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March 09, 2008

Continued Adventures in Islamic "Justice"

"The requirements for proving unlawful sexual intercourse are even more strict than for the other hadd offences. On the strength of K 24:4* full evidence for this crime requires the concurring testimonies of four male eyewitnesses. They must have seen the act in its most intimate details, i.e., the penetration, or, in the terms of certain hadiths, the witnesses must have observed the act just like 'a pencil going into a kohl container . . or a bucket into a well.' If their testimonies do not satisfy the requirements, the witnesses can be sentenced to eighty lashes, the fixed penalty for unfounded accusations of fornication."

Rudolph Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law, p. 14-15.

*"Those who accuse the ones who are free, chaste females, but bring not four witnesses, then scourge them eighty strokes, and never accept their testimony, and they, those are the ones who disobey, except those who repent after that, and make things right." From a friend: "I believe (though don't quote me on it - I'm basing it on my recollection of Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad) that this verse was first preached after Muhammad's favorite wife spent a considerable length of time traveling alone with a handsome young man. On this reading, Pop Allah conveniently revealed 24:4 to the Prophet in order to put to an end malicious speculation."