Crucifixion from ancient Rome to modern Syria
Disturbing photographs recently emerged from Syria showing the bodies of two executed men hanging on crosses. Why has a punishment used in ancient Rome now emerged as a feature of Syria's civil war?
The dead men in the photographs are blindfolded - their limp, outstretched arms tied to planks of wood with green string.
A banner wrapped around one of the bloodied corpses reads: "This man fought against Muslims and set off an explosive device here."
The photos show a handful of people, including children, taking a closer look while others go about their normal business in the northern city of Raqqa, unfazed by the bodies suspended a few feet away.
The bodies remained on display in the centre of a roundabout for two days according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A jihadist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), is thought to have been responsible.
As with a similar case in Raqqa in March, the men are thought to have been executed first, before being attached to crosses and publicly displayed.
Isis has banned cigarettes in Raqqa
Isis has banned cigarettes and music in Raqqa, and ordered shops to close during prayer times
Amnesty International also documented a case of crucifixion in Yemen in 2012, when an Islamist group found a 28-year-old guilty of planting electronic devices in vehicles, enabling US drones to track and kill their occupants. He too was executed first and hung on a cross afterwards.
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These groups tend to be very harsh and unmerciful, which is why it is our contention that they are extremely un-Islamic ”
Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan
Quilliam Foundation
Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan, Islamic scholar and senior researcher in Islamic Studies at the Quilliam Foundation in London, says this form of punishment arises from a very literal, or fundamentalist, reading of the Koran.
Verse 33 of the fifth book of the Koran says: "Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment."
But Hasan says this passage should not be read in isolation. He cites the following verse which reads: "Except for those who return [repenting] before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."
Verses of the Koran which sound very harsh are always followed by the option of repentance and a "reminder that God is ultimately forgiving and merciful," he says.
"These groups tend to be very harsh and unmerciful which is why it is our contention that they are extremely un-Islamic and very far from the spirit of Islam."
For Hasan, crucifixion has no place in the modern world. What happened in Raqqa was intended as a warning to anyone questioning the authority of Isis, he suggests. ...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27245852