Hudud: Islam's Barbaric Penal Code; Crucifixion for Leaving Islam

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (Worthy News)-- Hudud, a category of punishment within the penal code of shar'ia, is partcularly barbaric as practiced in Sudan, whose National Islamic Front is committed to both a strict interpretation and imposition of Islamic law.

Huded are offenses defined as "claims of God" as ordained by Allah; it includes severe deterrent punishments for serious crimes that can be applied to both Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

In Sudan, under hudud women can be flogged for minor crimes, but adultery often results in being stoning to death; the sentence is carried out by a crowd throwing stones at the accused whose hands are tied as she is buried up to her chest.

The trial for adultery in a shar'ia court is in Arabic where the accused if often without legal representation, or even a translator.

Crucifixion, the Islamic punishment for apostasy, sometimes follows an execution as the purpose is to draw attention to the deterrent. In 2011, nearly 170 Sudanese were charged with apostasy.

Unlike the above punishments, cross-amputation -- the removal of the right hand and left foot -- is less public and often goes unreported; the sentence is usually handed-out in emergency tribunals that were first established more than a decade ago in Sudan to summarily deal with armed robbery and arms trafficking.

Cross-amputation is also found in the Qu'ran: "Those that make war against Allah and His apostle and spread disorders in the land shall be put to death or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides ... (Sura 5:33).

The verse ends with, "For you must know that Allah is forgiving and merciful," a phrase which seems to contradict itself when considering the barbarity of these divinely sanctioned punishments.