Survey shows 40 percent of Muslims students in UK endorse Islamic law: WikiLeaks

Nearly one-third of Muslim college students in Britain support killing in the name of religion, while 40 percent want to live under Islamic law, according to a secret cable from the U.S. Embassy in London that reviewed public polling data and government population predictions.

A survey of 600 Islamic and 800 non-Islamic students at 30 universities found that 32 percent of the Muslims believed in religious killing, while only 2 percent of non-Muslim students felt religious murder was justified, the cable said, referring to a poll conducted by the Center for Social Cohesion.

The embassy cable, released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, said the same survey revealed that 54 percent of Muslim students want to be represented by an Islamic-based political party.

The poll also showed that 40 percent of Muslim students endorse Islamic, or Shariah, law, which can impose the death penalty for religious heresy and adultery, often by stoning, or the amputation of hands for theft. Since 2008, Britain has allowed Muslims to follow Shariah law in civil cases, but not in criminal trials.

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Source: Embassy Row, James Morrison, The Washington Post, December 19, 2010

Iran authorities chop off man's hand

Hand amputation in Iran

Tehran, Dec. 02 - Iranian authorities amputated the hand of a man in a prison in the western province of Kermanshah.

The sentence was carried out on Wednesday in the presence of local judiciary officials and other prisoners, according to the state-run news agency ISNA. The report did not identify the man other than to say that he had been convicted of stealing.

Iran's Islamic penal system regularly practices centuries-old sentences for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death, and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sac.

On 24 October, state radio reported that authorities amputated the hand of a 32-year-old man in front of other prisoners in the central city of Yazd.

On 16 October, the state-run Fars news agency reported that an Iranian court had condemned a 21-year-old man convicted of stealing chocolates and cocoa from a Tehran pastry shop to have a hand chopped off.

On 22 July, authorities amputated the hands of five men accused of stealing in the city of Hamedan, western Iran, the state-run news agency ILNA reported.

On 2 July, authorities amputated the hand of a man accused of stealing in the city of Malayer, western Iran, the semi-official daily Kayhan reported.

International human rights bodies have repeatedly called on the regime to halt inhumane and degrading punishments.

Source: Iran Focus, December 2, 2010