Showing posts with label Retaliation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retaliation. Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Islamic Law on "retaliation"

Islamic law devalues the lives of non-Muslims by saying that ['Umdat al-Salik o1.1-01.2]:

Retaliation is obligatory...against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.

That means, someone who commits murder must be punished. However:

not subject to retaliation is a Muslim for killing a non-Muslim.

That means that there is no penalty for a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim.

However, in some cases, the injury or death of a non-Muslim may be literally paid off with money, with the perpetrator making a payment to the victim or his family. In that case ['Umdat al-Salik o4.9]:

the indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third of the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid of a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth of that a Muslim.