7 replies to this topic

[writersfreedom]

 

 

 

 

 

Capital punishment or the death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.

 

In Algeria we have the death penalty but it's been 19 years since it was last used as a punishment. And even though many criminals get the death penalty, they just end up staying in prison till they die because Algeria gives this punishment but does not apply it.

 

 

What do you guys think about that? Should Algeria start using death penalty as a punishment and not just on paper or should we just abolish the capital punishment?

 

~~~ Peace out ~~~

[Apocalypse]

I believe you have asked a similar question before writersfreedom and at the time I didn't have a precise opinion about it. I think now I do, I do not agree with the Death Penalty in Algeria. Saying this might have a humanist tone, wait, I haven't finished my argument yet. 

Few months ago I've been reading something about Foucault's Discipline and Punishment. He traced a genealogy of punishment in Europe and compared between punishment in the past and Punishment in the Modern times. In short, punishment then was by cutting someone's head as the most severe form of punishing a criminal. With the birth of social sciences and clinical psychology, it was understood that man can be manipulated and disciplined through different forms of direct and indirect punishment. So as a form of punishment, a criminal is not led to death, but driven to prison or to therapy, this therapy is not a destruction of a sort of illness in itself, but a form of refashioning his mind to conform to the norms and values of society thus suppressing his identity even if he is a bad person, and instead creating a normal man which is in fact a form of recreating a copy of an easily manipulated individual who conforms to the rules, with no personality. In short, even madness was a sort of personality, it is madness in our eyes we fashioned manipulated people. Thus, killing him is an easier way of punishing him rather than depriving him of his freedom and of personality. Which leads us to our topic, I think that the death penalty is an easy way for a rapist of young girls for example to get away with it, I prefer punishment, like prison and torture for 20 years followed by the death penalty. The man will suffer for 20 years and wait 20 for the day to be killed.

(sorry if this is too violent but it is the only violent way to punish someone who has made such crimes in my opinion)

[محمد - Mohammed]

The answer is simple, punishments should be in accordance with Islam.

 

(sorry if this is too violent but it is the only violent way to punish someone who has made such crimes in my opinion)

 

I dont agree with this post. What you are suggesting is essentially torture, which would be the effect of holding someone in prison waiting to be put to death. Islam does not condone torture, which is why I believe the concept of prison is alien to Islam.

 

The difficult part is this: How much faith can we put into the Algerian judicial system, knowing the rampant corruption which exists in the country? 

 

Case in point: Only recently there was a story about a man wrongly accused of rape in Barbados and the rape victim had to go back out there and testify in his defence so that he could be let out, despite her insisting that it wasn't him in the first place. They didn't care wether it was him or not, as long as they could stamp the file 'solved'.

 

And the idea of "refashioning" a man's mind, well, I know of someone who's just been sent back to prison last week. He must like the food they serve because its visit number 32. Prison doesn't work for everyone.

[Apocalypse]

Refashioning their minds does not take place in prison, but in psychiatric hospitals and schools and in society...etc.

I agree when you talk about the necessity of applying Islamic rules on criminals, but don't forget that even Islam allows torture. In case of adultery both sinners are whipped, in case of theft their hands must be chopped, isn't that torture?

Now I would like you to give me your opinion on two questions,

You must have heard of the two girls that have been found dead lately in North-East Algeria after having been raped. They are less that 6, I think one of them is 2 or 3 years old, she was found in a well.

• Forget for a moment that you are a Muslim, think that you are simply man, what will you propose if one of these was your daughter?
• Now what punishment do they deserve if we apply Shariâa? (The reason I ask this question is because I don't have information about that)

Finally, I know that it is Allah who punished whoever deserves to be punished and not man, but He allowed earthly punishment.

[writersfreedom]

 

 

Now what punishment do they deserve if we apply Shariâa? (The reason I ask this question is because I don't have information about that)

 

 

Death would be the punishment according to Shariaa.

 

However whipping or cutting their hand is not torture, it's justice. Torture would be to put someone in pain even though they have done nothing to deserve it, but in the case of Islamic rules we know that Allah ( ) only punishes those who truly deserve it and have done something to earn it. Therefor it's Justice.

 

 

My opinion:

 

 

I think we should start applying the death penalty, and here are the people who deserve it:

 

 

Murders , rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, drug dealers and those who betray their country.

 

 

I hope soon we start using the death penalty as a punishment Insha'Allah.

 

 

~~~ Peace out ~~~

[writersfreedom]

 

I believe the concept of prison is alien to Islam.

 

 

I agree with you, which I think is why there were less crimes when Islam ruled, because in Islam you pay for your crimes and live in the society to serve as an example and warning. Some prisons are like hotels, one of my students is a doctor in a prison in Constantine [Willaya in Algeria] and she showed me pics and videos ... it's like they got a free vacation, it's ridiculous!

 

 

 

 

~~~ Peace out ~~~

[محمد - Mohammed]

Keeping someone alive in prison for a number of years whilst he waits his turn to be executed is torture. In Islam, as far as I understand, to avoid this wait, the capital punishment should be carried out as soon as possible after the judgement has been made.
 
With regards to punishments in Islam being torture, I don't believe they are. They are defined, swift punishments for crimes which corrupt society.They bring about justice. Its because we do not deem these crimes as particularly bad anymore that the punishment appears over the top and barbaric. Suffice to say there are always many conditions before the punishment can take place and I'm no scholar to say much more..
 
But this is going off topic as the question is capital punishment vs life in prison. For that I believe capital punishment is superior in every way to prison. Wether it be due to the detterent effect of the execution or simply the cost saved with imprisoning hundereds if not thousands of criminals indefinitely. There are always the options of blood money or forgiveness.
 
My opinion on the punishment of the rapist would be to finish him off. I do not think any parent, man or woman, could remain sane after knowing that their child had been raped and the rapist was still around. It reminds me of gary plauche who exacted revenge on his son's rapist in front of the cameras. Check the link for the video.
 
- I do not know what the shariaah ruling is myself but suffice to say we have punishments defined for us according to Islam, not based on our own emotions and ideas of the world, but divine wisdom.

[Meghzouchene Belkacem]

I'm for death penality for killers. By its execution as well, 24 H after the sentence