Corporal punishment: Shining a light on the “white elephant” of hudud punishments

Not the stoned I had in mind

Ever since Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan found his spotlight under less than favorable circumstances, many who weren’t familiar with his works have waited to see what he would do next. Being refused entry to the US helped rally Muslim scholars and citizens (and the ACLU) around him while introducing even more to his reform-minded philosophies.

This week, he decided to cash in some of his new influence to call for a moratorium on corporal punishments and the death penalty as applied in Muslim countries (hudud) until Muslims debate – and reach consensus on – their application. Ramadan’s call for the abolition of hudud punishments, however, is not based on a challenge to classical Islamic law, but instead on the application of that law (a Western analog to this was the 2000 moratorium on the death penalty in the state of Illinois). “The majority of the ulama, historically and today, are of the opinion that these penalties are on the whole Islamic,” writes Ramadan, “but that the conditions under which they should be implemented are nearly impossible to reestablish. These penalties, therefore, are almost never applicable.”

Ramadan’s call reflects the realpolitik situation in Muslim lands where hudud punishments, while acknowledged as a Qur’anic reality, are rare. However, it also reflects a fear that increasing militancy and Islamic identity politics could result in an increase in their application – a situation Ramadan argues would be manifestly unjust. “The height of these injustices is that these penalties apply mainly to women and the poor – doubly victimized – never to the rich, the governing or to the oppressors,” says Ramadan. “Death sentences are carried out on women, men and minors without the accused having the least contact with a lawyer.”

But given the fact that there is already a de-facto moratorium on such punishments in the vast majority of the Muslim world (aside from Saudi Arabia and various unregulated tribal areas), could Ramadan’s call backfire? The mere use of the word “moratorium” suggests the possibility of pushing the Muslim world into wholesale application of the hudud if the debate Ramadan calls for heads in that direction – which could occur if advocates of an ethical, merciful shari’a are not prepared for it.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.