Fighting The Death Penalty Under Political Islam.

international | gender and sexuality | other press Wednesday December 03, 2008 16:38 by pat c

Here is an extract from an interview with Maryam Namazie who argues that Political Islam makes abolishing the Death Penalty more difficult. Full text at link.

IPS: Your organisation campaigns for the separation of religion and state. In Muslim countries, is it religion, more than anything else that prevents the abolition of the death penalty?

Maryam Namazie: The death penalty exists in quite a large number of countries and is a form of social control still exercised by states, not all of them ruled by Islamic laws (I wouldn't call them Muslim countries any more than I would call Britain and France Christian ones). The U.S. and China are good examples of this.

However, the majority of countries where executions are taking place are ruled by sharia law and there is a direct association between Islam and executions. Iran, for example, has the highest number of juveniles on death row. Of course, Islam is fundamentally no different from other religions in that death is prescribed for a large number of transgressions in all of them; however, because it is linked to a political movement with state power in many instances, the medievalism of religious rule becomes the law of the land.

IPS: Is the enforcement of sharia law the main problem in your eyes?

MN: I think political Islam is the main problem and sharia law is a means at the hands of this reactionary political movement. A Christianity that has been reined in, for example by enlightenment, is very different to one that burned witches at the stake and held inquisitions. If we defeat and weaken political Islam, Islam and Islamic laws become very different matters. Without state and political power, inhuman and medieval punishments will be relegated to the dustbins of history.