Stop the breast-beating - Zainah Anwar

I DON’T know whether to laugh or cry at the endless antics of so many grown men feeling threatened by everything that is disagreeable to them.

How else could Dyana Sofya, a political novice, be instantly elevated to number one threat to Umno dominance. Instead of being embraced by the very Malays who should be proud of her intelligence and independence, she is demonised as a traitor to race and religion, dismissed as mere “eye-candy”, and reduced to nothing but a puppet of the DAP to hoodwink Malays.

And then the hysterics over porcine DNA found in two kinds of Cadbury chocolates. And making it out that the accidental consumption of some food tainted with pork DNA is going to send one to hell and prevent God from accepting one’s prayers and one’s pilgrimage because of tainted blood in one’s body.

The Malay phobia on consuming pork is real, even among those who readily violate Islamic prohibitions on alcohol and sex. But this is not about eating pork. It is about accidentally consuming a chocolate with DNA traces of pork.

The Quran is explicit that what is prohibited is eating the “flesh of swine”. It is pork meat that is forbidden, and jurists extend that to derivatives such as ham and bacon. Even then, accidental consumption or consuming it because of necessity is not a sin.

So why the hysterics over the media? Burn down the Cadbury factory? Ritual cleansing of the mouth, stomach and intestines? Blood transfusion to ensure their blood is 100% halal?

How will they ensure the blood they need for transfusion will be 100% from pious untainted Muslims? How about those other Muslims whose blood transfusion came from pork-eating, alcohol consuming infidels? Are they tainted, too? Would God reject their prayers as well? Should all these Muslims take DNA tests to see if haram DNA is flowing through their bodies?

For a change, how about getting hysterical over those men who raped a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Ketereh, Kelantan? They include a father and his two sons! Isn’t their behaviour a threat to race and religion, a failure of family, society and state to bring up responsible, respectful men, able to treat women as fellow human beings of equal worth and dignity? How about holding a press conference to demand gender sensitisation training to start in primary school? How about a campaign to end discrimination against women?

That I know is too much to ask of these breast-beating, self-righteous men. It is they who are getting to be an embarassment to race and religion.

Even the conservative Islamist group, Abim, felt the need to issue a statement, calling the reaction of these NGOs over the porcine DNA as emotional and irrational, showing only their ignorance of Islamic teachings and in the process, presenting a negative image of Islam.

What is the game plan here? To continue to manufacture as many fears and threats as possible, hopefully some will stick and the Malays will realise the error of their ways?

Last week, the student president of Kelab Umno US East Coast felt the need to address the continuing bigotry of the likes of Abdullah Zaik from Isma and his buddy Ridhuan Tee Abdullah – that they might be suffering from “high neuroticism” leading to dangerous response to perceived threats and what they need to do is to learn how to be Malaysian.

What will it take for these men to realise that manufacturing fears and threats and spewing hate language against other races and religions don’t win votes? Their performance has passed the sell-by date.

The latest Transparency International Corruption Barometer survey is telling – Malaysians perceive political parties as the most corrupt institution in the country, even more than the police. And that more Malaysians feel the Government’s anti-corruption action is ineffective.

So, is the resort to using race and religion to incite hatred and manufacture fears and hysterics a tactic to keep us from discussing what really matters to move this country forward? We all know we have serious problems with corruption, cronyism, sub-standard education system, brain drain, crime, low pay, urban poverty, drug addiction, underemployment and unemployed graduates.

Is it any wonder then that some politicians and their minions want to keep us pre-occupied and twisted into knots over hudud law, pork-laced chocolates, Malays who are traitors to the race, Chinese who are greedy and ungrateful trespassers, Christians who are out to convert Muslims?

Can we please take a break and focus on real issues that will contribute to the well-being and prosperity of all citizens, instead of making enemies of every Malaysian who thinks differently? Let’s put a stop to the shameless public display of bigotry and ignorance.

We all love our race and our religion, but we all also love our country. So we want to live together, get along and embrace our diversities.

The Iranian academic, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, wrote that Islamic feminism is the unwanted child of political Islam. As men in robes dusted out the classical fiqh books to enact laws that make no sense to the realities of women’s lives today, women turned to the Quran and the fiqh books as well and used the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.

It is too early to say yet. But dare I hope that as more and more of these racist, bigoted, ignorant, chauvinistic extremists brazenly display their ugliness, more and more rational, fair-minded Malays will be propelled to speak out and take principled positions in the public space.

We are seeing this trend in social media already, with many young bloggers, men and women, reading the Quran and academic articles on various contested issues in Islam, educating themselves on the Constitution and laws of the country, asserting their identity as Malaysian first, speaking out and writing to challenge the bigots in their midst.

Could the inevitable outcome of the ugliness of Isma and Perkasa and their ilk be more liberal Malays, liberal Islam, and a liberal Malaysia that they so fear and hate?

Are we brewing another May 13, 1969?. By Azly Rahman

This is serious, if you ask me about the latest events concerning Umno and DAP: those revolving around name-calling, storming of the Penang state legislature and the latest, on the threat to burn down the headquarters of the DAP.

Is this a prelude to something bigger as we approach the 14th general election? Irrationality will rule and will be rationalised. Is the climax to a potentially explosive racial conflict going to be built up and the two parties involved in a showdown? Go back to the prelude to May 13, 1969, if we wish to process the brewing of mass violence.

I hope we are all sane enough to diffuse these kinds of situation and quickly make peace and for all to be patient, to exercise restrain, and to not provoke those who are irrational. We will make it as Malaysians. We have come a long way through our hard work in building bridges and to continue to call ourselves Malaysians.

But crises will be manufactured and we will never know the truth of any conflict that will bring chaos to the country.

Let us use whatever medium of peace-making and peace-building at our disposal to make peace with ourselves and with others.

Waging peace

After watching the video of the Umno Youth protest in front of the DAP headquarters, I sensed that the worse is yet to come and we may never be able to stop violence or to stop those out to wage war – unless we wage peace, beginning at this very moment.

For the Malay Muslims in the video, the character of the Prophet Muhammad is the best to show Malaysians what peace looks like. Go back to that and not let anger consume the natural, peaceful self in you.

You will feel better if you search within you and let Prophet Muhammad be the guide in you. I suggest you invoke the salawat and the istighfar that should help in times of anger and irrationalism.

To my friend and parliamentarian Ong Kian Ming, I say this: you did an admirable job of being calm and composed. I pray for your safety and those of others faced with a similar situation that you may continue to serve the community well.

Many of us know that this does not have to do entirely with race – it is about human nature, materialism, militarism and racism, as the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr has said in many of his speeches during the American Civil Rights movement.

My message to all Malaysians

Let us leave all these nonsense behind and resolve thing amicably, no matter what race and religious group you belong to. This is a beautiful country with beautiful people who ought to work together beautifully.

I hate to have my memories go back to that day in 1969, when, as a very young child, what I heard daily was men in red headbands in Muar, Johor with parang, kerambit, keris, daggers and all kinds of weapons, were heading for Kampong Baru, Kuala Lumpur, meeting at the residence of the then menteri besar Harun Idris.

I could even feel the “heat” of May 13 in my kampung in Johor Baru, with the people talking about “sembelih” (slaughtering). As a child, those moments had left a bloody history in me. We have a lot to do and we do not have time to undo the more than 40 years of peace we have built.

And the young people of today need to know this. The future is yours. You need not emulate the stupidity of your elders, especially when it concerns behaving as if there is not enough home-training on anger management in public.

I, for one, do not wish to read about another May 13 in the newspapers, or even through online portals these days.

My saddest moment that day was when my Maths teacher, whom I love and respect dearly and who adored me for my hard work and who had all praises for me since day one. On that day, after May 13, 1969, all of a sudden, after checking my class work for the day, she threw my exercise book right across the room and out of the door, for a reason I can now understand. I was devastated for weeks.

Bless your soul, Ms Chan!

Peace, salam, salamat, shaloom are terms we must hold as a mantra these days. But how must we understand ourselves, politically, these days?

A mirror we hold up today

My stunted growth in understanding Malaysian politics is even greater these days, reading how much we have progressed backwards and how true P Ramlee, the great Malaysian social-philosopher and humanist, said about politics being a “circus” (sarkas) when illiteracy rules and rationalism is shunned against.

We have not seen fresh new ideas embraced by all parties, at least once in a while in a collaborative manner. We have only seen more and more hidden, and even physical violence, manifesting.

Political change needs social imagination and critical sensibility founded upon a very strong ethical system drawn and designed as a national philosophy; a transcultural system inspired by the strength and universality of all religious and non-religious philosophies – not just based on Islam that has its limitations and cultural biases, albeit insisted upon and imposed onto many as a complete and all-encompassing, all-hegemonising political, social and existential philosophy.

Islamic philosophy as conceived by Malay Muslims of the political enclave, especially, will still not be a comprehensive idea as long as its proponents are still ill-prepared to even explore the meaning of “western liberal philosophy”.

Besides, with the global image of Islam, as Salafic or Wahabbic or Talibanic or even Boko-Haramic, who would these days pay attention to the idea of a beautiful and peaceful and just Islam fit for all of humankind?

We need to understand the excesses of the demands made by major factions contending for power and control in order to come to a middle ground and a peaceful solution to resolving conflicts.

We need to, once and for all, analyse these and make structural and foundational changes to our system and its institutions in order to bring society into some kind of order.

May 13 seems to be brewing. But we now have the means let it simmer and cool. We are, first and foremost, Malaysians building a better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

I hope Umno and DAP will agree.

Arise, the Malay that Umno fears – Umran Kadir

Sheriff John Brown always hated me

For what I don't know

Ev'ry time I plant a seed

He said, "Kill it before it grows."

He said, "Kill them before they grow." – Bob Marley, I Shot the Sheriff

The entry of Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud onto the political scene has been met by an unprecedented and sustained attack by some of the biggest guns in Umno: an Umno Supreme Council member, the head of Wanita Umno and none other than Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself.

But why is a political novice like her deserving of so much attention by the powers-that-be?

I would argue that it is because she represents everything that Umno does not want the Malays to be – capable, confident and unshackled.

Unshackled from the unhealthy culture of dependency that Umno has created and reinforced through a constant stream of propaganda and paranoia – all with the cynical aim of perpetuating Umno's hegemony.

The unshackling of the Malay psyche spells the beginning of the end for the gravy train called Umno because it means that Umno can no longer take for granted that Malays will vote for them.

This is why they are so desperate to kill off Dyana Sofya's political career before it has even begun.

Dyana Sofya is an even bigger threat than more established and prominent Malay opposition figures for the simple reason that her motives cannot be so easily brought into question.

Going by Umno's narrative, Nurul Izzah Anwar is part of a political dynasty, Ariff Sabri is a disgruntled Umno man and Zairil Khir Johari is not a “real” Malay.

Yet it is not as easy to cast aspersions on an entrant like Dyana Sofya, particularly when in their own estimation, she stands more to lose than to gain.

She is a middle class Malay who grew up in Malaysia and graduated from UiTM with a law degree. To top it off her mother is an Umno member.

She is, it would seem, a product of Umno's largesse. A comfortable life would surely have been in store for her had she opted for the default path so well trodden by many before her.

However, she rejected that path in favour of a harder one. Today she stands on a DAP ticket and speaks out against the injustices perpetrated by the Umno-led government.

She does this not because she is ungrateful but because she recognises that her gratitude should be directed to all Malaysian taxpayers and accordingly to the Malaysian people as a whole.

This is something Umno's leaders simply cannot fathom or accept because they remain stuck in their feudal mindset. And it panics them.

It scares them that there may be other Dyana Sofyas out there. Malays whose conscience cannot be bought and who will not be cowed.

Malays who choose to live by the ideals of truth, equality and justice and who wish to build a better Malaysia hand in hand with their fellow countrymen.

It is time we showed Umno that they are right to be scared.

Arise, the confident, capable and unshackled Malay. – May 21, 2014.

Muslims ban Manchester United shirts over red devil image

The Johor Religious Council adviser and the Mufti of Perak both state that images of crosses, liquor brands and devils on football shirts are an insult to Allah and should not be worn by Muslims.

Manchester United is a hugely popular brand in the Muslim-majority country.

The club's summer tour last year included two games against a Malaysia XI played in front of capacity 40,000 crowds.

Other football shirts deemed unacceptable by the religious leaders include Brazil, Portugal, Serbia, Barcelona and Norway because their crests all carry images of a cross.

"There is no excuse for wearing such garments because it means, as a Muslim, you are idolising the symbol of another religion," Datuk Nooh Gadot, the Mufti of Johor, said.

The China Pandas

The long-awaited pair of giant pandas, Fuwa (male) and Fengyi (female) are here.The Pandas will be on a 10-year loan to begin a new chapter in their lives.

But at what cost to taxpayers money?

a)Panda rental programme, for which Malaysia have to pay China a yearly fee alone is RM3.24 million.(RM32.4 mill).

b)Annual upkeep by Zoo Negara is estimated at RM1.5 million (RM15 mill).

c)The total cost of the 'special' exhibition center is RM33.4 million.

d)Each Panda is insured at RM3 million(RM6 mill p/year?)

e)To keep the temperature in the panda enclosure just right, the utility bill will amount to RM180,000 a month, or RM21.6 million over 10 years.

f)If the female panda gives birth, Malaysia may get to keep the cub for an additional fee of RM1.9 million.((don't ask me,who will inseminate the female Panda)

g)It will cost an estimated RM300,000 a year to meet the pandas’ basic needs. This is not accounting for the cost of maintaining the bamboo groves that will supply the panda food.

It’s stunningly expensive and they can become a serious financial burden for us(taxpayers) and the hosting zoo,what with Malaysian's 'tidak apa' attitude and 'first world facility,third world mentality'.

This is the reason why pandas have left Adelaide Zoo in a debt of 24 million Australian dollars.

This is a short term gain(shiok sendiri) but a long term debt which will be borne by taxpayers.Why waste funds in the millions spent feeding other people's pandas and animals when we have our Orang Utans,tigers and other indigenous animals to take care.

Hope the Pandas not become a tool for Pekasa,Isma and dUmno sponsored Malay NGOs claiming that the Pandas are here as immigrants(pendatang)/trespasser out to bully the dUmno Malays,undermine their 'ketuanan Melayu' supremacy,take away Malay rights and turn this country into a Christian state.

Disappointed with Dyana, Dr M gives parenting tip

         
Tholu: Former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad, do you realise that by your 'parenting tip', you have exposed yourself to be an incontrovertible racist.
 
Do you also realise that by your exhortation to Umno members to forcefully 'indoctrinate' their children on Umno ideologies which smacks of rotten values such as corruption, abuse of power and arrogance, you have exposed your feudal mentality to the core.
 
You have inadvertently laid bare your machinations of suppressing and oppressing your people and their treasured democracy for your own unholy desire to be in power and abuse the government and the system for personal gains.
 
If the Umno Malays were to listen to you, they would remain in the abyss of ignorance and not able to progress and keep pace along with a rapidly growing world in science and modern technology.
 
Do you want the Malays to still engage the services of a bomoh instead of using modern and sophisticated equipment to trace lost planes?
 
Anonymous_3e0b: Surely many Malaysians are delighted to see Marina Mahathir has chosen a different path to seek justice and fight for real changes instead of following this written-off old man who sadly until now still does not know when to enjoy his twilight years but instead wasted his energy to continue blowing his own trumpet.
 
Mahathir is a pompous retired politician, who is still clinging to his "Do what I tell you to do but do not do what I do" attitude.
 
Pemerhati: Following Mahathir’s logic, since Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud’s mother was an Umno stalwart, she would have heard nice things about Umno from her and would have grown up to love the party and would have believed Umno’s false propaganda about DAP being a Chinese chauvinist party.
 
Dyana’s membership of DAP indicates that she and possibly many other young Malays cannot be hoodwinked by Mahathir’s and Umno’s propaganda.
 
They want a genuinely democratic Malaysia where all are treated fairly and equally under the law and the wealth of the country is used for the benefit of the people and not siphoned off by the top BN people and their families and cronies.
 
Onyourtoes: Precisely, Umno members should tell their children about the party, its history and what it has done to this country. Yes, why not?
 
It is a history of abuse, of conning, of deceit, and of nepotism and cronyism. It is a history of how leaders, in the name of ‘bangsa’, ‘agama’ and ‘negara’, enrich themselves and their families. 
 
And what have we got as a country today? Yes, a broken one - running out of water, abusing its oil wealth, deplorable living condition, poor housing, degraded environment, hopeless education, poor healthcare, low income and high cost of living. Do you want more?
 
Odysseus: Dr M, Dyana went to a university that was build by the BN government. Isn't a university a place which teaches its students to think and make decisions for the betterment of themselves and the nation?
 
It seems like you are disappointed that she is capable of thinking and making her own decision. In this case, UiTM (Universiti Teknologi Mara) is a failure in your eyes as they too failed to indoctrinate her with your failed policies.
 
Citizen_1b85: I thought of not going to Teluk Intan to vote since it is only a by-election, but after reading Mahathir’s comments, I have decided to close my clinic, never mind if I lose a few thousand ringgit, and drive to Teluk Intan and cast my vote. 
                                                                                                                       
Your guess will be as good as mine as to who I’m going to vote for. Thanks Mahathir for helping me to make that decision. My son is going to be very proud of me.
 
Whatsup: Mahathir, you could be a great-grandfather to Dyana, and yet instead of being a learnt elderly giving advice, you poured scorn on an obviously highly capable young lady.
 
Shame on you Mahathir, shame on you. Continue to be bitter then and enjoy the bitterness. Surely there is more to come.
 
Negarawan: "As parents, Umno members should tell their children about Umno, its history and what it has done (for country and people). Otherwise when they grow up, they will do as they please," Mahathir was quoted as saying by Bernama.
 
The fact is Umno has done more damage to the whole country than good. Hasn't Umno been doing as it please in the last 50 years, raping the country of its wealth and dignity, destroying and corrupting the institutions of justice, law and order, education, and public service?
 
So Mahathir, you want parents to teach our children how to be immoral, unjust, and corrupt? You will never be an honourable and great statesman like Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew.
 
Mushiro: It is time for Mahathir and the current set of Umno leaders to realise that the young and middle-aged group of Malays are very well informed about the mismanagement of our country and they are very disillusioned with Umno.
 
The Malays realised that Malaysia is heading for bankruptcy and they will vote for alternative party to save Malaysia.
                                   
NNFC: We cannot be brainwashing our children - we should let them develop and make their choices.  How else are they going to grow? I think any government should accept the fact that not everyone will choose them. That is democracy.

Saddened: Marina, the poor, young and idealistic lass in Teluk Intan is receiving  missiles, projectiles and cannon balls from all sides.
 
As a liberated advocate of women's rights and honour, please come to Dyana's rescue. Badgering her and her mother is not dignified and ethical.
 
What has Dyana done wrong to deserve such vocal criticismsm especially from seasoned past leaders. Please go to her corner and blast the critics for their insolence, negativity, sexism, arrogance and et cetera.

20 questions you’re too afraid to ask about hudud – Eric Paulsen

SIDE VIEWS   

20 questions you’re too afraid to ask about hudud – Eric Paulsen

MAY 09, 2014

As you may have heard, PAS in all its wisdom has decided that now is the right time to push for hudud law in Kelantan, never mind the fact that Kelantan remains one of the most socially and economically disadvantaged states in Malaysia.

Hudud is part of the Islamic criminal law that provides for the harshest punishment imaginable and Kelantan’s version includes stoning to death (with stones of medium size, no less), death followed by crucifixion, amputation of limbs and whipping.

Needless to say, such punishments are out of place in this day and age or in any modern and democratic society as they constitute torture, cruel and inhumane punishment.

While PAS and supporters of hudud have no such concerns and are blindly confident that all will be well with its implementation, even though there is no basis for the assumption that it would work in Malaysia, just as it has not worked in all the countries that have implemented hudud – Sudan, Somalia, northern Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan – just to name a few. In fact, the reverse is true, hudud is a byword for injustice done in the name of Islam especially against women and girls.

Leaving aside whether the conditions are right under Islamic jurisprudence for hudud to be implemented, whether it would be constitutional or desirable in a country like ours, other Malaysians have questioned how fair, just and practical it would be for hudud to be plunked down in Kelantan while the rest of the country or non-Muslims are supposed to remain unaffected.

We have therefore compiled 20 most sought after questions for PAS - in no particular order of importance of course - and we do hope PAS will oblige us with proper answers rather than invoking God's name which usually ends all further discussion.

1. Can hudud be implemented in a situation where there is a huge disparity between the haves and have nots, between the super-rich like Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, Mokhzani Mahathir, Vincent Tan, Ananda Krishnan and the homeless and destitute, when Malaysia’s Gini Coefficient Index (which measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of income) is the 3rd most unequal nation in Asia?

2. Can hudud be implemented in a situation where the rich and powerful usually escape the rule of law? When was the last time a VVIP was convicted and actually spent time in jail? Further, can hudud exist when Muslim VVIPs still sit on the board of directors of Genting Berhad, own shares in San Miguel brewery or own the Hard Rock Café chain in the country?

3. Will hudud (like the present Shariah laws) be applied selectively and have a disproportionate effect on the poor and weak while the rich and powerful can escape punishment? For example, will only ordinary Muslims and Indonesian migrant workers be whipped for consuming alcohol or will Umno ministers, members of the royalty and their children, and Muslim tourists from the Middle East, also be whipped?

4. With so much dissatisfaction in the present Shariah Courts and law enforcement (especially nafkah, or maintenance, of abandoned wives and children), have the authorities taken into account what would happen if they wrongfully sentence an innocent person to have his hand or leg chopped off or stone an innocent woman to death?

5. Can hudud be applied only to Muslims while non-Muslims are subjected to different laws? Is it fair if two persons are arrested in Kelantan for motorcycle theft, one a Muslim has his hand chopped off while the non-Muslim is imprisoned for a year?

6. Can hudud be applied only in Kelantan while the rest of the country applies the existing criminal law? Is it fair if two Muslim men are arrested for motorcycle theft, one in Kelantan and the other in Selangor, the man in Kelantan has his hand chopped off while the man in Selangor is imprisoned for a year?

7. Can hudud exist side by side and be consistent with the existing criminal law which is much more comprehensive than the limited hudud offences as supplemented by other takzir, qisas and diyat offences? Is it fair if a Muslim man is arrested for motorcycle theft in Kelantan and has his hand chopped off while a Muslim man who is arrested for criminal breach of trust (whether in Kelantan or otherwise) for a much larger amount than the cost of the motorcycle is imprisoned for a year?

8. Is it fair if two men are arrested for rape in Kelantan, the Muslim man is only punished under ta'zir at the discretion of the judge, while the non-Muslim man is imprisoned a minimum of five years and also whipped under the existing criminal law?

9. Is it fair for a Muslim rape victim to be open to the possibility of being accused of zina (adultery) or qazaf (false accusation of zina) if she is unable to provide sufficient evidence or witnesses? What happens in a situation where a woman or girl is pregnant from rape whether by force or statutory rape? Will that be taken as conclusive proof of zina if she is unable to disprove rape due to the disproportionate burden of proof?

10. Is it fair that rape, a much more serious offence than zina, is only classified as a takzir offence that is punishable at the discretion of the judge while a married person who commits zina will be stoned to death?

11. Is it fair there is no hudud offences for massive cheating, embezzlement, criminal breach of trust, corruption (for example, the NFC “borrowing” and squandering of RM250 millions of government funds), while someone who steals a motorcycle will have his hand chopped off?

12. Is it fair that only male Muslims are generally competent to testify while the testimony of women and non-Muslims are not accepted or has a lower value? Why should non-Muslims especially women participate in the Islamic criminal law that inherently treats the testimony of non-Muslims or women as inherently inferior to a male Muslim?

13. Which jurisdiction will apply – hudud or existing criminal law – if the crime involves a Muslim perpetrator and a non-Muslim victim? What if the Muslim perpetrator insists that hudud be applicable (due to the higher burden of proof and inadmissibility or lesser value of non-Muslims’ testimonies) while the non-Muslim victim does not wish to submit to the Islamic criminal law jurisdiction?

14. Which jurisdiction will apply – hudud or existing criminal law – if the crime involves a non-Muslim perpetrator and a Muslim victim? What if the Muslim victim insists that only hudud will provide sufficient justice and punishment?

15. Which jurisdiction will apply – hudud or existing criminal law – if the offence committed like theft and robbery are found in both jurisdictions? Can the Muslim perpetrator opt for the existing criminal law because he does not want his hand chopped off? Or can he opt for hudud due to the higher burden of proof which may allow him to escape punishment?

16. How will hudud be able to function if it does not have jurisdiction over non-Muslims? Can the authorities compel non-Muslims to assist in investigation or testify in court? Will their evidence even be of any value?

17. Is it fair for non-Muslims who have aided and abetted Muslims to commit offences be let off the hook while Muslims are subjected to stoning and whipping in cases of zina and syurb (alcohol consumption)?

18. Is the punishment of stoning to death, crucifixion, whipping and amputation of the limbs still accepted in this day and age? Do they not amount to torture, cruel and inhumane punishment? What if the Israelis were to impose similar Jewish law punishment found in the Torah (that shares the same roots of punishment in the Quran) against Palestinians who oppose their rule?

19. Have the authorities considered the possibility of death or other life threatening complications resulting from amputation? Who will be held responsible?

20. How will these sentences be carried out? Who will amputate, crucify, stone persons to death? By court officials, trained "professionals", witnesses, victims of the crime or their family members or the public at large? Will these sentences be done in public or in secret? – May 9, 2014.

* Eric Paulsen is executive director of Lawyers for Liberty.