Two names - Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour - need to be remembered to understand Islamic justice. They were two young men who were executed by the Islamic regime of Iran at dawn on January 28, 2010 for the ‘crime' of ‘enmity against god'. Yet another two murdered for protesting medievalism and theocracy. It plans to execute at least another 66 people in the coming weeks because they dared to come out onto the streets of Iran to protest against the ruling Islamic regime.

Other prominent contemporary examples of death sentences threatened or issued for apostasy include Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini, (ruler of Iran at the time) for his book The Satanic Verses; and Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert to Christianity who was arrested and jailed on the charge of rejecting Islam" in 2006 but later released as mentally incompetent.

Ayatollah Khomeini once delivered a notorious rebuke to the Islam-is-a-religion-of-peace crowd: "Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies].... Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur'anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim."

The attack on one Ehsan Jami, chairman of the committee for ex-Muslims and Labour councilor in Leidschendam-Voorburg, caused an outcry in the Netherlands, where the November 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam, by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim militant led to an anti-Muslim backlash and exposed social tensions.

"Allah sees the death penalty as fitting for those who no longer believe," Government Minister Geert Wilders wrote, adding this view had fuelled the attack on Jami, now under police protection. The Muslim holy book should be banned from sale, from use in mosques and private households, Wilders added. He also campaigned to ban Muslim face veils, ban the building of new mosques and halt all Muslim immigration.

Last update : 08-02-2010 01:31

Keywords : Islamic Justice and Muslims Brotherhood, Mahendra Mathur

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