Stoning Aisha

The word perversion is an understatement here. Amnesty International recently reported that a thirteen year-old girl was stoned to death in Somalia, accused of adultery. Amnesty reports that sources claim she was raped by three men and that she attempted to inform the authorities who saw fit to charge her for violating Islamic law.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was accused of adultery, but sources told Amnesty International that she had in fact been raped by three men, and had attempted to report this rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo. It was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

Shari'ah in practice? The case of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow and the Saudi girl from Qatif earlier this year all too painfully bring to light the injustices across the Muslim world arising from the attempted implementation of Islamic law. Maybe the masses are fooled due to ignorance of the Qur'an or the true Prophetic Paradigm. Or maybe people have been trained to deem anything that opposes the West and its liberalism as a valid Islamic alternative. Have we come to accept any harsh and unpalatable corporal punishment as a true manifestation of God's will? And have we become silent to injustice in our communities fearing that we may be questioning God's mysterious wisdom?

So a girl was murdered for a crime in which no four witnesses testified against her. In 2005, Tariq Ramadan made a strong point in calling for a moratorium on corporal punishment in the Islamic world, earning the antagonism of many. But when our laws and punishments blatantly target the weakest segments of our society - women, ethnic minorities, and the poor - this shari'ah we cling to uphold is far from a "well-trodden path" towards God but rather a path to our own self-destruction.