometimes the executioner was ordered to strike on the stomach and chest, a practice known as the ‘blow of mercy’. The number of blows was specified in the court sentence. If mercy was shown, after two to three blows the victim was strangled. In severe cases, the victim would be cudgeled ‘bottom-up’ starting with the legs, while those who had committed lesser offenses were beaten ‘top-down’ starting with the throat. When the execution was complete, the criminal’s head was often placed on a spike for exhibition and the shattered limbs were left for birds to eat. Imagine the pain and suffering involved in this cruel execution method.
,,,
7. Impalement
We all know about piercing the nose, ear or naval as a beautification procedure – but what about being pierced with a long stake? This was among the most revolting of punishments ever imagined and practiced by humans. It was a favorite of the Romans, Chinese, Greeks and the Turks. It was also practiced in Asia and in Europe during the Middle Ages.
Though rarely practiced, impalement was truly horrifying. The victim was pierced through the rectum, through the vagina, through the side or even through the mouth, causing deep bleeding and painful wounds. They were then dropped into their own grave. The victim endured a long period of continued suffering before their death. Sometimes, before execution, the victim was asked to dig their own grave too. What suffering the victim had to endure with the stake penetrating their groin during those agonizing hours (or days) before death.
,,,
8. Crushing
This forceful execution method was used in the common law legal system. It has an extensive history, with several varying methods used through time. One of them was ‘Crushing by Elephants’, which was used throughout south and south-east Asia for over 4,000 years. Sources say it was also used by Romans as well as by the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam.
In another method, the victim was pressed with extremely large and heavy stones laid upon their chest, causing suffocation and then death. Though these forms of execution are no longer sanctioned by any governing body, the fact remains that it was incredibly unkind to let someone die, crushed or suffocated beneath rocks or the strong legs of a giant creature.
,,,
9. Death by Burning
We may love to eat roasted potatoes, roasted chicken and roasted beets – but what about a roasted human? Many of us cannot even imagine seeing a human burning alive. So imagine the cruelty of this wild and evil execution procedure. In days gone by, some criminals were burned alive for whatever heinous act they committed.
The progress of the fire would burn the calves, thighs, hands, stomach, breasts and upper chest before reaching the face. It was extremely painful, although sometimes the person died from carbon monoxide poisoning before the fire even touched their calves. Pitch was also applied to the prisoner’s body, which helped the fire to burn quicker and make the process faster.
There is evidence of enemies being burned alive in Rome, in Akragas in Sicily, in England, and in some part of North America too. Among the best known individuals executed by this brutal method were St. Joan of Arc (1431), Patrick Hamilton (1528), Thomas Cranmer (1556) and the Old Believer leader Avvakum (1682).
The most recent record is of ‘Jesse Washington’, whose execution is internationally remembered as ‘The Waco Horror’. Washington was found guilty of raping and murdering a white woman and was only 17 when he was tortured and burned alive in front of a cheering crowd of 16,000. What could be a more brutish and wild punishment than this?
,,,
10. Sawing
You can grasp what this execution procedure was about by its name. It involved hanging the helpless condemned person upside down and then slicing them down the middle, starting at the groin. It was a gross procedure to say the least… Bleeding severely but still alive and conscious – the thought alone is enough to make you throw up. As the condemned was hanged upside down, their brain received enough blood supply, so they remained alive in spite of the pain and severe bleeding. This method was used in Europe, under the Roman Empire and also in some parts of Asia. According to some religious histories, the prophet Isaiah was executed in this manner. The illustration here shows the painful death of a delinquent.
,,,
11. Slow Slicing
Another vicious punishment method involved slicing the prisoner very slowly. Around 900 AD it was a common execution method in China, until its abolition. There it was known as ‘Ling Chi’, which means ‘The Lingering Death’ or ‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’. The idea behind the method was to humiliate the victim with a slow and painful execution and then for the punishment to continue even after after death.
The condemned person was killed using a knife. Methodically, over an extended period of time, parts of the body were removed. This was a public execution method used to threaten people. Sometimes opium was also administered to prevent fainting or as an act of mercy. Because of the severity of the punishment, it could not last longer than 15 to 20 minutes.
So friends, which method did you like the most? The full list is quite long and includes other horrible methods such as decapitation, shooting, necklacing and hanging. Since there seems to be no end to the list of diabolical methods, this author’s opinion is: “Aargh…..!! They are all equally uncivilized and gruesome!”
,,,
12. In an age when the death penalty has been abolished in most of the developed world, and is often frowned upon even where is practiced, it might seem difficult to believe that barely a century ago executions were not only the norm but were put unashamedly on public display. In the American Old West, capital punishment was, by comparison with today, meted out in spades. Lynching from trees and other forms of tough justice were the order of the day, and be hanged with scruples like wrongful convictions and the idea that such practices only ape the culture of violence they condemn.
,,,
13. Tough Justice: Hanging of a horse thief in Oregon circa 1900.
Some might argue that the Wild West was a time when justice needed to be severe: where outlaw order prevailed in the form of brutal banditry that preyed upon banks, trains and stagecoaches, judicial murder was a case of the punishment fitting the crime. Even what we now might consider lesser crimes, such as horse thievery and cattle rustling, were offenses judged serious enough to be punished by hanging – such were the handicapping effects the loss of livestock had on the victims. It was also a lesson to others to keep their hands clean and forget about law-breaking.
,,,
14. Tom Ketchum on the scaffold before hanging, 1901.
A cowboy and cattle rancher who later turned to a life of crime in Texas and New Mexico, Tom ‘Black Jack’ Ketchum is purported to have committed his first train robbery in 1892 and his first murder in 1895. He was also allegedly involved in the killing of Republican politician Albert Jennings Fountain and his son in early 1896, and later the same year the robbery of a store and post office after being invited inside by the owners during a storm. Following the latter crime, Ketchum and his cronies were tracked down by a posse, but emerged unhurt from the ensuing shootout while two of their assailants lay dead.
,,,
15. Sending a warning: 1901 postcard of Ketchum’s decapitated body after hanging.
Ketchum then joined the infamous Hole in the Wall Gang and focused on robbing trains. In August 1899, Black Jack single-handedly tried to rob the same train in the same way his gang had done just weeks earlier. The conductor recognised Tom as he neared the moving train and shot him with a shotgun, leaving him badly wounded. After being taken by a posse to hospital he had his arm amputated, and was later convicted and – unconstitutionally it turned out – sentenced to death. Ketchum’s weight and the inexperience of his executioners meant he was decapitated as he dropped through the scaffold trap door. His last words? “Good-bye. Please dig my grave very deep. All right; hurry up.”
,,,
16. Mob rule: Newspaper shot of the lynching of ‘Killer’ Jim Miller and others, 1909.
Some hangings in the Old West were done even less by the book. James B ‘Killer’ Miller was convicted of his first homicide in 1884 but acquitted, and soon boastingly embarked on a career as an assassin. Armed with a shotgun, he was alleged to have had a hand in at least eight murders for money, plus another six killings due to saloon and gambling disputes. After Miller had been hired to kill ex-US Marshal Allen Bobbitt, he was arrested in Texas and extradited to Oklahoma to stand trial – but with evidence weak, a mob broke into the jail and dragged Miller and three other suspects to a nearby abandoned stable for lynching. Miller is said to have shouted “Let ‘er rip!” and stepped voluntarily off his box.
,,,
17. Shot at the crime scene: Lee seated next to his coffin just prior to execution.
Less your typical outlaw, early Mormon pioneer John Doyle Lee was put to death for leading the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1856, the Fancher party, an Arkansas emigrant group, were camped in southern Utah when they were attacked by a group of Mormon militiamen dressed as Native Americans. Lee convinced the emigrants to surrender their belongings in return for safe passage, at which point 120 of the party were slain. Lee’s first trial in 1875 ended in a hung jury, but when tried again in 1877 he was sent to the firing squad. Adamant he had personally killed no one and was a scapegoat for others of his faith, Lee’s last words were: “I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner.”
,,,
18. Biting the bullet: 1914 photograph of execution by firing squad in Mexico.
Execution by firing squad was almost as much a staple of capital punishment in the Wild West as lynching, and those found guilty also bit the bullet south of the Rio Grande River. The difference is: the death penalty was abolished in Mexico in 2005.
Still, it all seems a far cry from the present where even the gas chamber and electric chair have been all but superseded by the lethal injection. Yet, more clinical though modern methods of execution may be, do they have any more care for human rights? The days of slow strangulation by short drop hanging may be over, but even lethal injection has come under fire for being too painful. At least it’s all kept hidden behind closed doors though, eh? And don’t mention miscarriages of justice.
,,,
19. Beheaded revolutionists in Wuchang, 1911
The death penalty in the Far East has a notorious past, with some extremely inhumane execution methods having been practiced. In the 19th century “death by elephant” – in which elephants were used to crush, maim or otherwise torture prisoners – was one method of public execution that was still being practiced.
,,,
20. Execution of Boxer leaders at Hsi-Kou, 1900-1901
However, in the early part of the 20th century there were many different methods used to kill people as punishment for alleged crimes, and what makes this more macabre is that often these executions were carried out in public – and with photographs taken. This article will examine some of these shocking images. They’re not for the faint-hearted.
,,,
21.Garrote Execution, Manila, the Philippines, 1901
The man above is being garrotted to death in Manila Bilibid Prison. Garrotting is essentially strangling someone to death using a chain or a wire. However, during executions, a post with a seat to which the captive was tied was generally used, with a metal band placed around the victim’s neck that was tightened until the condemned suffocated to death. In some cases (especially in Spain, which used the garrotte until 1973) there was a spike on the band to break the spinal cord more quickly. In the Philippines, the use of the garrotte was banned in 1902, with three priests accused of taking part in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny against the Spanish among the most famous victims of this means of execution. Not a pleasant way to die.
,,,
22. Execution in China ca. 1900s
Beheadings were very common in the Far East, and often the head was displayed to the public afterwards. (An executioner who decapitates people is known as a “headsman”.) In China beheading was thought of as a more extreme form of punishment than strangulation because in the Chinese tradition it was considered disrespectful to return the body of an individual to their ancestors in a dismembered state.
,,,
23. Spy being beheaded, Liaoning, China in Russo-Japanese War, 1905
In Japan, beheadings were also considered a severe punishment before the practice was abolished. One particularly extreme example of this involved a would-be assassin who was buried up to his neck in the ground in order that his head could be slowly sawn off over several agonizing days. However, in Japan there was a context in which decapitation was considered honorable – when someone committed the ritual suicide, an act known as seppuku. After the individual disemboweled themselves, another warrior would come along and slice off their head to hasten death. However, most beheadings were carried out by courts or during wartime.
,,,
24. Beheading during the Qing Dynasty (1636 ~ 1912), China
In the North-West Frontier Province of British India (now Pakistan), it has been written that women practiced decapitation during the Anglo-Afghan war. Pathan women would behead (and castrate) non-Muslims like British and Sikh POWs, according to the autobiography of British officer John Masters.
,,,
25. Beheaded corpses, Caishikou, China, 1905
The public laying out of the headless bodies in the above image is as disturbing as any shown here. The information that comes with the photo says that the victims were lined up according to rank at the crossroads of a vegetable market in Beijing, China.
,,,
26. Chinese civilians to be buried alive, 1937/38
In this extremely macabre photo, Chinese people are being forced into a pit ready to be buried alive by Japanese troops during the Nanking Massacre, as Japanese forces invaded China. As an execution method, premature burial might be seen to have a practical purpose – there is no need to move the body for burial – but any trace of humanity is sadly lacking.
In feudal Russia premature burial was also the punishment handed out to women who had killed their husbands and was called “the pit”. The last known execution in Russia by such a method was in 1927.
,,,
27. Public executions, Peking, China, c. 1927
Desecrating the bodies of the condemned and executed was also far from unknown in the Far East. In some cases the heads of people who had been decapitated were stuck on sticks or pikes as a warnings to others. In the image above, a man’s head was placed between his legs and left there. The photographer marked the image “a ghastly joke”.
,,,
28. Mancage in Afghanistan, 1921
Banditry in Afghanistan had been a serious problem in the early 1900s and the authorities set out to curb it. They would imprison those captured in iron cages like this one and leave them up there to die without food or water. By 1921 the crime had become less of a problem. No wonder!
,,,
29. Exhibition of strangled Chinese malefactors, c. 1907
This image shows an instance of public execution in which Chinese criminals had been strangled before their bodies were put on display in these wooden cages – more for the sake of deterring others from crime than anything else, one suspects.
There is one other truly abhorrent example of the death penalty too graphic to be shown here (if you want to see an image of it, go here). Known as Ling Chi, it has also been called death by a thousand cuts, slow slicing, the lingering death or the slow process. Although officially abolished in China in 1905, the image above was taken in 1910, so Ling Chi clearly still went on afterwards. The condemned was tied naked to a post, often publicly, and their flesh gradually cut away with small slices from a knife until they died of blood loss or shock. Occasionally the victims were given opium to stop them from fainting or perhaps (small possibility!) as an act of mercy.
None of these execution methods are pleasant to say the least, but men have been putting each other to death for hundreds of years and have been alarmingly creative in finding methods that are especially painful. These sinister images show the worst side of mankind and the worst side of some ideas of justice.
My sincere thanks to the following for images and information contained in this story:
The women should be good at raising her children.;
Because her children are the men and women of the future and the first one they are raised under his mother. So if the mother places emphasis on good manners, rather, she gives importance to ibaadah (worship) and good manners and good treatment towards the people and the children brought up by her hands are nurtured upon this, then they will have tremendous effect in the rectification of society.
So because of this, it is incumbent upon the women who has children and that she places great importance on their upbringing and the she seeks assistance, if she becomes incapable for any reason, from their father or whomsoever is responsible for their affairs if they have no father.
Either from their brothers or their uncles or their brothers from the same tribe or other than them. And it is not befitting for the women to submit to the state of affairs and say::
“The people are following this i can cannot change it.”
Because id we remain like this, submitting to the state of affairs, then the reflection will be be completed.
They say that if speaking is from silver, if you like to talk, it is equal to silver, then to be silent is equal to gold because we cannot as a human being control our tongues. And the biggest problem in this world is that people are not able to control their tongues from talking. And the Prophet Sayyidina Muhammad he said, in the meaning of his hadith, tradition, part of the hadith is that “anyone who can guarantee for me,” he is saying, “can guarantee for me his tongue,” he didn’t say “his tongue” but he said, “what is between his jaws, I will guarantee for him Paradise.” Because you don’t know how you might address people and you hurt their feelings.
I heard my master in his teachings to many Muslim and non-Muslim. …As I said, “the place is small but the hearts are big.”
So… the Prophet , I heard my teacher many times was saying that “people might commit sins, too many and they might do things that are not allowed.” It means they might lie or they might cheat or they might because of their greediness, they might raise prices more than it should be, or they might do other things, not listening to the mother or the father or the elders, or not following what they need to follow in their beliefs, all that if you ask repentance, Allah will forgive you. God will forgive you. Anything that is between you and God, Allah swt, you do something wrong and you might take something to your advantage from the rights of your Lord, you repent, Allah is merciful He will forgive you.
As it is said in the Holy Qur’an, “Say [O Muhammad] to the people, ‘If they were oppressors to themselves, let them not lose hope of My forgiveness. I will forgive them, just let them repent.”
God is always merciful. But the problem is that when we hurt the feeling of someone else or we backbite someone else or we spread a bad rumor about someone else, the problem is not that you repent and god will forgive. The problem is that the person you hurt you must ask forgiveness. So there is a problem there. Might be the person you ask will not forgive you. So what happens? You are falling into a valley that has not bottom.
When the Prophet asked his companions about the meaning of bankruptcy, and we have lot of bankruptcy going around today. He asked them, “who is the bankrupt one?” They said, “whoever loses his wealth.” He said, “No, this is not the real meaning of bankrupt.” Although that is what we understand, bankruptcy is whoever lost all his wealth. He said, “No, the bankrupt one is the one who has no good deeds to present to God on Judgment Day.” And the companions said, “even if he is praying and fasting?” and he said, “even if he is praying and fasting, he might not have any good deeds.” They were surprised.
So it means on the Day of Judgment, and it is called judgment like you are judged here in a court, one person accuses the other. So on the Day of Judgment whoever has been harmed he will give from his good deeds to give to you. If he hurt you a lot then all the good deeds he did in his life will be transferred to you. Then he will be left with nothing, bankrupted.
So we said at the beginning that the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus and Moses and Abraham and Noah , all these heavenly religions came to discipline us and to teach how to behave with each other and to be relate with each other. That is the message that we have to carry with us.
Unfortunately many of us they try to hurt the others… in different ways. Look. Some Muslims hurt the majority of Muslims. Why? Because they thought this is their way, so even though they prayed and fasted, as the prophet said, because they hurted the other they are bankrupted in the presence of Allah they have nothing, they deserve punishment. Those who blended or branded or labeled the name of Islam and Muslim as terrorists because of their actions that they killed innocent people, they hurt the whole Muslim community. And not only the Muslim community, but they hurt the whole human race. What do you think the punishment will be on them. It is not going to be an easy punishment.
Antichrist, and we know in the Holy Bible and in the Torah of Moses and in the Holy Qur’an and the holy hadith of the prophet, about the last days we know that Antichrist is coming. Antichrist means the one who does not accept Jesus coming back on earth .it means he does not accept except his own belief. How many Antichrist we now have around this world?
Prophet Muhammad came 1400 years ago and delivered his message and he said, “Tis message will go to the Day of Judgment and in the Last Days Jesus will come back, and him and one of my grandchildren, Mahdi , will come to eliminate injustice.” But before that a lot of confusion that Antichrist will bring on earth before Jesus comes. So Jesus will come to eliminate what the Antichrist is doing.
So how many nowadays can be called “Antichrist on earth” that they are damaging the reputation of Islam and Muslims and against all heavenly messages? And they are coming against all messages and they are coming against every one who doesn’t accept them and the Antichrist will come against the whole world because they don’t accept him, and he will come and conquer one land after another. You found this in Bible in and in the hadith of the Holy Prophet . So he will establish himself in one place and then use that place to take over other places. That is the point of departure, intilaq in Arabic, to take over different places in order to take over the whole world.
And the Prophet said, “His evil power will move from one place to another.” Look today you see these circles of evilness, they are forming circles of evilness and they are doing all kinds of miseries around the world, problems around the world; terrorism around the world; fighting around the world; hijacking now, vessels and boats around the world. All kinds of evil work they are doing and this is because they are inheritors of what the Antichrist is coming with, they are paving the road for Antichrist. That means they are his supporters and we are looking and we are surprised how many of them coming around the world, destroying all kinds of beliefs.
“Antichrist,” the Prophet said, “he will not accept except his own beliefs.” He will say to you “if you accept me ok, if you don’t accept me…” he will eliminate them. And he will eliminate anyone who does not accept his belief and he will use massive elimination. And are we not seeing massive eliminations? Yes, look in Iraq, with suicide bombings. In other countries. And 911, after 911, before 911. Look in Africa how they are fighting. All of that is like a collection of different places around the world, with the same behavior and same ideology. Even if their belief is not Muslim but they are from different religions, but their focus, their belief, is to create confusion on earth either by their speeches or by their actions. Listen to what they say in their speeches. They are fiery speeches. And the Prophet said, “Anyone who can guarantee what is between his jaws … I will guarantee for him Paradise.”
These people we don’t hear from them except threatenings and Antichrist comes with threatenings, he cannot come with other than that. He comes before Jesus , before `Isa . And as I said, he has supporters. These supporters are coming out of their caves now and are spreading this earth with all these kinds of confusion. Unfortunately there is no end for it. The end will come with arrival of Antichrist. Because the evil power always going to be from century to century And in this century it is increasing a lot.
So what we have to do then is, as the Prophet said, “There will coming a time that there will be huge confusions around the world. Like chunks,… You know how you look at the sky at night and you don’t see any stars, there are huge chunks of dark night. He said, “Confusions will be so dark and so huge,” as if someone looking in the sky and seeing huge darkness there, no light. So at that time he said, “there will be lot of confusions around the world.” He said, “the one sitting, the one who is sitting, means sitting at home or sitting looking after his work, and sitting looking after his children and his family is better than the one standing and looking from the window.” He might receives something that might hurt him. The one looking is exposed. The one who is sitting on his chair, he is not looking outside there is no exposure for anything. He is not going to be exposed. He said, “the one who is sitting, is better than the one who is standing the one who is standing better than one walking the one walking on the street is better…?
And he said, “If you get angry at that time, then hit on a stone.” Hit your hand or your stick, it means get your anger out on that stone, until you break your stick. At that time “take your bow and arrow and hit it on the rock.” Don’t involve with anyone as something might hurt you. We are in such days.
That is why one of the companions of the Prophet , Sayyidina `Ali (r), karam-Allahu wajha, wa , he said, “you have to be careful what you are saying and what you want to say.” Today what makes people falling into problems is they have to know what they have to speak and what they have to say. He said, “before you speak judge yourself before you talk anything.”
Does anyone judge himself before he speaks? Look today these talk shows. Did you see any show they didn’t criticize each other? This one criticize this one and that one criticize that one. They say two opinions. What is the benefit? You are making more confusion with two opinions that one says something and that one says another: Who is right and who is wrong? Both consider they are right.
So the best is to keep silent. Study, learn, raise a family. Look at your work and don’t involve yourself too much with issues that don’t concern you. I don’t want to be long, but as he said, Sayyidina `Ali (r):
اعمل لدنياك كأنك تعيش أبداً ، و اعمل لآخرتك كأنك تموت غدا
A`amal li-dunyaka ka-annaka ta`ayshu abadan wa a`amal li akhiratika ka-annaka tamootu ghaddan – do for you lifetime that you are living on this earth as if you are living forever.”
It means be ambitious do what you want to do, but check what you want to say, but try to do the maximum, No problem. But make sure you do for your other life, the afterlife, as if you are dying tomorrow.
So look at the both sides. He said, “look at this world as if you are living forever. But keep in mind you might die tomorrow. You have to keep both sides, as any time you might be called and asked.
So the best in this time is to raise good children and a good family and to as soon as possible to get them married. You cannot leave your children without marriage. Too much temptations. Too much unacceptable acts that might make your children to fall down, as we are seeing outside in the streets, too much between girls and boys with drugs that are ruining their lives. Why? Because we are delaying their studies and we are delaying, we are not encouraging them to finish as quick as possible and then get married. Everyone is saying to wait and wait and wait, until they become 60 years old. Like Sayyid `Ali (r). Are you married.
Creation is the product of synchronizing our energy with the universe. Once we experience the whole and recognize it, we become aware that we are nothing but the Divine Creative Force.
![[image]](https://i1.wp.com/si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-VT969_1delhi_G_20121223045530.jpg)
