Muslim says chopping off hands is 'compassionate'

Egypt protesters

Some Western analysts suspect the "democratic" revolution in Egypt is a front for an Islamic takeover, and now a report has surfaced that a key Egyptian cleric, Mas'oud Anwar, has advocated for adoption of Islamic law as the nation's new standard.

WND previously has reported how Muslims in Egypt are becoming more aggressive in their attacks on Christians and Christian churches.

The presentation by Anwar, on Al-Rahma Television, explains how imposing draconian penalties such as chopping hands off suspected thieves and stoning for adultery is "compassionate."

"The punishment decreed by the Shariah (Islamic law) serve as deterrents," Anwar explained, according to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute. The organization monitors and reports on media in the region.

Anwar explained the logic of Shariah:

"If someone contemplates fornication, but then he sees that on Friday, at Al-Tahrir Square, the police caught an unmarried fornicator, gave him 100 lashings and the entire thing was broadcast live on TV… Would he dare to commit fornication? He would say to himself: 'Oh my God, I don't need this.' He'd say: 'I'd better fast, like the Prophet Muhammad instructed.' That's it."

Continued Anwar, "If the Islamic punishment is implemented, the alcoholics will go to jail. Take a highway robber, a criminal, or a drug dealer – the haraba punishment on him [an Islamic punishment: to be put to death, or crucified, or have an arm and a leg chopped off on alternative sides, or to be banished]. That way, the world will be clean and more organized. […]

"My Muslim brothers, the compassion about which the secular speak, when they say that there is no compassion in Islamic law and that its punishments are barbaric, is nothing but ludicrous compassion," he said.

"Wisdom and compassion require that a killer be put to death, that a married adulterer be stoned, and that the hand of a thief be chopped off. That is true compassion. Chopping off the treacherous hand of a thief, to protect the entire nation, is compassion, mercy, and wisdom. "

Anwar said the West could benefit from the application of Shariah.

"I have with me statistics on crime in the West and in Arab countries, including Egypt. These figures are alarming. Why is there a rise in crime? Why is there an increasing number of prisons and prisoners! It is because the Shariah is not implemented."

Anwar said, "The thief is a cancer in society, and so are all the sinners. Their treatment is to be punished in accordance with the strict, judicious, and merciful law of Allah. The chopping off of a single treacherous hand guarantees the safety of the country and society in its entirety – it guarantees its security, its blood, its money, and its honor. That is what compassion means."

He likened crime to disease.

"Brothers, may God bless all the Muslims with good health. Take somebody who is told that he has cancer in his arm, and when he goes to the doctor, the doctor tells him that the only way to prevent his death is to amputate his arm. What is left for him to do? He holds his arm out to the doctor, and the doctor amputates it. When the patient awakens from the anesthesia, he says to the doctor: 'May Allah reward you, you saved my life.' The amputation is an act of mercy, and the patient thanks the doctor for it."

"And you tell me that Islamic law is barbaric? What barbarism? It is full of compassion," he said.

MEMRI also reported that there have been a growing number of "clashes" between Muslims and Coptic Christians, and "attacks on Coptic churches have increased."

In March, there were riots in Sol and in the Helwan Governorate, as well as attacks by Salafist Muslims who cut off the ear of a Christian.

In April, a quarrel over a building sparked clashes that saw a number of homes belonging to Christians burned. And in May, Muslims demonstrated against the opening of a church.

More than a dozen Christians were killed and hundreds wounded, the reports said.

There have been numerous demonstrations throughout Egypt since then.

The regional Hurriyet Daily News quoted the Muslim Brotherhood explaining that concerns about an Islamic state to replace the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak are unnecessary.

For one thing, said Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar, a leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Shariah already is in the Egyptian constitution.

"If you go to any court in Egypt, they implement Shariah first. This is more than enough for us," he told the Daily News.

But at the CreepingSharia blog, an analysis contended that the riots in Egypt had nothing to do with "democracy."

"Their version of freedom means voting in Islamic law," the commentary said. "Seventy-seven percent of Egyptians approved constitutional amendments drafted in part by the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

"The platform of the Cairo-based Brotherhood's new Freedom and Justice Party – as pleasing as the name may sound to Western ears – bars women and Christians from the presidency. It also establishes a board of Muslim clerics (read: Talibanesque mullahs) to oversee the government."

Another leading Muslim Brotherhood figure, Sobhi Saleh, was straightforward about the plans.

"Islamic Shariah is the best system for Muslims and non-Muslims," he said.