Sentences of stoning and amputation are relatively rare: between 1981and1992forty-five judicial amputations were carried out and four death penalties by stoning in Saudi Arabia.
The introduction of the Sharia became the rallying cry of the religiously inspired political movements. The idea of going back to their cultural roots and of imposing Islamic norms on society was appealing to large segments of the population that were opposed to the increasing Western political and cultural influence. In a few countries, as we shall see, Sharia-based legislation was adopted, whereby criminal legislation usually was the first to be enacted.
In implementing Islamic criminal law, there is a clear emphasis on the fixed punishments, because here the contradictions between Islamic criminal law and Western-type penal law are glaring. The punishments such as amputation of limbs and stoning to death, which go directly back to the sacred texts of Islam, are in conflict with present-day principles of legal punishment, such as the inadmissibility of corporal punishment, nowadays accepted both in the Islamic world and the West. Islamic criminal law, and especially the law ofh.ud¯ ud, has a highly symbolic value and its introduction is regarded by many Muslims as the litmus test for a real Islamisation of the legal system.
The Nimeiri regime in the Sudan, for instance, introduced flogging as a possible punishment for all offences mentioned in the Penal Code.
The spectacle of public executions,amputations and floggings symbolises the supreme power of the regime and the futility of resistance against it.(CONCLUSION) The second reason why adopting Islamic criminal law might be attractive for a regime is that the way homicide is tried under Islamic criminal law is closer to the sense of justice of large parts of the population in the Islamic world. As we saw, legal proceedings for homicide are based on private rather than state prosecution. The victim’s heirs control the process in the sense that they are party to the trial, that prosecution depends on their wills and that they can agree to an extrajudicial settlement. When Islamic criminal law was reintroduced in the various countries, it did not meet with much opposition. In most countries it was supported by large groups in Muslim society. This is due to the powerful ideological discourse surrounding it, which holds promises for the ‘ordinary people’. In the first place, there is the religious aspect, the idea that by implementing Islamic criminal law the community complies with God’s wishes and will be rewarded. But on a practical level, Islamic criminal law holds a promise of eliminating crime and corruption as a result of its deterrence and its swift justice. Those who are apprehensive about rising crime rates and corruption will welcome Islamic criminal law as a panacea for the cure of social evils and the restoration of a virtuous society. Its advocates argue that Islamic criminal law offers effective tools to fight crime because it allows the application of severe and painful punishments consisting of whipping, amputation and stoning to death. This is an often-used argument in favour of Islamic criminal law. The amputation of the hand of one thief, it is repeatedly asserted, will deter many others from violating the property of other people. The advocates always contend that the crime rate in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where fixed punishments are carried out, is much lower than elsewhere.
In Islamic criminal laws everything prohibited by God and his prophet is a Crime. Unlike in Western law where only that which has a specified punishment is a Crime, in Islamic law every crime is punishable but not every punishment is specified. The role of the State is to ensure that, in a person’s public conduct, he does not commit a crime or any act likely to lead to one. Islamic law does not empower the State to infringe on the right of an individual citizen. It cannot break into a man’s room and punish him for adultery. It cannot plant a camera in a hotel room and punish a man based on a recording of a sexual act or drinking spree. But if a man and a woman choose to have sex where four eye witnesses actually see coitus, or if a man chooses to drink his beer in front of his house