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Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until death ensues. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject. This is in contrast to the case of a judicial executioner. Slower than other forms of execution, stoning is a form of execution by torture.

Stoning is called Rajm (Arabic: رجم) in Islamic literature, and it remains a legal form of judicial punishment in United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Northern Nigeria, Aceh in Indonesia, Brunei, and Pakistan; although several other countries practice extrajudicial stoning, while several others have sentenced people to death by stoning, but have not carried out the sentences.

In modern times, allegations of stoning are politically sensitive, as in case of Iran, which describes such allegations as political propaganda.^[1]

In history

Stoning is an ancient form of capital punishment. There are historical reports of stoning from Ancient Greece — Herodotus reports the case of Lycidas in his Histories, Book IX. Stoning is also mentioned in Ancient Greek mythology — Oedipus asks to be stoned to death when he learns that he killed his father.

In Judaism

Torah

The Israelite Torah, which is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) contained within the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and as such serves as a common religious reference for Judaism. Stoning is the method of execution mentioned in the Torah. (Murder is not mentioned as an offense punishable by stoning, but it seems that a member of the victim's family was allowed to kill the murderer – see Avenger of blood.) The crimes punishable by stoning were the following:

Touching Mount Sinai while God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:13)
An ox that gores someone to death should be stoned (Exodus 21:28)
Breaking Sabbath (Numbers 15:32–36)
An engaged virgin and the man who lies with her in a town, together, since she did not cry out (Deuteronomy 22:24)
Giving one's "seed" (presumably one's offspring) "to Molech" (Leviticus 20:2–5)
Having a "familiar spirit" (or being a necromancer) or being a "wizard" (Lev. 20:27)
Cursing God (Lev. 24:10–16)
Engaging in idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2–7) or seducing others to do so (Deut. 13:7–12)
"Rebellion" against parents (Deut. 21,18–21)
Getting married as though a virgin, when not a virgin (Deut. 22:13–21)
Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman engaged to another man (both should be stoned, Deut. 22:23–24)

Describing the stoning of apostates from Judaism, the Torah states:

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; [Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
— Deuteronomy 13:6–10^[2]

Mishna

The Talmud describes four methods of execution – stoning, pouring molten lead down the throat of the condemned person, beheading, and strangulation (see Capital and corporal punishment in Judaism). The Mishna gives the following list of persons who should be stoned.^[3]^[4]

"To the following sinners stoning applies – אלו הן הנסקלין

one who has had relations with his mother – הבא על האם
with his father's wife – ועל אשת האב
with his daughter-in-law – ועל הכלה
a human male with a human male – ועל הזכור
or with cattle – ועל הבהמה
and the same is the case with a woman who uncovers herself before cattle – והאשה המביאה את הבהמה
with a blasphemer – והמגדף
an idolater – והעובד עבודת כוכבים
he who sacrifices one of his children to Molech – והנותן מזרעו למולך
one that occupies himself with familiar spirits – ובעל אוב
a wizard – וידעוני
one who violates Sabbath – והמחלל את השבת
one who curses his father or mother – והמקלל אביו ואמו
one who has assaulted a betrothed damsel – והבא על נערה המאורסה
a seducer who has seduced men to worship idols – והמסית
and the one who misleads a whole town – והמדיח
a witch (male or female) – והמכשף
a stubborn and rebellious son – ובן סורר ומורה"

As God alone was deemed to be the only arbiter in the use of capital punishment, not fallible people, the Sanhedrin made stoning a hypothetical upper limit on the severity of punishment.^[5]

Prior to early Christianity, particularly in the Mishnah, doubts were growing in Jewish society about the effectiveness of capital punishment in general (and stoning in particular) in acting as a useful deterrent. Subsequently its use was dissuaded by the central legislators. The Mishnah states:

A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called destructive. Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah says that this extends to a Sanhedrin that puts a man to death even once in seventy years. Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Tarfon say: Had we been in the Sanhedrin none would ever have been put to death. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says: they would have multiplied shedders of blood in Israel.^[6]

In the following centuries the leading Jewish sages imposed so many restrictions on the implementation of capital punishment as to make it de facto illegal. The restrictions were to prevent execution of the innocent, and included many conditions for a testimony to be admissible that were difficult to fulfill.

Philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote, "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death."^[7] He was concerned that the law guard its public perception, to preserve its majesty and retain the people's respect. He saw errors of commission as much more threatening to the integrity of law than errors of omission.^[8]

Mode of Judgment

In rabbinic law, capital punishment may only be inflicted by the verdict of a regularly constituted court of three-and-twenty qualified members. There must be the most trustworthy and convincing testimony of at least two qualified eyewitnesses to the crime, who must also depose that the culprit had been forewarned of the criminality and the consequences of his project.^[4] The culprit must be a person of legal age and of sound mind, and the crime must be proved to have been committed of the culprit's free will and without the aid of others.

On the day the verdict is pronounced, the convict is led forth to execution. The Torah law (Leviticus 19:18) prescribes, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and the Rabbis maintain that this love must be extended beyond the limits of social intercourse in life, and applied even to the convicted criminal who, "though a sinner, is still thy brother" (Mak. 3:15; Sanh. 44a): "The spirit of love must be manifested by according him a decent death" (Sanh. 45a, 52a). Torah law provides (Deut. 24:16), "The parents shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the parents; every man shall be put to death for his own sins", and rabbinic jurisprudence follows this principle both to the letter and in spirit. A sentence is not attended by confiscation of the convict's goods; the person's possessions descend to their legal heirs.

The Talmud limits the use of the death penalty to Jewish criminals who:

(A) while about to do the crime were warned not to commit the crime while in the presence of two witnesses (and only individuals who meet a strict list of standards are considered acceptable witnesses); and
(B) having been warned, committed the crime in front of the same two witnesses.^[9]

In theory, the Talmudic method of how stoning is to be carried out differs from mob stoning. According to the Jewish Oral Law, after the Jewish criminal has been determined as guilty before the Great Sanhedrin, the two valid witnesses and the sentenced criminal go to the edge of a two story building. From there the two witnesses are to push the criminal off the roof of a two story building. The two-story height is chosen as this height is estimated by the Talmud to effect a quick and painless demise but is not so high that the body will become dismembered. After the criminal has fallen, the two witnesses are to drop a large boulder onto the criminal – requiring both of the witnesses to lift the boulder together. If the criminal did not die from the fall or from the crushing of the large boulder, then any people in the surrounding area are to quickly cause him to die by stoning with whatever rocks they can find.

In Islam

Islamic Sharia Law is based on the Quran, the hadith, and the biography of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, though there is no reference to stoning in the Quran. Shia and Sunni hadith collections differ because scholars from the two traditions differ as to the reliability of the narrators and transmitters and the Imamah. Shi'a sayings related to stoning can be found in Kitab al-Kafi,^[10] and Sunni sayings related to stoning can be found in the Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.^[11]

Based on these hadiths, in some Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, married adulterers will get capital punishment, while not-married adulterers will be flogged 100 times.

Crimes in the Qur'an are divided into three categories based on the prescribed punishment for the offence. The first category is Hudad, which is defined as limits and prohibitions, and committing any of these crimes is equivalent to violating God's limits and the proper punishment considered for such a crime is execution. Zina which refers to any illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, is one of the major offences in Islam and classifies in the Hudad category. The Qur'an forbids all sexual intercourse outside the marital bond as sinful, but makes no distinction between them. The punishment is flogging 100 times for those found guilty.^[12] Stoning (rajm) as a punishment for adultery is not mentioned in the Quran (though it is mentioned in Hadith^[13]), so some modernist Muslim scholars, like Quran alone Scholars, hold the view that stoning to death is not an Islamic law.^[14]

According to the Hanbali jurist Ibn Qudamah, "Muslim jurists are unanimous on the fact that stoning to death is a specified punishment for the married adulterer and adulteress. The punishment is recorded in number of traditions and the practice of Muhammad stands as an authentic source supporting it. This is the view held by all Companions, Successors and other Muslim scholars with the exception of Kharijites."^[15]

In hadith (sayings)

Jabir b. 'Abdullah reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) stoned (to death) a person from Banu Aslam, and a Jew and his wife.
— Sahih Muslim, 17:4216 see also Sahih Muslim, 17:4191 Sahih Muslim, 17:4212

Sahih Bukhari 6.79, Narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar The Jews brought to the Prophet a man and a woman from among them who had committed illegal sexual intercourse. The Prophet said to them, "How do you usually punish the one amongst you who has committed illegal sexual intercourse?" They replied, "We blacken their faces with coal and beat them." He said, "Don't you find the order of Ar-Rajm (i.e. stoning to death) in the Torah?" They replied, "We do not find anything in it." 'Abdullah bin Salam (after hearing this conversation) said to them, "You have told a lie! Bring here the Torah and recite it if you are truthful." (So the Jews brought the Torah). And the religious teacher who was teaching it to them, put his hand over the Verse of Ar-Rajm and started reading what was written above and below the place hidden with his hand, but he did not read the Verse of Ar-Rajm. 'Abdullah bin Salam removed his (i.e. the teacher's) hand from the Verse of Ar-Rajm and said, "What is this?" So when the Jews saw that Verse, they said, "This is the Verse of Ar-Rajm." So the Prophet ordered the two adulterers to be stoned to death, and they were stoned to death near the place where biers used to be placed near the Mosque. I saw her companion (i.e. the adulterer) bowing over her so as to protect her from the stones.
— Sahih al-Bukhari, 6:60:79 see also Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:82:809 Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:92:432 Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:93:633

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 50: Conditions, Number 885: Narrated Abu Huraira and Zaid bin Khalid Al-Juhani: A bedouin came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's apostle! I ask you by Allah to judge My case according to Allah's Laws." His opponent, who was more learned than he, said, "Yes, judge between us according to Allah's Laws, and allow me to speak." Allah's Apostle said, "Speak." He (i .e. the bedouin or the other man) said, "My son was working as a laborer for this (man) and he committed illegal sexual intercourse with his wife. The people told me that it was obligatory that my son should be stoned to death, so in lieu of that I ransomed my son by paying one hundred sheep and a slave girl. Then I asked the religious scholars about it, and they informed me that my son must be lashed one hundred lashes, and be exiled for one year, and the wife of this (man) must be stoned to death." Allah's Apostle said, "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, I will judge between you according to Allah's Laws. The slave-girl and the sheep are to be returned to you, your son is to receive a hundred lashes and be exiled for one year. You, Unais, go to the wife of this (man) and if she confesses her guilt, stone her to death." Unais went to that woman next morning and she confessed. Allah's Apostle ordered that she be stoned to death.The stoning was done to the woman because she was a jew and according to torah punishment is stoning.The son got 100 lashes because its the punishment for zina in quran.
— Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:50:885 see also Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:49:860 Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:82:842 Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:89:303

Usage today

As of September 2010, stoning is a punishment that is included in the laws in some countries including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and some states in Nigeria^[16] as punishment for zina al-mohsena ("adultery of married persons").^[17]

Zina must be proven by either confession or validation of four honest eyewitnesses' testimony. Each witness' detailed descriptions must be exactly the same as other men to be taken into consideration; if not the witnesses will receive eighty lashes as punishment for the false accusation.^{[citation needed]}

While stoning may not be codified in the laws of Afghanistan and Somalia, both countries have seen several incidents of stoning to death.^[18]^[19]

Many Muslim clerics, religious scholars, and political leaders—including those in the countries where stoning is practiced—have condemned stoning as “un-Islamic”, as it is not explicitly mentioned in the Quran.^[17]

Afghanistan

Before the Taliban government, most areas of Afghanistan, aside from the capital, Kabul, were controlled locally by warlords or tribal leaders and the Afghan legal system depended highly on an individual community's local culture and the political and/or religious ideology of its leaders. Stoning also occurred in lawless areas, where vigilantes committed the act for political purposes. Once the Taliban took over, stoning became the official punishment for many crimes. The U.S.-led occupation ended stoning as an official court ruling, but it still occurs unofficially.^[20]^[21] A Taliban-ordered public stoning of a couple accused of adultery took place in Kunduz on August 15, 2010.^[22] Another public stoning occurred in 2011, in Ghazni province, when a group of armed men stoned and shot dead a woman and her daughter. According to official authorities, the Taliban had accused the victims of "moral deviation and adultery".^[23]

Brunei

In October 2013, the Sultan of Brunei announced that stoning, along with flogging and amputations, would be added to the country's laws in accordance with Sharia Law.^[24]

Indonesia

On 14 September 2009, the outgoing Aceh Legislative Council passed a bylaw that called for the stoning of married adulterers.^[25] However, then governor Irwandi Yusuf refused to sign the bylaw, thereby keeping it a law without legal force and, in some views, therefore still a law draft, rather than actual law.^[26] In March 2013, the Aceh government removed the stoning provision from its own draft of a new criminal code.^[27]

Iraq

In 2007, Du'a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi girl, was stoned by her fellow tribesmen in northern Iraq for dating a Muslim boy.^[28]

In 2012 at least 14 youths were stoned to death in Baghdad, apparently as part of a Shi'ite militant campaign against Western-style "emo" fashion.^[29]

An Iraqi man was stoned to death, in August 2014, in the northern city of Mosul after one Sunni Islamic court sentenced him to die for the crime of adultery.^[30]

Iran

Stoning to death was blocked as legal punishment in 1981 by orders of Khomeini and Ardebili.^[31] The Iranian judiciary officially placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002.^[32] In 2005, judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad stated, "in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", further adding that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were overruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out."^[1] In 2008, the judiciary decided to fully scrap the punishment from the books in legislation submitted to parliament for approval.^[33] In February 2013, judicial spokesman Mohammad Ali Asfanani stated that no such verdict was carried out since revolution of 1979^[34]. In early 2013, Iranian parliament published official report about excluding stoning from penal code and it accused Western media for spreading "noisy propaganda" about the case.^[35]

Mali

In July 2012, a couple who had sex outside marriage was stoned to death by Islamists in the town of Aguelhok in northern Mali.^[36]

Nigeria

Since the Sharia legal system was introduced in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria in 2000, more than a dozen Nigerian Muslims have been sentenced to death by stoning for sexual offences ranging from adultery to homosexuality. However, none of these sentences has actually been carried out. They have either been thrown out on appeal or commuted to prison terms as a result of pressure from human rights groups.^[37]^[38]^[39]

Pakistan

Stonings in Pakistan are relatively common, especially in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In March 2013, Pakistani soldier Anwar Din, stationed in Parachinar, was publicly stoned to death for allegedly having a romantic affair with a girl from a village in the country's north western Kurram Agency.^[40] On 11 July 2013, Arifa Bibi, a young mother of two, was sentenced by a tribal court in Dera Ghazi Khan District, in Punjab, to be stoned to death for possessing a cell phone. Members of her family were ordered to execute her sentence and her body was buried in the desert far away from her village.^[41]^[42]

In February 2014, a couple in a remote area of Baluchistan province was stoned to death after being accused of an adultery-relationship.^[43] On 27 May 2014, Farzana Parveen, a 25 year-old married woman who was three months pregnant, was stoned to death by nearly 20 members of her family outside the high court of Lahore in front of "a crowd of onlookers." The assailants, who allegedly included her father and brothers, attacked Farzana and her husband Mohammad Iqbal with batons and bricks. Her father Mohammad Azeem, who was arrested for murder, reportedly called the murder an "honor killing" and said "I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent." ^[44] Iqbal told a news agency that he had strangled his previous wife in order to marry Farzana, and police said he had been released when a "compromise" was reached with his family.^[45]

Saudi Arabia

Legal stoning sentences have been reported in Saudi Arabia.^[46]^[47]

Sudan

In May 2012, a Sudanese court convicted Intisar Sharif Abdallah of adultery and sentenced her to death; the charges were appealed and dropped two months later.^[48] In July 2012, a criminal court in Khartoum, Sudan, sentenced 23-year-old Layla Ibrahim Issa Jumul to death by stoning for adultery.^[49] Amnesty International reported that she was denied legal counsel during the trial and was convicted only on the basis of her confession. The organization designated her a prisoner of conscience, "held in detention solely for consensual sexual relations", and lobbied for her release.^[48]

Somalia

In October 2008, a girl, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was buried up to her neck at a Somalian football stadium, then stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people. The stoning occurred after she had allegedly pleaded guilty to adultery in a sharia court in Kismayo, a city controlled by Islamist insurgents. According to the insurgents she had stated that she wanted sharia law to apply.^[50] However, other sources state that the victim had been crying, that she begged for mercy and had to be forced into the hole before being buried up to her neck in the ground.^[51] Amnesty International later learned that the girl was in fact 13 years old and had been arrested by al-Shabab militia after she had reported being gang-raped by three men.^[52]

In December 2009, another instance of stoning was publicised after Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim was accused of adultery by the Hizbul Islam militant group.^[53]

In September 2014, Somali al Shabaab militants stoned a woman to death, after she was declared guilty of adultery by an informal court.^[54]

United Arab Emirates

Stoning is a legal form of judicial punishment in UAE. In 2006, an expatriate was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.^[55] Between 2009 and 2013, several people were sentenced to death by stoning.^[56]^[57]^[58] In May 2014, an Asian housemaid was sentenced to death by stoning in Abu Dhabi.^[59]^[60]^[61]

Views

Support for stoning

A survey carried out by the Indonesia Survey Institute found that 43% of Indonesians support Rajam or stoning for adulterers.^[62]

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found relatively widespread popular support among the Muslim population for stoning as a punishment for adultery in Egypt (82% of respondents in favor of the punishment), Jordan (70% in favor), Indonesia (42% in favor), Pakistan (82% favor) and Nigeria (56% in favor).^[63]

The late American Calvinist and Christian Reconstructionist cleric Rousas John (R.J.) Rushdoony, his son Mark and his son-in-law Gary North, supported the reinstatement of the Mosaic law's penal sanctions. Under such a system, the list of civil crimes by stoning which carried a death sentence by stoning would include homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying about one's virginity, bestiality, witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping, rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case.^[64]^[65]^[66]^[67]

Groups against stoning

Stoning has been condemned by several human rights organizations. Some groups, such as Amnesty International^[68] and Human Rights Watch, oppose all capital punishment, including stoning. Other groups, such as RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), or the International Committee against Stoning (ICAS), oppose stoning per se as an especially cruel practice.

Specific sentences of stoning, such as the Amina Lawal case, have often generated international protest. Groups such as Human Rights Watch,^[69] while in sympathy with these protests, have raised a concern that the Western focus on stoning as an especially "exotic" or "barbaric" act distracts from what they view as the larger problems of capital punishment. They argue that the "more fundamental human rights issue in Nigeria is the dysfunctional justice system."

In Iran, the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign was formed by various women's rights activists after a man and a woman were stoned to death in Mashhad in May 2006. The campaign's main goal is to legally abolish stoning as a form of punishment for adultery in Iran.^[70]

Human rights

Stoning is condemned by human rights groups as a form of cruel and unusual punishment and torture, and a serious violation of human rights.^[71]^[72]

Women's rights

Stoning has been condemned as a violation of women's rights and a form of discrimination against women. Although stoning is also applied to men, the vast majority of the victims are reported to be women.^[73]^[74]^[75] Change.org stated: "The practice of stoning disproportionately targets and polices women and their conduct, and it often further entails a number of civil and political rights violations that follow on from unfair judicial processes and conditions of detention. Women are more likely to be sentenced to stoning when misogynist interpretations of religious laws and cultural mores form the basis of laws governing sexual relationships and the family."^[76] According to the international group Women Living Under Muslim Laws stoning "is one of the most brutal forms of violence perpetrated against women in order to control and punish their sexuality and basic freedoms."^[77]

Amnesty International has argued that the reasons for which women suffer disproportionately from stoning include the fact that women are not treated equally and fairly by the courts; the fact that, being more likely to be illiterate than men, women are more likely to sign confessions to crimes which they did not commit; and the fact that general discrimination against women in other life aspects leaves them at higher risk of convictions for adultery.^[78]

LGBT rights

Stoning also targets homosexuals in certain jurisdictions. In Northern Nigeria, the legal punishment for 'sodomy' is death by stoning.^[79]

Right to private life

Human rights organizations argue that many acts targeted by stoning should not be illegal in the first place, as outlawing them interferes with people's right to a private life. Amnesty International said that stoning deals with "acts which should never be criminalized in the first place, including consensual sexual relations between adults, and choosing one’s religion".^[71]

Cases of stoning or attempts at stoning

People stoned in religious texts

In the Tanakh (Old Testament):

The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man, for cursing God (Leviticus 24:10–23)
A man who gathered wood on Sabbath (Numbers 15:32–36)
Achan (Joshua 7)
Adoniram, King Rehoboam's tax man (1 Kings 12:18)
Naboth, (1 Kings 21)
Zechariah ben Jehoiada, who denounced the people's disobedience to the commandments (2 Chronicles 24:20–21, perhaps also Matthew 23:35)

In the New Testament:

Saint Stephen, accused of blasphemy c. AD 31 (Acts 6:8–14, 7:58–60).
Paul of Tarsus, stoned at Lystra at the instigation of Jews. He was left for dead, but then revived. (Acts 14:19)

In the Talmud

Yeshu the Nazarene "will be led out to be stoned" (Sanhedrin 43a)^[80]

People who were almost stoned in religious texts

In the Tanakh and Old Testament: