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| Down Under |
| Four found guilty over sharia law whipping in Australia |
| 2013-03-02 |
| An Australian court heard that Wassim Fayad and three other men - Zakaryah Raad, Tolga Cifci and Cengiz Coskun - claimed they were following sharia when they held Muslim convert Cristian Martinez down and whipped him on the back in the middle of the night. With these words, "Next time you think about picking up a drink you will remember this pain," Fayad delivered 40 lashes with an electrical cord across the back of Martinez, to help the Sydney man to quit drugs and alcohol. Martinez vomited during the attack and pleaded for mercy, "Can you stop this? Stop what you're doing?" Fayad told his victim he loved him and it was for his own good. The whipping happened in a western Sydney townhouse in July 2011. In what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Australia, the four men were convicted on Thursday of assault and other charges. Magistrate Brian Maloney told Burwood Local Court, "Until now, assaults occasioned in the course of a religious practice involving mortification of the flesh have not been before any court in any common law country." A statement from Sheikh Omar El Banna, the imam of the Omar mosque in Auburn, said the whipping was not sanctioned or authorized by the community. When Martinez went to the sheikh for advice, he was told, "This is ridiculous. You can't apply this ruling, this is wrong. This isn't what should be happening." The founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, said he was glad the court did not treat the case as a trial of the religion. He said, "The Islamic faith does not allow any person to take the law into their own hands. Muslims cannot perpetrate a crime and have no right to punish anyone. [The men] must have a very active imagination. They should not blame religion when things get out of hand." The court heard that Martinez drank and took drugs, before he called Fayad to ask for guidance. Fayad said, "Yeah, it means I'm going to tie you up, brother, that's what I'm going to do." Fayad called Raad and instructed him to go to Martinez's house, where Raad sent Fayad a message saying something like, "Allam, the sharia bring right material. It's important." Fayad, Cifci and Coskun then joined Raad at Martinez's house and Fayad whipped him while the others held him down. Maloney said, "Mr Fayad assured Mr Martinez that the last 20 lashes won't be so bad, and told [him] that he loves him, that he wants him to be a good person and the way he's going, he's ruining his life." Martinez said he consented to the first, 11th and 21st lash, but Maloney found that he had withdrawn his consent. Raad was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company, stealing and two counts of intimidation, while the others were convicted of the assault and stealing charges, related to a CCTV hard drive they took from Martinez's home. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 The Islamic faith does not allow any person to take the law into their own hands. So you see itÂ’s not like the apostate didnÂ’t deserve a beat down. They just needed to clear it first with the Grand Poobah. Besides, according to the Mooslimb holy handbook it appears this guy caught a break. "But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them." |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2013-03-02 09:54 |