I have not been able to blog for the past ten days and have much to write about.
Most urgently I must tell you about the International Committee against Execution’s call for a two week campaign against executions in Iran during 22 July – 5 August 2013.
You can see Mina Ahadi’s report on the successful first week of the campaign in Persian here.
Execution in all instances, anywhere, is unacceptable. When the state kills it becomes a serial killer, committing premeditated murder on behalf of all society, which makes it the worst kind.
There are those who say that people who kill should be killed. However, most people on death row haven’t killed. And justice is not about retribution. Should rapists by raped and the houses of arsonists burnt to the ground with their families in them?
More importantly what this argument ignores is that the death penalty is a form of state control and intimidation. It’s meant to put people in their places and instil fear. That is as true for the regime in Iran as in China or the states that carry out the death penalty in the USA.
The regime in Iran has survived for more than 30 years by murdering citizens – young and old, men and women, and for more than 130 offences including homosexuality, enmity against god, apostasy and adultery.
Join the International Committee against Executions in saying goodbye to executions.
Tweet #NoMoreExecutions, Upload your acts of outrage and opposition to executions in Iran on social media, Email your actions to minnaahadi@gmail.com.
The young man shown on your poster “Time to say goodbye to executions in Iran” is unbearably heroic. What an indictment of the society that condemned him.
I don’t blame the people of Iran, or any other sharia-ruled country, who are living in fear. But I do blame those living in safe countries like ours who make excuses for religious fundamentalism and pretend that the barbarity is just an aberration.
As always, thank you Maryam for speaking out.
Time to say goodbye to Theocracy..That is the problem.. Islam is entirely derived from Judaism and Mohammed was once married to a wealthy Jewish woman..It is said that her father was a rabbi and thus Mohammed’s inspiration did not come directly from above..
The mentality of an eye for a eye and a tooth for a tooth comes directly from Judaism..Mohammed did not come up with anything new……