Death Penalty
When we talk about religions of the South, Islam is the first religion that comes to mind. In general, Islam accepts the death penalty, but emphasizes that forgiveness is preferable. Life was given to people by God and shall be treated as sacred, that is why only exceptional cases of justice and law may justify capital punishment. Only crimes of suitable severity may be commanded to death penalty by the respective court. Each case should be examined individually in order to avoid any mistake and to punish right person. However, many Muslims believe that sinners will find their punishment on the Earth. At the same time, those Muslim countries where the death penalty is allowed use beheading, firing squad, stoning and hanging as the methods of execution. In the Islamic law, the death penalty is appropriate as a punishment for intentional murder and for the actions that undermine the authority of the state (“Capital Punishment”). Many other religions practiced in the South took their views on the death penalty from the dominant Islamic tradition.
The newest studies on deterrence demonstrate that all forms of murder are equally deferrable that contrasts with the views that were widespread before 1975. However, some of the murders can be seen more deferrable than others, for example, terrorism compared to murder out of jealousy. Some findings also show that there may be no deterrence effect at all. Executions can even increase the number of homicides. Moreover, studies demonstrate that it is hard to make a proper regression analysis of a few cases. No trends and statistical controls are available for studies of deterrence due to the fact that much of the information is ignored as well as wrong data is present (Fagan 7-9).
Works Cited
“Capital Punishment.” BBC: Religions. BBC, 16 Sep 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/capitalpunishment.shtml
Fagan, Jeffrey. “Deterrence and the Death Penalty: A Critical Review of New Evidence.” Testimony to the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Codes. DeathPenalty Info, 1 Jan 2005. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FaganTestimony.pdf
