Mali's Sharia Nightmare

Mali’s Sharia Nightmare [Excerpts]

The Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith), along with its other Islamist and al-Qaeda allies, is creating a terrifying Sharia-run state in northern Mali, complete with public floggings, group amputations, and death by stoning.

Ansar Dine, along with the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), first gained control over northern Mali in April after it commandeered a rebellion originally launched by ethnic Tuareg separatists against the Mali government.

Since then, as part of their consolidation of power in the region — an area roughly the size of Texas — the Islamist Ansar Dine and Mujao have been busily imposing Sharia law in the towns and cities of northern Mali, including the region’s largest cities of Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao.

To that end, the Islamists have issued edicts against a wide range of acts they deem to be “haraam” (forbidden), behaviors such as smoking or selling cigarettes; drinking or selling alcoholic beverages; listening to music; failing to attend daily prayers; or women failing to cover themselves appropriately.

For those unfortunate enough to run afoul of these restrictions, the punishments are exceedingly harsh, punitive measures which include public beatings, floggings, amputations, and summary executions, such as death by stoning.

Carrying out the punishments are designated Islamic police, assisted in their tasks by a growing cadre of child soldiers, some as young as 11, who have been recruited into the Islamist ranks to serve as spies, guards, cooks and patrol officers.

Of course, figuring what type of punishment is appropriate for the crime committed is determined by the nuanced complexities of Sharia law, intricacies explained by Oumar Ould Hamaha of the Mujao in the recent case in Gao of a group amputation in which the right hand and left foot of five suspected thieves were cut off.

Hamaha said the Islamists amputated the right hand and left foot of the men because “According to the Sharia, the men had to face double punishment for theft and highway robbery. The sentence for theft is to cut a hand, and the sentence for highway robbery is cutting the opposite leg.”

While theft may result in the loss of several appendages, it’s a markedly better punishment than for those accused of having children out of wedlock, as was the case of a young couple who was stoned to death in July by members of Ansar Dine in the Malian town of Aguelhok near the Algerian border.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-crimi/mali%e2%80%99s-sharia-nightmare/