One hundred and fourteen years ago
In 1906 a serial killer was executed in Morocco. Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi was a shoemaker in Marrakesh. With the help of an old woman called Rahali he had drugged, murdered and mutilated a total of at least thirty-six young women. His execution was due to include crucifixion, as Islamic law specifies for the worst offenders. However, diplomats of the western powers objected strongly not just against the barbaric nature of the execution, but more against its sacrilegious nature from a Christian perspective. The Sultan of Morocco rescinded the order for the original execution and Masefwi, after some days of being publicly flogged, was executed by immuration, being bricked up in the city wall of Marrakesh.
One year ago
On the 23rd April 2019 Saudi Arabia executed 37 people for what the Saudis described as terrorist offenses after a judicial process that involved more torturers than it did defence lawyers. They were all killed by decapitation but two of them were subsequently crucified. The executions were reported, but with more discretion than outrage and there was no great outcry, in fact, the loudest sound was the crickets chirping. In typically mealy-mouthed style the BBC report said, “Crucifixion following an execution is reserved for crimes seen by the authorities as even more serious.”. The authorities? The Saudi authorities did not think up this nasty twist themselves, like the Moroccans over a century ago, they were simply following sharia law. In total Saudi Arabia executed 180 people last year.
Crucifixion in Islam
The justification for crucifixion as an execution method under sharia comes from the Quran.
Surah 5:33
“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” (Yusuf Ali translation)
This is often known as the Hirabah (illegal warfare/piracy) verse and is an important one in Islamic jurisprudence. Interstingly, it comes directly after the verse most often misquoted by Islamic apologists trying to push the “Religion of Peace” narrative, but that’s for another post.
Some thoughts
It is immensely telling that the diplomats of the early 20th century felt strongly enough, and felt confident enough, to make objections and that the Sultan acted on those objections. I’ve tried to find reference to the incident in newspapers of the time and I’ve yet to find anything, so it seems the diplomats were not motivated by public pressure in their home nations but by their own consciences.
This was not the case in 2019. Certainly, groups that oppose the death penalty itself did object at the time but there was no meaningful reaction, certainly not when compared to the reaction to any number of cases of wounded Islamic pride. When Salman Rushdie wrote the Satanic Verses British Moslems marched in their tens of thousands, calling for his death, with not one arrest. Protecting him from them and Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwah cost the British taxpayer millions. Publishing cartoons of Muhammed got people killed (and folk who call themselves liberal said they shouldn’t have provoked the reaction!). Yet making the execution of human beings into an obscene parody of the death of Christ has no consquences.
I’m tempted to feel that what the Saudis do in their own kingdom is up to them, and all things being equal this is probably the line I would take; however, all things are far from equal. The religious sensibilities of the Saudis, and the rest of the Islamic world, must be respected and deferred to in every place on earth, yet the sensibilities of others just don’t seem to matter.
I don’t doubt that the western ambassadors in Riyadh were appalled by the executions, some may have even been upset by the symbolism of them, but they simply didn’t have the cultural confidence to make any serious objections. Weakness and self-loathing have been the default positions of most western politicians, diplomats and media since 1945. Weakness and self-loathing are never respected, no matter how much military might you have at your command.
How do we recover that confidence and respect? Well, this very website is both a sign of, and an engine for, a return of that confidence in the US at least, as is the election of President Trump. Brexit is another green shoot, but it’s very early days yet. I don’t foresee, or want, a return to the days of gunboat diplomacy, but a world where respect goes both ways might be nice.