Ear for an ear does the punishment fit the crime?

A Pakistani judge has ordered two men to have their ears and noses cut off, as punishment for doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them. The government prosecutor Ehtisham Qadir said the punishment had been awarded in accordance with the Islamic principle of “an eye for an eye”.

Lubna Hussein : Heroine or criminal?

To thousands of women in Africa and the Middle East, Lubna Hussein has become a heroine, someone defying religious authorities and fighting for women’s rights.

To the men who try to impose those rules (in this case the Public Order police in Sudan) she is an enemy of public morals, to be denounced in the letters pages of newspapers and in mosques.

Should national law incorporate Sharia law?

It’s time for the UK to accomodate some aspects of Sharia law… so went a speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury which has proved incendiary. His argument is that if you want social cohesion then a plurality of legal authorities may help. Is he right?