WITH the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, there are fears they will reimpose their harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. Most Muslim countries incorporate elements of Sharia into their legal systems, particularly in family law.
But very few carry out the punishments known as hudud which are not even approved by Muslim scholars. In short, sharia is a system of religious law derived from the Quran as the word of God and the Hadith or the words or actions of the Prophet Muhammad. Its application has been the subject of dispute between conservative and liberal Muslims and is still debated.
Some aspects have been widely accepted such as its application to banking. Even Western companies are offering Islamic financial products to attract Muslim customers.
Hudud, which means limits in Arabic, is a punishment imposed for major sins such as adultery, rape, homosexuality, theft, and murder. The punishment is rarely carried out because many violations must be proven by confession or witnessed by several adult Muslim men. Here is how it is implemented in several countries.
Arab Saudi
Sharia is the basis of all Saudi law. To this day, hudud punishments are often carried out in public. Homosexual acts are punishable by execution, though usually limited to flogging and imprisonment.
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Beheadings and amputations with the sword were usually carried out on Fridays, before the midday prayer. In extreme cases, the condemned were sometimes crucified after execution.
The law also allows for an eye-for-an-eye punishment known as qisas in cases of personal injury. But the family of a murder victim can pardon the convicted person in the Sunni kingdom, often in exchange for money.
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Iran
The Islamic Republic’s legal system—which along with China has executed more people than any other country—is based on Sharia, but with some important differences. Judges are allowed to consider circumstantial evidence. Its laws are also not like classical Sharia, as Iran relies heavily on imprisonment.
However, the Shiite state does implement various Sharia punishments. Amnesty International criticized it in 2017 for “the persistent use of cruel and inhumane punishments, including flogging, amputations and forced blinding.”
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Brunei Darussalam
The tiny, ultra-wealthy absolute monarchy sparked international outrage when it became the first country in Southeast Asia to implement extreme sharia law in 2019. Its sultan later said some punishments would not be enforced, including stoning for gay sex and adultery.
Afghanistan
Since taking power, the Taliban have indicated they may relax their previously brutal interpretation of sharia. The last Taliban regime confined women without male companions to their homes and made them wear full-body burqas. Extreme hudud punishments were also routinely carried out during their five years in power.
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Indonesia
Indonesia’s conservative Aceh region is the only province in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country to have Islamic law. Public floggings are common for gambling, drinking alcohol, adultery and gay sex. But the central government has refused to sanction beheadings. Aceh adopted religious law after being granted autonomy in 2001 in Jakarta’s bid to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
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Sudan
Sudan adopted sharia law in 1983 but its implementation has been patchy since then, activists say. The death penalty by stoning remains on the statute books but has not been used in decades. However, activists say hundreds of women are flogged each year for immoral behavior.
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Pakistan
Military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq introduced the much-criticized Hudood Ordinances in 1979 as part of Pakistan’s Islamization. The Sharia courts that enforce the laws run parallel to the British-based but rarely used criminal code. They cover adultery, false accusations in court, property crimes, and prohibitions on drugs and alcohol.
In 2006, lawmakers passed the Women’s Protection Law, removing rape and adultery from the religious system. Sharia court rulings can now also be appealed to regular courts.
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Nigeria
About 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states — all in the north — apply Sharia to criminal cases. Courts can order amputations, although few have been carried out.
Qatar
Flogging is still on the statute books as a punishment for Muslims who drink alcohol or engage in illicit sex, but it is rarely used. The penalty for adultery is technically 100 lashes.
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Adultery is also punishable by death if it involves a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man. But in reality, the death penalty is only used in very rare cases of murder when the victim’s family shows no mercy.
Islamic State (ISIS)
Before its caliphate was destroyed in 2019, the Islamic State group imposed a particularly brutal form of sharia in parts of Syria and Iraq it controlled. It ran its own courts, carried out public beheadings, stonings and amputations, and pushed men suspected of being gay off tall buildings. Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab also implemented a brutal form of sharia. (AFP/OL-14)
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