An eye for an eye

Saudi judge weighs paralysis punishment

• From:AP 
• August 20, 2010 9:33pm

A SAUDI judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralysing him.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralysed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told AP.

He said one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialised facility.

Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.

Administrative offices of two of the hospitals and the court in Tabuk were closed for the Saudi weekend beginning on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

A copy of the medical report from the King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk province obtained by the AP said the same injury al-Mutairi suffers from can be inflicted on his attacker using a nerve stimulant, and inducing the same injuries in the same locations. The report was dated six months ago.

Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally doles out punishments based on the ancient legal code of an eye-for-an-eye. However, King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on extremist ideology, including unauthorised clerics issuing odd religious decrees.

The query by the court, among the most unusual and extreme to have been made public in the kingdom, highlights the delicate attempt in Saudi Arabia to balance a push to modernise the country with interpretations of religious traditions that critics say are out of sync with a modern society.

The Saudi newspaper Okaz identified the judge as Saoud bin Suleiman al-Youssef.

The brother said the judge asked at least two hospitals for a medical opinion on whether surgeons could render the attacker's spinal cord nonfunctional. He and Saudi newspaper reports did not identify the attacker

Khaled al-Mutairi, 27, said the assailant was sentenced to 14 months in prison for the attack that paralysed his younger brother, but he was released after seven months in an amnesty. He said the attacker then got a job as a school teacher .

"We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law," the brother said. "There is no better word than God's word - an eye for an eye."

Okaz reported that a leading hospital in Riyadh - King Faisal Specialist Hospital - responded that it could not do the operation. It quoted a letter from the hospital saying "inflicting such harm is not possible", apparently refusing on ethical grounds.

Islamic law applied in Saudi Arabia allows defendants to ask for a similar punishment for harms inflicted on them. Cutting off the hands of thieves, for example, is common.

Under the law, the victim can receive a blood money to settle the case.

Khaled al-Mutairi said his family is not interested in blood money, and would be ready to send the attacker abroad to perform the operation if it were not possible in the kingdom.

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An eye for an eye will leave the will leave the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948).

Here, we have Muslim clergymen and professionals who are trying to re-brand Islam as a progressive religion keeping with the times. Pray listen to the radio interview on BFM with Dr Farouk Musa, President of Islamic Renaissance on the podcast below. 

BFM: The Concept of Ramadhan - Dr Farouk Musa

On the other hand, we have people from the revered religion proclaim 'an eye for an eye' as being dictum of God and justice must be carried out along that line. This is contrary to what a learned father of a nation, whom Einstein described that in year to come, it will hard to imagine that such a man actually walked on Earth, said, "An eye for an eye will only leave the whole blind."

The judges in a court case in Saudi Arabia (above) where an assailant who caused his victim to be paraplegic have passed judgement that the convict must be made paraplegic by medical intervention! This is in keeping with the eye for eye adage. 

Thankfully, none of the hospitals requested in Saudi Arabia have requested so far. Hopefully medical practitioner will adhere to first clinical teaching : First do no harm. All it takes is one medical renegade who thinks that he is God-sent to carry out His law on Earth to volunteer.

This is exactly the kind of adverse publicity that the religion does not need, now that the world is essentially divided into the believers and the kafirs. It will further increase aversion to the religion.

In midst of all these, I can only hear the babbling of Mr KSG with his Shakespearean quotation, 'To err is human, to forgive but divine.' All of us know that the common good is found in all religions. It is only us, human,who try to outdo each other by claiming superiority. I just hope that common sense will finally prevail in the land of the last Prophet of God.