By Kishok Jeyachandran –
Kishok Jeyachandran
Five years on from the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the international community’s patience with the government in investigating gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law is exhausted.
It comes almost five years after the end of Sri Lanka’s protracted and bloody civil war—a conflict that saw the death of tens of thousands of civilians and the ‘disappearance’ of thousands more. And it comes because no one has been held accountable for any of the gross human rights abuses and serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by both sides to the conflict.
The final phase of the war was a bloodbath. As the brutal, secessionist Tamil Tigers were pushed back into a rapidly shrinking pocket of territory in the north-east, they forced more than a quarter of a million civilians to move with them and essentially serve as forced laborers and human shields. Ignoring the human misery, Sri Lankan troops launched indiscriminate attacks. More than 20,000 and maybe up to 40,000, civilians were killed in the last months of fighting and even more were injured.
Hoping to silence the ensuing domestic and international outcry, the Sri Lankan government established a Lessons Learned Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The commission was not designed to bring accountability and its mandate, membership and conduct were all faulted. But the LLRC did conclude that the state was obliged to investigate more fully the circumstances under which violations of human rights law and the laws of war could have occurred and where such investigations uncovered wrongful conduct to prosecute the wrongdoers. It warned that a transparent legal process and strict adherence to the rule of law were prerequisites of peace and stability.
Over two years on, however, and in spite of two UN resolutions calling on Sri Lanka to implement the LLRC’s recommendations, the government has failed to investigate the alleged violations. The international community has responded clearly: the Human Rights Council resolution requests the UN high commissioner for human rights to “undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties during the period covered by the Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission and to establish the facts and circumstances of such alleged violations with a view to avoiding impunity and ensuring accountability”.
Demise of judicial independence
The lack of political will to provide accountability has also been evident in the executive’s assault on the independence of the judiciary—once a point of pride for the island nation. The 18th amendment to the constitution, passed in 2010, gave unilateral authority to the president to make all appointments to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the Judicial Services Commission. Unsurprisingly, judicial appointments have become more politicized, and interference in the impartial functioning of the judiciary commonplace – as exemplified by the impeachment of the 43rd Chief Justice, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake, in January 2013, and her replacement by Mohan Peiris.
The impeachment was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and widely condemned for disregarding international standards on judicial independence and fair trial by the Bar Association, judges and civil-society groups. They were joined in this criticism by 57 senior judges from 30 countries, who signed an open letter to the government organized by the International Commission of Jurists.
Peiris, who had never served as a judge, was the president’s former legal advisor and attorney general. During his 33-month tenure as AG, he did not prosecute a single case of crimes against journalists, human-rights defenders or lawyers. And he repeatedly obstructed efforts to investigate allegations of gross human rights violations – even going so far as to mislead the UN Committee on Torture on the fate of a missing journalist, Prageeth Eknaligoda, whom he implied was in a foreign country.
Without an independent and impartial judiciary, it is simply not possible to have a credible domestic investigation that delivers truth and justice for conflict-related crimes. The UN High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, reported to the Human Rights Council that the failure of national mechanisms to establish truth and justice “can no longer be explained as a function of time or technical capacity, but … is fundamentally a question of political will”.
Activists attacked
A campaign meanwhile of targeted reprisals against human rights activists, lawyers and journalists underscores the need for an internationally led investigation. Between 2008 and 2013, 22 journalists and media activists were killed or subjected to ‘enforced disappearance’. No one has been arrested in connection with any of these crimes.
Even while the Human Rights Council was in session, on March 16th, Ruki Fernando of the Colombo-based INFORM and Father Praveen Mahesan, a Catholic priest, were arrested in Killinochchi and detained for 72 hours under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They were ordered to hand over iPads and hard drives and subjected to a travel ban and a gagging order. Three days earlier, a human-rights activist and mother of a ‘disappeared’ boy, Balendran Jeyakumari, was detained with her 13-year old daughter in their Killinochchi home. Jeyakumari is now being held without charge in the Boosa prison camp without access to a lawyer.
A process that does not allow victims and witnesses to testify freely will simply not be able to establish truth and justice.
Comprehensive investigation
The Human Rights Council resolution sends a strong message to the government that the international community is not willing to give up on the issue of accountability. It also gives hope to victims and civil society that the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability is not illusory.
The comprehensive investigation, if undertaken in accordance with the resolution, should bring to light information about the extent and circumstances of the alleged serious abuses committed by all parties in the conflict. But the government must ensure that civilian and military authorities co-operate.
Lasting peace demands justice. Because the Sri Lankan justice system is unwilling to deliver it, the international community must do so. Impunity will only aggravate the wounds of war.
Don Stanely / August 12, 2014
Mahinda Rajapaksa desperate to get reelected as President is planning to hold and ILLEGAL SNAP Presidential election before November.
The CIRCUS OF ELECTIONS in Sri Lanka is a JOKE that the opposition has participated in willingly because Ranil Wickramasinghe is a moron and looser. There should be a NATIONAL BOYCOTT OF Mahidna Rajapaksa’s next illegal election.
The joint opposition led by Sobitha Thero, JVP and CBK must do 2 things
1) Mobilize the SRI LANKA SPRING and PEOPLES PROTESTS throughout the county and educate Sinhala Modayas on the illegality of holding so many rigged elections before the end of the term. These elections are run won illegally by the Regime which utilized STATE FUNDS to buy votes.
2) The joint opposition must immediately declare CBK as the JOC to unseat the corrupt and criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency and clean up the SLFP and the corrupt political culture under the guidence of Sobith Thero with the support of Karu who will be her deputy.
3) Ranil WIckramasingha is desperate to become President of Sri Lanka which he will NEVER be because people of ALL ethnicities despise this UNP dictator who has destroyed the party. Ranil is a SPOILER and is preparing to be a spoiler again of the joint opposition campaign. He has destoryed the UNP and is trying to destroy democracy in Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Rajapaksa regime. He must be ejected from the joint opposition campaign because he is WASTING everyone’s time. And there is no time to wast because Mahinda Jarapassa is desperate to cling to power by all foul means.
/
Amarasiri / August 12, 2014
Kishok Jeyachandran –
“Five years on from the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the international community’s patience with the government in investigating gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law is exhausted.”
Puppies for Sale’ Poster campaign to intimidate Nimalka and Sunil
http://lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=14397
Read.. Posters.. Posters, .. why is that the opposition is not putting up posters as well?
Lanka-e-News-07.Aug.2014, 10.30PM) Posters for selling puppies are pasted near the Fort Railway Station area which include contact numbers of two prominent Human Rights Defenders Nimalka Fenando and Sunil Jayasekara as part of larger plan to intimidate and insult them.
/
Kapila / August 12, 2014
MR wants to have a SAARC youth conference to CORRUPT and criminalize the YOUTH of South Asia and promote his car racing moronic sons whose values are designer cloths, toy cars and guns to be the youth leaders of south asia.
No more youth conferences in Sri Lanka! This is a joke like the hundreds of elections that Rajapaksa has to cover up the lack of democracy and the military dictatorship of the Jarapassa brothers!
/
Javi / August 12, 2014
SAARC kiyane Deyo Saki neada??
Chaddi Walla the defacto leader is obliged to first-.
Take his Poo to the Loo as recommended by UNICEF.
Other SAARC members should follow- pronto!!
/
Lanka / August 12, 2014
Another kid on the block! Kishok, that was not a bloody civil war. It was blatant suicide bombing LTTE (Tamil)terrorism which engulfed Sri Lanka for 20/30 years. Where was the international community during this time? What human rights did the forcefully abducted underage Tamil children have? Where was The Human Rights Council resolutions to send a strong message to bloodthirsty Tamil terrorist vermin that the international community was not willing to accept “Terrorism! over 20/30 years. What action has the UNHRC done about the Tamil rump abroad who collected millions for terrorist activities. Lasting peace will only be achieved when Tamils give up their ghetto, mono-ethnic mentality and become one with the Sri Lankan society.
/
Native Vedda / August 13, 2014
Lanka
“Where was the international community during this time?”
The International Community has been too busy helping the Sinhala/Buddhist armed forces commit war crimes and crimes against humanity since 1971 and then covering it up in the international arena.
” What human rights did the forcefully abducted underage Tamil children have?”
Good question, why didn’t I think of this before? Anyhow what human rights did the 18,000 in 1971 innocent Sinhalese and 130,000 more innocent Sinhalese between 1987 and 1991 have?
You are worried about Tamils but I am worried about the innocent Sinhala/Buddhists who were killed and thrown in the river or burned in pile of tyres.
“Lasting peace will only be achieved when Tamils give up their ghetto, mono-ethnic mentality and become one with the Sri Lankan society.”
I hate to agree with you.
However since Sinhala/Buddhists being the majority don’t you think they too have to give up the idea of building a Aryan Sinhala/Buddhist ghetto and this mono-ethnic mentality in the island?
By the way what is this “become one with the Sri Lankan society.”
I never understood the idea of Sri Lankan society. Could you explain what it is.
Thanks, I would be grateful.
/
paul / August 12, 2014
‘As the brutal, secessionist Tamil Tigers were pushed back….they forced more than a quarter of a million civilians to move with them and essentially serve as forced laborers and human shields’
LOL. The terrorist supporters’ admission, to show their impartiality.
/
lynx / August 13, 2014
This is very true. Ch4 and the TNA also make an oblique reference to tiger atrocities – which is drowned in a sea of unverifiable allegations against the military. That is their claim of being impartial
/
Javi / August 13, 2014
Lying_ex`Boo`ts skulduggery,QQ
Out of the smoke into the flame!!
Punishment presses hard onto the heels of crime..
（’-’*)
/
Don / August 12, 2014
Over 50 years have passed since the bombing of Hiroshima, and the killings in Vietnam of over million civilians by the US and the West, but the so called International community is yet to hold some one responsible for those crimes.
/
aratai / August 12, 2014
.
Why? Who requested?
:-)
/
Native Vedda / August 12, 2014
aratai
Have you seen Kali-ban anywhere in this forum?
His Tamil National Army has only 4 days to invade this island.
/
Javi / August 13, 2014
Perhaps he is looking for cover in the US with his associates.
Gates, Buffett, and Adelson, who are worth a combined $184.3 billion, penned a New York Times op-ed that calls on Congress to pass a bill that would reflect the country’s “self-interest.”……
the men put aside those differences(party ) to stand in support of movement on immigration reform, which would include opening the doors for immigrants who have earned STEM graduate degrees and creating routes to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/opinion/sheldon-adelson-warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-on-immigration-reform.html?_r=1
/
Jim softy / August 13, 2014
How about People in Gaza. It says, shallow seas of Gaza has large Gas deposits. That is the only wrong thing that has happened, and the West want those gas. So, the result will be that Gaza will never will be independent until the that gas deposits are over.
What did Iraqi people do to live underneath another round of carpet bombing at the present time ?
For the international community, none of those are war crimes ?
/
Amarasiri / August 13, 2014
Jim softy . Lorenzo, Leela, Sumanasekera, and Avtars,
“How about People in Gaza” -Good question.
How about Amarasiri’s Posts in Lankaweb?
Post Script: Are there liars at Lankaweb?
Why is that Amarasiri’s posts give indigestion and constipation to the moderators of Lanka Web when Amarasiri points out the lies and distortions? Is it because Lankaweb is a lie and distortion spreading media of the para-Sinhala Buddhist racists, and there is no room for alternate opinions from Agnostics and Egalitarians? So Lankaweb’s following claim is a lie, and therefore they are liars.
THE LANKAWEB LIE, GIVEN BELOW:
“We believe in Free Speech, Right of Expression that Creates Platform for Dialogue. Therefore we do not moderate every comment posted on this web site. Once filtered through the initial registration process, any subsequent comments can be posted directly on the website to make it truly interactive. However, any abusive comments will be deleted forthwith and contributor’s membership will be cancelled immediately.”
/
Amarasiri / August 12, 2014
Kishok Jeyachandran –
“Five years on from the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the international community’s patience with the government in investigating gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law is exhausted.”
Read: A chronicler of the divided island
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/article6308217.ece
Samanth’s second book This Divided Island explores the grave issues of post-war Sri Lanka through a narrative history of the country’s residents
An hour before the launch of his latest book, Samanth Subramanian sits down for an interview, but not before greeting a known face and exchanging pleasantries about the forthcoming Landmark Quiz of which he is more than just a known face.
Samanth’s second book This Divided Island (his debut was a travelogue titled Following Fish) explores the grave issues of post-war Sri Lanka through a narrative history of the country’s residents, and those who left the country during the war.
Starting research in August 2010, Samanth visited Sri Lanka on a recce to discover the focus of his book. He then followed it up by reading about Sri Lanka. Finally, in 2011, he moved to Sri Lanka for 10 months to unearth stories that were buried, thanks to the war. “I took a leave of absence from work; in fact, I was prepared to quit if I hadn’t been sanctioned leave,” he laughs. Although he thought that research would be the hardest part of writing a book, Samanth says that he found the writing part to be more difficult as he “wanted to capture the texture of daily life in a war-ravaged country and at the same time get a literary character and include myself in the mix as well.”
For Samanth, writing about post-war Sri Lanka seemed the most obvious thing to do. “If you grew up here (Madras), the Sri Lankan issue was always in the air. But more than that, it was a journalistic impulse,” he says, adding that he remembers thinking in 2009, when the war ended, that a wide range of areas and people to write about had been thrown open: “There were stories waiting to be told; it was the perfect time to go there.”
Having interviewed more than a 100 people out of which came several stories that were previously untold, getting the subjects to open up was quite tough, admits Samanth. “There were tons of people who didn’t want to talk about the war, so I would talk to them about other things under the sun,” he says. While Sri Lanka probably misses a uniting factor between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, the one thing they had in common was the reluctance to talk to a stranger. “They were equally withholding; but once I met them for a few times they’d start to think of me as a person and gradually open up,” says Samanth.
The fact that he is a Tamil did help him talk to the Sri Lankan Tamils but the language spoken there, Samanth confesses, “is really classical Tamil. It took me some time to get used to it; their way of speaking is similar to Malayalam speakers. I would just squat there and wait.”
During the launch, in conversation with Dr. Navin Jayakumar, who is undoubtedly Chennai’s favourite quiz master, Samanth is at ease, reading passages from his book and patiently answering Navin’s questions. Samanth says that he assumed that there were clear divisions in Sri Lanka and until he actually went there, he says, he wasn’t aware of the presence of Tamil Muslims, a small and an overlooked community. “There were more divisions than I thought,” he says.
He then reads a passage from his book that details an incident that signalled the beginning of the crack between the Tigers and the Muslims: On August 3, 1990, four mosques in Batticaloa were surrounded and attacked by the Tigers, who were armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades.
While the sudden mistrust of the Muslims by the Tigers appeared mysterious, and although the war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese is pointless according to Navin, Samanth had an unusual approach to this topic. “Sri Lanka narrates its history from an epic that has been written and shaped by Buddhist clergy; it’s disturbing and strange, and frictions are evident since then,” he elaborates. Samanth goes on to narrate a story about King Dutugemunu in the Mahavamsa, a chronicle of Sri Lankan Buddhism, who slew the King Elara only because he is a Tamil King in Sri Lanka.
For a book that is mostly grim, Samanth’s addition of peculiar and quirky observations is refreshing. This includes spotting vintage cars, which he says are, “the most visual aspect of Jaffna,” and the story of a “displacement expert” who hides his cycle by coating it in grease and throwing it into a well so he can retrieve it when he comes back. The second story was narrated to Samanth by his late friend Sanjaya (to whom the book is dedicated) and it’s to this that he attributes the thirst for more such stories.
As with all book launches, this one too had its share of eccentric questions from the audience. One gentleman’s doubt: “Can people who have moved to a new land claim that the place they live on is theirs simply because they have lived there for many years?” He insists that Samanth simply answers either yes or no. Samanth’s answer quite sums up not only the event but also his book quite aptly. “How long do you have to live in a place before you can call it a homeland?”
Keywords: This Divided Island, Samanth Subramanian, indian authors, books on Sri Lanka
/
Razeek / August 13, 2014
Who writes in the name of “lanka”? He does not understand basic facts. Problem is not the LTTE but the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism that gave birth to the LTTE. Now the country is paying the price, even after the LTTE is gone.Sinhala-Buddhist racists still continue and will sure bring down this country
/
Jim softy / August 13, 2014
Arab living in Sri Lanka and Indians living in Sri Lanka are the major problems.
/
Javi / August 14, 2014
Jimbo,
majority???synonymous patriot and dirtball.
/
Tamodaya / August 13, 2014
How about Tamil Elam?
LOL!
/
Avis / August 13, 2014
“When the people fear the Government,
there is tyranny.
When Government fears the people,
there is liberty”
Thomas Jefferson
/
Javi / August 13, 2014
Who are those people, BBS, SR, Pan_Arab,LTTE,JVP,Left Wing, Right Wing, Lib??
Sovereignty lies in the people not the state;
The Sovereignty of the People!!
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/thomasjefferson/jeff0300.htm
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.- Thomas Jefferson
Most Americans are unaware that Thomas Jefferson was the first American president to go to war against radical Islam. Jefferson was very concerned with Islam’s war-like doctrine and its inability to separate mosque and state.-Brad Thor
/
Kabi / August 14, 2014
The man boating about Thomas Jefferson…
The man who wrote
““A child raised every 2. years is of more profit then the crop of the best laboring man”
“Jefferson used slaves as collateral for a very large loan he had taken out in 1796 from a Dutch banking house in order to rebuild Monticello. He pioneered the monetizing of slaves, just as he pioneered the industrialization and diversification of slavery.”
Small part of his dark side :(
In 1817, Jefferson’s old friend, the Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko, died in Switzerland. The Polish nobleman, who had arrived from Europe in 1776 to aid the Americans, left a substantial fortune to Jefferson. Kosciuszko bequeathed funds to free Jefferson’s slaves and purchase land and farming equipment for them to begin a life on their own. In the spring of 1819, Jefferson pondered what to do with the legacy. Kosciuszko had made him executor of the will, so Jefferson had a legal duty, as well as a personal obligation to his deceased friend, to carry out the terms of the document.
The terms came as no surprise to Jefferson. He had helped Kosciuszko draft the will, which states, “I hereby authorize my friend, Thomas Jefferson, to employ the whole [bequest] in purchasing Negroes from his own or any others and giving them liberty in my name.” Kosciuszko’s estate was nearly $20,000, the equivalent today of roughly $280,000. But Jefferson refused the gift, even though it would have reduced the debt hanging over Monticello, while also relieving him, in part at least, of what he himself had described in 1814 as the “moral reproach” of slavery.
If Jefferson had accepted the legacy, as much as half of it would have gone not to Jefferson but, in effect, to his slaves—to the purchase price for land, livestock, equipment and transportation to establish them in a place such as Illinois or Ohio. Moreover, the slaves most suited for immediate emancipation—smiths, coopers, carpenters, the most skilled farmers—were the very ones whom Jefferson most valued. He also shrank from any public identification with the cause of emancipation.
It had long been accepted that slaves were assets that could be seized for debt, but Jefferson turned this around when he used slaves as collateral for a very large loan he had taken out in 1796 from a Dutch banking house in order to rebuild Monticello. He pioneered the monetizing of slaves, just as he pioneered the industrialization and diversification of slavery.
Before his refusal of Kosciuszko’s legacy, as Jefferson mulled over whether to accept the bequest, he had written to one of his plantation managers: “A child raised every 2. years is of more profit then the crop of the best laboring man. in this, as in all other cases, providence has made our duties and our interests coincide perfectly…. [W]ith respect therefore to our women & their children I must pray you to inculcate upon the overseers that it is not their labor, but their increase which is the first consideration with us.”
In the 1790s, as Jefferson was mortgaging his slaves to build Monticello, George Washington was trying to scrape together financing for an emancipation at Mount Vernon, which he finally ordered in his will. He proved that emancipation was not only possible, but practical, and he overturned all the Jeffersonian rationalizations. Jefferson insisted that a multiracial society with free black people was impossible, but Washington did not think so. Never did Washington suggest that blacks were inferior or that they should be exiled.
It is curious that we accept Jefferson as the moral standard of the founders’ era, not Washington. Perhaps it is because the Father of his Country left a somewhat troubling legacy: His emancipation of his slaves stands as not a tribute but a rebuke to his era, and to the prevaricators and profiteers of the future, and declares that if you claim to have principles, you must live by them.
After Jefferson’s death in 1826, the families of Jefferson’s most devoted servants were split apart. Onto the auction block went Caroline Hughes, the 9-year-old daughter of Jefferson’s gardener Wormley Hughes. One family was divided up among eight different buyers, another family among seven buyers.
Joseph Fossett, a Monticello blacksmith, was among the handful of slaves freed in Jefferson’s will, but Jefferson left Fossett’s family enslaved. In the six months between Jefferson’s death and the auction of his property, Fossett tried to strike bargains with families in Charlottesville to purchase his wife and six of his seven children. His oldest child (born, ironically, in the White House itself) had already been given to Jefferson’s grandson. Fossett found sympathetic buyers for his wife, his son Peter and two other children, but he watched the auction of three young daughters to different buyers. One of them, 17-year-old Patsy, immediately escaped from her new master, a University of Virginia official.
Joseph Fossett spent ten years at his anvil and forge earning the money to buy back his wife and children. By the late 1830s he had cash in hand to reclaim Peter, then about 21, but the owner reneged on the deal. Compelled to leave Peter in slavery and having lost three daughters, Joseph and Edith Fossett departed Charlottesville for Ohio around 1840. Years later, speaking as a free man in Ohio in 1898, Peter, who was 83, would recount that he had never forgotten the moment when he was “put up on the auction block and sold like a horse.”
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson
/
Javi / August 14, 2014
Wooosh! bringing the dead back to life.
it was Washington who stopped slavery while Jefferson of Virginia had slaves.
So what??
If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, ‘We shouldn’t have free speech.’
Yennai Theriyuma – Kudiyirunda Kovil – M.G.R & Jayalalitha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhaOQSgD_M
/
Kabi / August 14, 2014
“Onto the auction block went Caroline Hughes, the 9-year-old daughter of Jefferson’s gardener Wormley Hughes. One family was divided up among eight different buyers, another family among seven buyers.”
What a cruelty it is…
/
kabi / August 14, 2014
“Yennai Theriyuma – Kudiyirunda Kovil – M.G.R & Jayalalitha”
I know who you are!
/
Javi / August 14, 2014
Khyber Pass (@)
I wish I knew!
/
Hussain / August 14, 2014
Christianity legitimized slavery in North America as the Dutch Reformed Church legitimized Apartheid in South Africa. The New Testament is premised on the existence of slavery. The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution and the Mexican revolution were all in part intended to roll back the church’s central role in serfdom and the suppression of fellow man. Serfdom was in a pre-monetized economy. Slavery rose with money.
A lady had posted verses from the Al Quran a ago in the Telegraph. The intent was to show how violent Islam was. Let me now post verses from the Bible. Let the reader judge which is violent – the blessed Al Quran or the Bible.
Kill People Who Don’t Listen to Priests
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)
Kill Witches
You should not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17 NAB)
Kill Homosexuals
“If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)
Kill Fortunetellers
A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)
Death for Hitting Dad
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)
Death for Cursing Parents
1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)
2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)
Death for Adultery
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)
Death for Fornication
A priest’s daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)
Death to Followers of Other Religions
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
Kill Nonbelievers
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
Kill False Prophets
If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, “You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord.” When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)
Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night
But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)
Kill Followers of Other Religions.
1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
2) Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)
Death for Blasphemy
One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD’s name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother’s name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD’s will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD’s name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT)
Kill False Prophets
1) Suppose there are prophets among you, or those who have dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles take place. If the prophets then say, ‘Come, let us worship the gods of foreign nations,’ do not listen to them. The LORD your God is testing you to see if you love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false prophets or dreamers who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt. Since they try to keep you from following the LORD your God, you must execute them to remove the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT)
2) But any prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to speak for me must die.’ You may wonder, ‘How will we know whether the prophecy is from the LORD or not?’ If the prophet predicts something in the LORD’s name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message. That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NLT)
Infidels and Gays Should Die
So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:24-32 NLT)
/
Kabi / August 14, 2014
Hussain,
A society without religion is better than one with – my opinion. Religion/faith should be kept like smoking houses. Should not let to interfere with others. If one wants to follow a religion/faith keep it inside four walls in the house. One might ask then we get MORALITY. Here is the answer by Richard Dawkins….
Question: My question is for professor Dawkins. Considering that Atheism cannot possibly have any sense of absolute morality, would it not then be an irrational leap of faith, which atheists themselves so harshly condemn, for an atheist to decide between right and wrong?
And here is Dawkins’ answer:
RICHARD DAWKINS – “The absolute morality that a religious person might profess would include what,”
RICHARD DAWKINS – “STONING PEOPLE FOR ADULTERY,”
And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 20.10
The Jew brought to the Prophet a man and a woman from amongst them who have committed (adultery) illegal sexual intercourse. He ordered both of them to be stoned (to death), near the place of offering the funeral prayers beside the mosque. Hadith Sahih Muslim
RICHARD DAWKINS – “DEATH FOR APOSTASY;”
If thy brother … or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods … Thou shalt not consent unto him … neither shall thine eye pity him … But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Deuteronomy 13.6-10
“Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” — Muhammad Sahih al-Bukhari
RICHARD DAWKINS – “PUNISHMENT FOR BREAKING SABBATH?”
Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Exodus 31.14
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Exodus 35.2
They found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day … and the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones. Numbers 15.32-36
Ye know of those of you who broke the Sabbath, how We said unto them: Be ye apes, despised and hated! And We made it an example to their own and to succeeding generations. Quran 2.65-66
RICHARD DAWKINS – “These are all things which are religiously-based absolute moralities. I don’t think I want an absolute morality. I think I want a morality that is thought out, reasoned, argued, discussed, and based upon what you could almost call an intelligent design.”
RICHARD DAWKINS – “Can we not design our society in such a way to have the sort of morality that we want to live in? If you actually look at the moralities that are accepted among modern people, among 21st century people: we don’t believe in slavery anymore, we believe in the equality of women, we believe in being gentle, we believe in being kind to animals. Theses are all things which are entirely recent. They have very little basis in Biblical or Quranic scripture. They are things that have developed over historical time through a consensus of reasoning, sober discussion, argument, legal theory, political and moral philosophy. They do not come from religion.”
RICHARD DAWKINS – “To the extent that you can find the good bits in religious scriptures you have to cherry pick. You search your way through the Bible or the Quran and find the occasional verse that is an acceptable profession of morality and we say, “Look at that! That’s religion.” You leave out all the horrible bits and you say, “Oh, we don’t believe that anymore. We’ve grown out of it.”
(In the SAB there are 1312 cruel passages vs. 503 good ones; the corresponding values for the Quran are 531 and 75.)
Well, of course we’ve grown out of it! We’ve grown out of it because of secular, moral philosophy and rational discussion.
/