I try to be understanding of cultures formed around religious beliefs. Sometimes those cultures go too far. One is FGM done to women in Egypt and the other is religious justice for “crimes”.
Here is a story I read on the BBC website just today:
According to reports from a small village near the town of Wajid, 250 miles (400km) north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, the woman was taken to the public grounds where she was buried up to her waist.
She was then stoned to death in front of the crowds on Tuesday afternoon.
The judge, Sheikh Ibrahim Abdirahman, said her unmarried boyfriend was given 100 lashes at the same venue.
Under al-Shabab’s interpretation of Sharia law, anyone who has ever been married – even a divorcee – who has an affair is liable to be found guilty of adultery, punishable by stoning to death.
An unmarried person who has sex before marriage is liable to be given 100 lashes.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the stoning is at least the fourth for adultery in Somalia over the last year.
Earlier this month, a man was stoned to death for adultery in the port town of Merka, south of Mogadishu.
His pregnant girlfriend was spared, until she gives birth.
I particularly found the bit about how anyone who has ever been married – even a divorcee – can be stoned for adultery to be creepy.
Just another reason I am glad I am a non-believer and can live in country that has a secular government and I wouldn’t want that to change. That’s why I support separation of church and state.
