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November 10, 2008 WASHINGTON-The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom condemns the recent death by stoning of a 13-year-old girl in Somalia and calls on the U.S. government to join with other states in speaking out decisively in international fora against such grave human rights abuses. "There can be no justification for stoning, for torturing, this child to death just because it is cloaked in the name of a religious punishment," said Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer. Stoning is a form of torture, in which the victim is killed in a particularly brutal way; in many cases, the victims are girls or women accused of adultery. Most Muslim-ruled states prohibit stoning for crimes set out in the Koran, and even strictly Muslim-ruled nations where shariah deeply influences law apply the punishment rarely for adultery because of the Koranic requirement of four witnesses. Governments that still practice stoning include those of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan. The Somali child, identified as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was raped by three men in the capital, Mogadishu, according to Amnesty International. When her family reported the rape to the authorities, the girl was accused of adultery and ordered stoned to death. The killing was carried out Oct. 28 by 50 men, before about 1,000 witnesses, in a public stadium in the Somali port city of Kismayu, which is held by al-Shabaab rebels. Al-Shabaab militias have established "a strict interpretation of Islam" on the communities they control, according to the U.S. State Department. Fighters on all sides of the conflict in Somalia have attacked and abused civilians. Somalia has not had an effective, internationally recognized central government for 16 years, and it is not a party to any major international human rights instrument. The U.S. government has not maintained a diplomatic presence in Somalia since 1991, when the brutal dictator Siad Barre fell, and does not formally recognize as a government any group having control over any part of the country. The Commission calls for the perpetrators of the rape and those who ordered and executed the brutal killing of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to be held to account for their crimes. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. Visit our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
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  written by Christopher Logan, November 11, 2008
This is Islam and people who follow this sick culture have been allowed to come here by our so called leaders.
 written by NannyYnez, November 12, 2008
Islam needs reform, as the religion stands at the moment it hasn't altered since it's inception,
the year of which escapes me, but it was the stone age as regards Human Rights and especially Female Rights. The pure Islam faith demands War against the infidels (that's anyone who isn't a Muslim) and any Muslim country that isn't radical , is so because it does NOT practice pure Islam. But these new Tolerant strains have Not been ratified into the religion and are roundly despised and hated by the Hierarchy that is in charge of the Islamic World. There is NO discussion of Religion in Islam, there is only obedience and submission, This is not my opinion only, It is what the Muslim women say who are speaking out against this charade called Multiculturalism. Muslims themselves need to look at their faith and take steps to separate, on a Formal basis, from the Pure Original Islam,much in the way that Christianity had to split from the Original Catholicism. If Islam is to survive as a Religion in the Free World then it will have to adapt, modify and reject the parts of it that have been made redundant and irrelevent by modern scientific knowledge. And WE must stop doing business with regimes who conduct their internal affairs in ways that are against our morals.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 10 November 2008 14:51 |
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