Iran to Blind Criminal with Acid in 'Eye for an Eye' Justice
THE GUARDIAN: Retribution granted to woman who had acid thrown in her face by man she refused to marry

In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Iran is ready for the first time to blind a man with acid, after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him.

Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes, her lawyer said.

Bahrami who had asked for an eye for an eye retribution in the court, was disfigured and blinded by Movahedi in 2004 when he threw a jar of acid in her face while she was returning home from work. "He was holding a red container in his hand. He looked into my eyes for a second and threw the contents of the red container into my face," she told the court in 2008.

According to Iranian media, Bahrami's lawyer, Ali Sarafi, has said: "A very good sentence has been given and an appropriate method has been adopted so that the convict will be blinded by few drops of acids in eyes after he is rendered unconscious."

In a highly publicised dossier in November 2008, a criminal court in Tehran ordered qisas (retribution) on Movahedi after he admitted throwing acid at Bahrami, and entitled her to blind him with acid. He was also required to pay compensation to the victim. Bahrami refused to accept the "blood money" and told the court: "Inflict the same life on him that he inflicted on me." » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Friday, May 13, 2011

Saudi Arabia Flogs Orphan Girls
THE GUARDIAN: Six girls aged between 12 and 18 receive 10 lashes each for attacking head of orphanage

Six orphan girls aged between 12 and 18 have been flogged in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of attacking the head of their orphanage, an official said.

The girls received 10 lashes each at a women's prison in Medina, Islam's second holiest city.

"The order against the six orphans is a legitimate court order," Mohammed al-Awadh, the public relations manager at the ministry of social affairs, told Reuters. "The ministry does not have the right to interfere in a court order."

He gave no details of the ruling but the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz said the girls had been convicted of "acts of mischief" and attacking the director of the orphanage.

The girls defended their actions, saying they were harassed by the director, Okaz reported. » | Reuters in Riyadh | Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Shocking Footage Emerges of Taliban Stoning Couple to Death
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A disturbing video of a man and woman being executed by the Taliban has been released by Afghan security forces.

Read article and watch video here | Thursday, January 27, 2011

Bangladesh Clerics Arrested after Girl Whipped to Death
THE GUARDIAN: Fourteen-year-old accused of relationship with married man given 70 lashes

Police in Bangladesh have arrested four Islamic clerics after a teenage girl accused of having a relationship with a married man was whipped to death. >>> Associated Press | Thursday, February 03, 2011

Saudi Arabia Employers 'Hammer Nails' Into Sri Lankan Maid


Related: here and here

Protect the Human Rights of Migrant Workers in the Middle East

Immigrant Worker Abuse in Middle East Condemned by Human Rights Group
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: International human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has implored Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to make more effort to protect its immigrant workers, after shocking stories emerged about the abuse of three domestic workers.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, HRW said that it had received allegations from a maid in Kuwait whose employer drove nails into her body, a maid in Saudi Arabia who had nails forced into her body, and a maid in Jordan who had been both beaten and forced to swallow nails.

The watchdog said the stories implied a “broader pattern of abuse”, and that the goverments of the three countries needed to create a stronger legal framework to protect their foreign workers.

"The wanton brutality alleged in these cases is shocking, but reports of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and labour exploitation such as non-payment of wages are nothing new,'' said Nisha Varia, a senior women's rights researcher at HRW.

Many domestic workers in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait come from Asia, Africa and other countries in the Middle East in the hope of receiving higher salaries. Because employers in Middle East countries often act as workers' "sponsors" however, they exert extreme power over their staff. Employers can prevent workers changing jobs or leaving the country, and often withold salaries for years. >>> Leah Hyslop | Thursday, November 18, 2010

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Doctors remove 19 nails from Sri Lankan maid: A Sri Lankan housemaid whose Saudi employer allegedly embedded 24 nails in her body was recovering in hospital on Friday after doctors removed 18 of them during a three-hour surgery. >>> | Friday, August 27, 2010

MIGRANT RIGHTS: Mission statement: Through the power of the web we wish to raise awareness about the plight of migrant workers in the Middle East and encourage social action to end the violations of their human rights and dignity. Unfortunately, very little is done to prevent the modern-day slavery many workers endure in the region. Our job is to change that. >>>

Indonesian Maid Tortured in Saudi Arabia, Another Beaten to Death
MIGRANT RIGHTS: This week, two cases of severe abuse of Indonesian maids by their Saudi sponsors have surfaced, one of them ending in death and the other in serious injuries.

The first case, of 23-year-old Sumiati BT Salan Mustapa was first reported by the Saudi Gazette. This initial report mentioned that Mustapa arrived in Saudi-Arabia in July to work for a family in Madina. On November 6th Mustapa was admitted to a private hospital in Madina injured from head to toe in an unconscious state. The private hospital was unable to treat her serious injuries and she was transferred to the King Fahd hospital. A worker there told the Gazette that Mustapa’s body “was burned on many places, both legs were almost motionless, some parts of her skin on her head were removed and strong marks of old wounds were on her body including skin loss on lips and head, a fractured middle finger and a cut near an eye.” Mustapa also showed signs of malnutrition or excessive blood loss. >>> | Friday, November 19, 2010

Indonesia[n] Maid 'Killed in Saudi Arabia'
BBC: Indonesia has demanded an inquiry into reports that a maid working in Saudi Arabia was killed by her employers and her body dumped in a bin.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a team had been sent to the Saudi town of Abha to investigate reports of the murder of 36-year-old Kikim Komalasari.

It comes as officials arrived in Saudi to follow up claims of torture against a second Indonesian maid.

Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa is recovering in hospital in Medina.

Her injuries include gashes to her face and cuts to her lips, allegedly inflicted by her employers using scissors. She was also burned with an iron, officials say.

Indonesia's president has demanded justice for the "extraordinary torture".

Indonesian media reported on Thursday that the Saudi Arabian government had arrested the female employer of Sumiati, and apologised for her treatment. >>> | Friday, November 19, 2010

It appears that Saudi Arabia is in urgent need of Christian missionaries! – © Mark

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad May End Up as Genghis Khan with a Nuclear Bomb
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran will not be shamed into abandoning stoning, or its nuclear ambitions, says Alasdair Palmer.

Joseph Stalin was once described as "Genghis Khan with a telephone". President Ahmadinejad may soon be Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb. Admittedly, Ahmadinejad hasn't yet committed mass murder on that scale, although when he promised to "wipe Israel off the map", he showed that he would – if only he could. And he may treat his own people slightly better than Genghis Khan treated his. But as Dr Johnson said, "there is no settling orders of precedence between a louse and a flea".

Ahmadinejad has imprisoned thousands for protesting against the brutality, incompetence and illegitimacy of his rule; he has condoned the imposition of the death penalty for any Muslim who converts to another faith; and he supports punishing adultery by stoning those involved to death.

There has been a global campaign to persuade Iran to end stoning, a disgustingly barbaric punishment which inflicts pain of the same order as impaling, Genghis Khan's favourite method of execution, and may take even longer to cause death. It centres on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother and widow who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and punished with 99 lashes. She has been in prison ever since, as the judges decided that 99 lashes wasn't a severe enough sentence for the crime of loving someone who isn't your spouse: she deserved to be stoned to death. Continue reading and comment >>> Alasdair Palmer | Saturday, September 04, 2010

Still More Barbarity in Saudi Arabia! Sudanese Driver Executed in Saudi Arabia
BBC: A Sudanese driver convicted of murdering his Saudi Arabian employer has been executed.

Mussa Ahmed was beheaded in Riyadh in the eighth execution in the kingdom this year.

Ahmed killed Mohammed al-Mutairy by hitting him on the head with a metal object, a statement published by the official SPA news agency said.

Following the crime, Ahmed fled to Sudan but was extradited to Saudi Arabia to stand trial, reports said.

No other details about the case were available.

Saudi Arabia executed 67 people last year, fewer than the record number of 153 in 2007.

Under the country's strict version of Sharia law, rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death. [Source: BBC] | Thursday, March 04, 2010

New Dark Age Alert! Pictured: Islamic Militants Stone Man to Death for Adultery in Somalia as Villagers Are Forced to Watch
MAIL ONLINE: This barbaric scene belongs in the Dark Ages, but pictures emerged today of a group of Islamic militants who forced villagers to watch as they stoned a man to death for adultery.

Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, a 48-year-old, was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks until he died.

The group responsible, Hizbul Islam, also shot dead a man they claimed was a murderer.

But the verdict was so shocking that it prompted a gun battle between rivals within the group that left three militants dead, witnesses said.

The executions took place yesterday in Afgoye, some 20 miles south-west of the capital of Mogadishu.

Hizbul Islam fighters ordered hundreds of residents to a field, where a rebel judge announced that the two men had confessed to murder and adultery.

A woman who had confessed to fornication had been sentenced to 100 lashes, he added.

'This is their day of justice,' the judge, Osman Siidow Hasan, told the crowd. 'We investigated and they confessed.' >>> Mail Foreign Service | Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Barbarism in the First World
How can America criticize Saudi Arabia for barbaric beheadings when this sort of thing goes on in the States? – © Mark
THE GUARDIAN: Defence attorneys for Bobby Wayne Woods argued for state to spare inmate following low scores on IQ tests

Texas has executed a child killer at the centre of a bitter dispute over what defines legal mental impairment after several courts ruled that he could be put to death despite a low IQ.

Bobby Wayne Woods, 44, was killed by lethal injection for raping and murdering his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter after the US supreme court denied a last minute appeal by lawyers who argued that the condemned man fell within a ruling by the same court in 2002 that the mentally impaired could not be sentenced to death.

After being told that the supreme court had refused to intervene, Woods' last words were: "Bye. I'm ready."

Tests on Woods in prison put his IQ as low as 68, below the widely accepted cut off for mental impairment of 70. However, in pursuing the death penalty, the state fell back on other tests conducted when he was a child that put his IQ as high as 86.

Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor who represented Woods, said that he is "transparently childlike and simple" and described the execution as "a travesty".

Despite the supreme court ruling seven years ago barring the death penalty for the mentally impaired, individual states are left to decide what defines severe learning disabilities. The court said that an IQ test of "around 70" was an indicator but did not set a specific test.

Recent studies have shown that men with IQ scores lower than 70 have been executed in several states, including Texas and Alabama. Texas executes man at centre of mental disability row >>> Chris McGreal in Washington | Friday, December 04, 2009

LE FIGARO: Texas : un homme souffrant 
de retard mental exécuté : Bobby Woods a été condamné à mort pour le meurtre d'une petite fille. Son exécution relance le débat de la peine de mort des attardés mentaux, interdite depuis 2002 par la Cour suprême. >>> J.J. (lefigaro.fr) avec agences | Vendredi 04 Décembre 2009

NZZ ONLINE: Todesurteil an Kindermörder in USA vollstreckt >>> sda/afp | Freitag, 04. Dezember 2009

The American Way of Death
TIMES ONLINE – Leading Article: A botched execution in Ohio should quicken the end of capital punishment

America is the only big democracy — apart, occasionally, from Japan — that still carries out capital punishment. The botched attempted execution in Ohio this week of a murderer should prompt America to join the rest of the developed world in consigning judicial killing to history. There is inadequate evidence that it acts as a deterrent, it ignores the risk of miscarriages of justice and allows no room for repentance or correction. But above all it is a barbarity that stains civilised society.

There is no question but that the crime committed by Romell Broom was vile. He was sentenced to die for the rape and murder in 1984 of a 14-year-old girl. But his execution on Tuesday was halted when technicians failed, after a two-hour-long search, to find a vein sturdy enough to deliver the three-drug lethal injection.

A one-week reprieve granted by the Governor of Ohio may well be extended indefinitely, partly because it is half a century since any inmate was subjected to more than one execution, and partly because some justices of the US Supreme Court have now begun to wonder if botched lethal injections might not violate the eighth amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishment”. Last year the court upheld the use of lethal injections. But Justice John Paul Stevens, while concurring, said that imposing the death penalty represented “the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes”. Other justices are believed to share this view.

When Texas became the first US state to introduce lethal injections in 1982, they were thought more humane than the electric chair, gas or hanging. It is time that they went the same way. [Source: Times Online / Comment here] Leading Article | Thursday, September 17, 2009

Stoning to Death: Bringing the Horrors of Islam to Life!


First you'll hear a speech, then a man gets flogged. The stoning of two women starts 6 minutes into the video. Watch till the end.

The stoning of women is practiced in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

Warning: even if the film quality is poor, the images are extremely powerful and are not recommanded for all. [This is NOT suitable for children, for those who have a weak stomach, or for those who are of a nervous disposition.]

Hat tip: Apostates of Islam >>>

This is the barbarity that the law-makers of Aceh province have voted to make law; and this is the religion that our politicians – almost to a man – are in denial about. They call it the 'religion of love and peace', when anyone with an atom of common sense and intelligence knows full well that Islam symbolizes anything but either love or peace. Islam is a cruel, heartless cult. And I use the word 'cult' not as an insult but because that is what Islam truly is. A cult, by definition, venerates a particular figure. In this case, Muhammad. All devotion in a cult is directed towards that figure. In Islam, all devotion is directed towards Muhammad; indeed, Muslims are to love their prophet more than they love their own mothers, fathers, wives, or children. Therefore, the old name for Islam, Muhammadanism, is a very apt term for Westerners to use. Perhaps we should revert to the term! – © Mark

Muslims Don’t Want to Integrate with Us. But Who Would Want to Integrate with Them?
It has been reported that the most senior judge in the ‘holy land’ of Saudi Arabia has called for the killing of owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes. This is savagery at its most brutal. It is merciless. It is without any semblance of compassion.

Our political leaders, especially the hapless George W Bush, have for years, since the heinous crime of 9/11, called Islam a ‘religion of peace’. It is to be hoped that you, dear reader, have already come to the opposite conclusion! Namely, that Islam is anything but a ‘religion of peace’,

Let’s make no mistake about this. The man who has said it is perfectly okay to kill these ownners of satellite TV is the most senior judge in Saudi Arabia. The most senior judge, no less!

Why are we in the West putting up with this nonsense?

Where are our highly-paid politicians that are there to protect us all from the menace of barbarism? For this is what this is: Barbarism, savagery, uncivilized behaviour.

We have allowed Muslims to immigrate into our once civilized countries en masse. We, the people, have not given you, the politicians, the right to allow this. After all, we haven’t been asked for our opinion. You feckless people have just taken it upon yourselves to allow this to happen. In so doing, you have ignored the first law of democracy: To consult the people!

Now we are confronted with the mass immigration of a people who are unwilling to integrate with us, and a people with whom most civilized people would not want to integrate with anyway! So where do you think this is all going to lead? I can see but one outcome: Civil war.

Islam is a pernicious ideology. It is not a religion as we in the West would normally categorize a religion. Islam recognizes no separation of religion and politics. It is one integrated whole. We, by contrast, have a democratic system which not only recognizes a separation of religion and politics, but that separation is the sine qua non of its existence.

Muslims of all hues, fundamentalist or so-called moderate (whatever that incarnation is), recognize no such separation. Our leaders have repeatedly refused to recognize this FACT, So what are we, the people, left with? A situation which is totally and utterly untenable! We are left with a people which does not wish to integrate with us and whose values we will not accept, whose values we consider backward, uncivilized, merciless, uncompassionate. What a dilemma!

This is all leading to no good place. On the contrary, it is leading to hell on earth!

Our politicians have been seen to be weak and ineffectual, lacking in courage for many a year; indeed, since 9/11. If the people continue to perceive this lack of courage, I predict that one of these fine days, they will take matters into their own hands. Civil war will ensue.

We the people do not want all these alien people here in our countries. Allowing people of different creeds, of differnet skin colours, of different culture into our countires is one thing; but allowing Muslims in with their inability to integrate and their unwillingness to do so, and their wanton desire to destroy our way of life, destroy our freedom of speech, destroy our freedom of thought, destroy our freedom of religion is something quite different. They are uncilivilized!

It is time that the people of the West stood up to resist this dilution of their culture; for surely, one day they will wake up and find that their culture and values will be no more, especially if things continue as they have been allowed to continue so long. Big business has needs, that is for sure. It needs cheap labour; but the people have needs to, and their grandchildren more especially; they need a future. They need a future that is free. They will not wish to be shackled by the strictures of Islam, a seventh century set of values, shackled to the thinking of a people wedded to the dark ages.

Gordon Brown is corpulent of physique and flabby of thought. George W Bush, who will soon no longer be president of the United States of America, is lightwieght of both physique and thought. Obama is also lightweight. As is David Cameron. Sarah Palin, Sarah Barracuda, or the ‘pitbull with lipstick’, is an unknown (though she shows some promise). There are few politicians in whom we can trust. What we need is courageous, strong, and determined politicians. Determined to ensure that our freedoms will not only be respected, but also be enshrined in our constitutions, before Islam takes them all away.

Let’s make no mistake about this: Islam is a force for evil, it is a force for no good. It respects no personal liberty; it respects no choice. It is the antithesis of everything we Westerners stand for. One thing is for sure: It doesn’t belong here in the West.

Muslims do not wish to integrate with us. It was clearly stated by Prophet Muhammad that they should not do so. But ask yourself this question: If the top judge of Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, says it is okay to kill the owners of satellite TV stations who broadcast 'immoral programmes’, do we really want to integrate with them, do we really want to integrate with such barbarians?

©Mark Alexander

All Rights reserved

Where Are the Feminists, Where Are the Civil Rights Groups, Where Is the ACLU? ‘Qatif-Girl’ Treated Savagely by Saudi Government
How our politicians are acquiescing in the face of barbarity!

BBC: Authorities in Saudi Arabia have defended a judicial sentence of 200 lashes for a rape victim.

The justice ministry said in a statement that the sentence was justified because the woman was in a car with an unrelated man.

The case has aroused controversy at home and condemnation abroad.

US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the sentence was an outrage and urged President Bush to put pressure on Saudi King Abdullah.

The 19-year-old, who has not been named, was travelling in a car with a male friend last year, when the car was attacked by a gang of seven men who raped both of them.

She has become known as the "Qatif girl", a reference to the largely Shia town which she comes from. Saudis back rape victim sentence (more)

Mark Alexander