Category Archives: Random Outing

Kasana, Ghamidi Show and Capital Punishment.

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Ghamidi Show.

Ghamidi Show.

Javed Ghamidi explaining.

Javed Ghamidi explaining.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to the Ghamidi Show as a student-speaker. I was told that I could ask questions, argue and raise points as much as I wanted to. The topic was Capital Punishment.

I, as a speaker, was given a stance and I couldn’t change it but then that’s the entire point of being a debator: You’re handed a stance and you have to go along with it whether you’re pro or anti. So, I was against Capital Punishment and I was speaking in favor of the EU which actually states that human execution does not help make a better society. The contradiction that I pointed out was that countries with capital punishment implemented have a crime rate far higher than countries that don’t. Only a few countries, I guess, two or three, have a low crime rate while being pro-capital punishment.

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, United States, Pakistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Japan, Yemen, Sudan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Malaysia, Mongolia and a few others being the countries that support human execution in the forms of decapitation, electrocution, hanging, lethal injections and other methods. While Canada, France, Italy, Germany and a few other European countries remain against it. We compared and several students including yours truly pointed out that this phenomenon turns into a paradox if studied under the light of Islam. And Ghamidi managed to correct us by stating the fact that Islam allows forgiveness if the victim’s relatives forgive the criminal.

Ghamidi also shared Quranic verses and Ahadith in order to prove that Islam is not an inhumane and blind religion. He said that forgiveness is top-priority. However some crimes cannot be forgiven so easily. He gave instances of murdered children, suicide blasts, etc. The people who carry out such heinous crimes must be executed in order to give an example of Ib’rat to the society. I argued with the incident of James Bulger’s murder case. The three year old had been brutally killed by two ten year olds in Liverpool. How would this case be dealt with according to Islam?

And he, later on, told us that such a case is dealt with extreme caution as the criminals are mere children. He said that, in this case, the children are sent to prison in order to be taught a lesson. And that is what happened. For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger

After the 90-minute discussion, the conclusion was that capital punishment is necessary in certain cases otherwise it would be more a chaotic world than it is right now. And that “Insaani Is’laah” is only possible in a few cases. Most murderers are beyond help.

(I apologize for the haphazard description of the entire event. This was on-demand by quite a few readers. Had to rush it.)