Gang-raped Indonesian woman may be caned publicly

[happyslug]

44. Mankind is a SOCIAL ANIMAL and as such we develop law to decides disputes within society.

Different societies have adopted different rules. Many societies tries to justify their rules with religion. i.e. tries to get everyone to accept those rules.

In Islamic Societies, the leaders of the society are the religious leaders. Even Islam tries to retain traditional rules of any society that turns Islamic, thus in Islamic Societies it is the Religious leaders that are the Judges of that Society.

We in the West have a long history of Religion and Secular society being separate and apart. This concept goes back to the Roman Empire, but did not extend much beyond that Empire till the Christian Churches took that concept to the rest of Europe and into North America.

Islam has ALWAYS rejected the concept that religion and the rest of society are two different things. Thus an Islamic Judge is also a Secular Judge. Such a Judge decides both issues or religion and any other part of society. In this case, under the law applicable to this victim she was subject to a canning. That is INDEPENDENT of the crime of Rape. You may disagree with it, but it was and is the LAW in that part of the world and the Victim knew it.

The Judge's statements as to the Rape, also reflects the law in that part of the World. i.e. each of the rapist MUST be punished, and such a punishment must be worse then the canning the victim was sentences to.

Now, please note, Sharia law also permits settlements of Criminal sentences by Civil Payments. This also was the rule as late as the 1700s in England. People accused of crimes in England, could agree to pay back what they stole from the proceeds of the indenture servitude they agreed to serve in the New World. It was when to many people were opting for such an alternative that actual punishment was imposed on criminals.

This is still the norm within most Islamic and other Traditional cultures. The Religious leaders generally work out a compromise between the Defendant and the Plaintiff, using the threat of the sentence to work out a deal. The Sentence is part of the process, not the end result of the process.

That is how most traditional societies work, compromise as work through the religious leaders. I suspect that is going on in this case, and why the Judge made the comment that the Rapists should be punished more. Sounds like an inter-family dispute, probably involving not only her family, but her husband's family, whoever was the man she admitted to have sex with, Family AND his wife's family. Given outside of "Western Society", China, Korea and Japan (and the later three only marginally) most people marry their cousins. Thus some inner-extended family "Politics" is also at work. We may never learned the details, but compromises between the families and branches of families help keep such traditional societies untied.

Will the Woman be canned? Maybe, but I suspect she will NOT be, for her rapists are on notice what they did was worse then was she did. A compromise will be agreed to and settle the accusation of extra marital sex but also the rape. The exact terms we may never hear of, but the Judge's comment indicates he is mad at the rapists and will punish them as far as the law allows.