Somalia: Shariah court sentences two men to lashings for ‘un-islamic’ romance

by Kal El on January 12, 2010 · Comments

I guess by un-islamic they mean there was neither a goat, nor a small child…

Two men flogged for ‘un-Islamic’ romance
AFP/Mogadishu

The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group’s religious police in the Somali city of Kismayo flogged a man for flirting and another for having a “secret marriage”, an official said yesterday.

They received 15 and 39 lashes respectively in front of a crowd in central Kismayo, a large southern harbour which has been under Shebab administration since mid-2008 and where a strict form of Sharia is enforced.

“One of the young men was found engaging in secret wedlock which is illegal under Islamic law,” Sheikh Mohamed Moalim, a senior Shebab official, said from Kismayo.

“The other one was found seducing a lady alone. Both of them confessed to the charges in front of a court and they were publicly punished,” he said.

The flogging took place over the weekend.

Youths in some Muslim countries where sex before marriage is forbidden and the cost of a wedding prohibitive sometimes resort to secret marriage, known as “Qudbosir” in Somalia and “Urfi” in most Arab countries.

The custom, which keeps the matrimony secret from the couples’ parents and sometimes from another wife, is frowned upon in most of Somalia but has been practised in southern regions.

“The punishment was only to show that people will be held responsible for violating Sharia (Islamic law),” Sheikh Mohamed said. “We are here to correct deviant social behaviour and force the people to implement Sharia to the full.”

“Many people came to watch these two boys being punished. They were both flogged on the back as they stood facing the crowd of onlookers,” local resident Abdi Gure said.

The Shebab, whose leader last year proclaimed his allegiance to Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden, also arrested women selling khat, a mild narcotic leaf very popular with Somali men.

The Shebab religious police last week arrested several men for shaving their beards, arguing that too was a violation of Sharia.

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  • Tonto
    These morons have no idea what is in sharia and what ain't....and they're freakin' muz scum themselves! Amazing!
  • SirWilhelm
    It's wonderful how sharia controls such harmful practices. It's obvious that Somali society and culture would come crashing down if people were allowed to continue to have secret marriages, sex out of wedlock, and, heaven forbid, shaved faces. We can all see how these same practices have ruined other countries in the world, can't we?
    Of course, Somalia doesn't have any problem with the persecution of religious minorities, terrorism through piracy or attacks against the government since sharia was implemented, has it? Sharia wouldn't allow that to happen, since it controls all those other serious problems so well, would it? The whole world would be so much better off if sharia was universal wouldn't it? Oh wait! I'd have to shave my beard! Forget it!
  • joesix_pack
    Your comment remindes me of the Iranian leader's comment about Iran having no gays. This is because they kill the ones that they find. No more problem. He is quite wrong to think that they do not exist in that land anymore.

    I have also heard Muslims say that if you implement Islamic law and cut off the hands of those who steal, you would not see any theft anymore. Wrong. I am certain that people steal in areas that are under this type of penalty. Theives will be more careful. Even more importantly, people will be far less likely to press the issue unless the theft was really important. Similar to the reasoning behind the de-criminalization of smoking pot in our country. Police were far less likely to arrest some 16 year old for smoking a joint if the cop knew that it was a felony.
  • SirWilhelm
    History has shown that even the death penalty, even for minor crimes, does not eliminate crime. Enlightened societies have determined that the best thing to do is try to make the punishment fit the crime and enforce the law as best it can. Some crime, as with the poor, will always be with us. Sharia tries to turn back the clock with it's punishments, but it only drives criminals to be more cautious and clever, it does not get rid of them, while it makes the people that believe in it appear backward and ignorant, or proves that they really are, depending on your point of view. The only real cure for poverty and crime would be prosperity for all, and I don't mean the forced redistribution of wealth, and since the planet's resources are dwindling while the population is increasing, it's very doubtful that will ever happen.
  • JEWHAWK
    Islamic culture doesn't belong to our century.
    Muslims don't adapt to our ways because of that
    decrepit, bloody, lewd and utterly primitive sect
    called "islam".

    Muslims should be EXPELLED from the Western countries
    infested by them.

    Islam is a DISGRACE viewed from any possible angle.
    There's NOTHING good about it.
    Nothing at all.
  • joesix_pack
    Authoritarian systems fit well into chaotic situations. Islam has great authority and a lot of 'experts' who can step in and establish order. The only problem is that Islamic law is one of the most (If not the most) authoritarian systems ever devised.
  • Solkhar
    Did not know infidelsarecool has becomeing a satirical site, the opening comments obviously make it so, which is fine and thus we judge the rest of the posts as well by that standard.

    This item just confirms the two obvious facts. Radicalism is politics and thus control and that Shari'a Law is just a tool for that very aspect.

    Since Somalia is not just dirt poor, mostly illterate and easily radicalised, this result is expected. The entire world is prone to radicalism, be it in the form of religous violence and persecution in countries were it can manifest or by more simple means, through the media pushing for that political radical goal - increased bigotry, xenophobia, targetting of opposition politics etc. Radicals in Italy have insighted and encouraged attacks of Africans, the EDL towards both leftists and foreigners recently. Even small aspects, such as a number of Texas Schools - state run, banning long hair for boys (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/...) and thus even banning four year olds. Aparently the same happens in Florida, both bastions of the strongly conservative-right and Christian values. I found the reference in an anti-Western Arabic language site, stating incorrectly that this reflects conservative America and its hypocrisy of espousing freedoms. They would equate that with the banning of shaving beards.

    It is all just radicalism and its abuse of everything and anything it can attach itself to that is important to people - faith, freedom and choice.
  • Tonto
    What would you consider the root of that? The difference between a priesthood in islam versus the original concept that each man interprets islam on his own, perhaps? Seems that the wahabi concept of interpretation of islam can only be valid if done by an islamic priest (or whatever they call him) is at the core of way too much trouble in the world.
  • Christine_S
    "It is all just radicalism and its abuse of everything and anything it can attach itself to that is important to people - faith, freedom and choice."

    Nice, Solkhar. A perfect summation of Islam.
  • SirWilhelm
    I'm sorry Solkar, am I missing something? You say that Sharia Law is just a tool for radicalim, if I understand you correctly? But isn't Sharia Law a basic tenant of Islam? Please clarify.
  • Solkhar
    Shari'a Law is a creation of the haddiths and therefore there are as many variations of Shari'a as there are of haddiths, let alone schisms like Shia Islam. I am a Sinast which means I believe in the divinity of the Qur'an but put no such faith in the haddiths which as far as I am concerned and believe are products of man - regardless of the intentions.

    The principles of the Qur'an represent the faith in general and society' standards and principles are based on the faith of the community - or to put it in another format, secular law follows the principles, morals and standards of accepted behavour of the country, mostly based on relgious principles. That is why, for instance, the majority of Muslim countries have rejected installing Shari'a Legal Systems and embraced secular systems as the laws of the various parliaments or other forms of governments have reflected the standards that is within framework of a Muslim society.

    I can put it also another way. Installing Shari'a Legal Systems puts power in the hands of conservative theologians and not with trained judicial experts, and the need for Shari'a disapeared and has been superceded by basically secular law based on and representing the standards and morals of those Muslim countries - based on Islamic Principles, not some "haddith-based so-called Islamic Law".

    Hope that explains it. I am not a minority in that view but in the majority, the majority of Muslims in this world have rejected handing over the legal system to conservative clerics whom follow one or antoher variant of the haddiths. Most countries have secular legal systems and of those that do have Shari'a, the majority of them have it only for family law.

    Cheers, back later if you respond, watching so far a tie-match between Nigeria and Egypt, so far 1-1.
  • hellosnackbar
    But many Muslims make the claim that Sharia was formulated by Allah and is immutable and perfect.
    Just yesterday Anjem Choudary said Sharia is God's law for all even the Kufr to obey.
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