Does Islam Support Death Penalty?

General Reference (not clearly pro or con)

"Muslim countries vary in the extent to which they practise capital punishment, though all retain it at present.

Islamic countries that practise a very strict Sharia law are associated with the use of capital punishment as retribution for the largest variety of crimes.

At the other end of the spectrum are countries such as Albania and Bosnia, which still retain the death penalty as part of their penal system, but are abolitionist in practice."

June 23, 2005 - British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

“The views of American Muslims on the death penalty vary somewhat, but the range is narrow compared to the enormous disagreements among Christians. All Muslims accept the permissibility of the death penalty because it is addressed in the Qur'an. However, our views range from those who would apply it for a moderately short list of crimes (short compared to the enormous list of capital crimes in the old testament) to those who would apply it to a somewhat shorter list still, and finally, to those who would call for a moratorium on the death penalty in America altogether.”

Nov. 6, 2001 - Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, PhD

Does Islam support the death penalty?

"According to the Islamic injunctions, death penalty can be administered in two cases only. Firstly, if a person is physically harmed or injured by another, Islam directs the state to provide justice to the individual (or his relatives) by letting him/them harm or injure the guilty to the same extent, as he himself was guilty of harming his victim, in the first place. This concept of punishing the guilty is known as 'Qisaas', which means 'to follow suit' or to deal with the criminal in a manner similar to the act originally committed. In other words, the criminal is to be killed or injured in the same way as he himself killed or injured his victim...

Secondly, the death penalty may be administered if the criminal is guilty of 'Hiraabah' or 'Fasaad fil Ardh'. 'Hiraabah' and/or 'Fasaad fil Ardh' include crimes committed against the community, rather than an individual or crimes that are of the nature of religious persecution or crimes committed with the objective of spreading a wave of terror through the community or crimes committed against the state..."

 

[Editor's Note: The above quote states that only "two cases" exist for which the Qur'an allows the death penalty. The first case is for murder.  The second case applies to "crimes committed against the community" which, depending on who is interpreting the Qur’an, may include: treason, apostasy (when one leaves the faith and turns against it), terrorism, piracy, rape, adultery, and homosexual activity.]

July 29, 2008 - Understanding Islam

“There are three crimes [see Editor's Note above] for which the death penalty is justified: (a) In lieu of an unjust and proven murder, life for life; (b) adultery (zina) committed by a married person, either confessed by him or her four times, or if the act is witnessed by four people; and apostasy from Islam after willingly accepting it, declaring an open revolt against Islam, threatening the solidarity of the Muslim community…

The emphasis in Islam is not on punishment itself but the reform of the criminal as well as a reminder to those who are witnesses to the punishment. We believe that after receiving the due punishment in this world, the murderer in the life hereafter will not be questioned about it, and will receive his due share of rewards for the good he might have done in this life.”

July 25, 2008 - Shahid Athar, MD

“Death penalty is not a recent legislation, so it should not be subject to different views on whether to impose, lift or cancel it. It has been ordained a long time ago...

All lawmakers legalize self-defense, and they say it is permissible for one to kill a person who attacks him, if there is no other way. So in resisting the attack, man is compared to the society as it fends off aggression. That is, a murderer deserves death penalty because he has trespassed against the whole society by killing one of its members. So, when the society calls for death penalty for such a criminal, it is really in a state of self-defense.”

July 25, 2008 - Sheik Ahmad Ash-Sharabasi

'[W]e launch today a call for an immediate international moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in all Muslim majority countries. Considering that the opinions of most scholars, regarding the comprehension of the texts and the application of hudud, are neither explicit nor unanimous (indeed there is not even a clear majority), and bearing in mind that political systems and the state of the majority Muslim societies do not guarantee a just and equal treatment of individuals before the law, it is our moral obligation and religious responsibility to demand for the immediate suspension of the application of the hudud which is inaccurately accepted as an application of 'Islamic sharia'."

Apr. 5, 2005 - Tariq Ramadan, PhD

“An Islamic opposition to the death penalty must begin by acknowledging that the Qur'an may clearly be read as giving special exemption (from the general prohibition on killing) to the taking of a murderer's life…

Those who favor the death penalty therefore cannot be considered as beyond the pale: we must accept the faithfulness and validity of their opinion...

[T]he responsibility of a Muslim is justice. Will the killing of a murderer produce justice...

[W]e can measure whether it does or not by examining the state of public trust. In the US, the following facts have been established…Nearly 90% of persons executed for murder were convicted of killing whites, although people of color make up over half of all homicide victims nationally…[and] 90% of the people US government prosecutors currently seek to execute are black or Latino…

There is no justice here. No needs are met, no fear is alleviated. This idea does not work. The hallmark of truth is that it works…

 

It is a far more serious error of Islamic ethics to demand a human death in circumstances when there are doubts about guilt or innocence, where the bereaved are not consulted about their wishes, and when the penalty is selectively applied based on the pernicious fantasy that some lives have more value than others.

Islamic law, and Islamic taqwa, demand that we dissent from such a travesty of justice.”

July 25, 2008 - Rabia Terri Harris

"In the Koranic discourse, beyond the story of Cain and Abel, we find that there are various articulations and pronouncements directed at murder and punishment, but not necessarily mandating execution or the death penalty as a recourse...

When it comes to talking about the ultimate punishment, capital punishment, it talks about intentional murder, and it says that in the case of intentional murder there are three options. One option is that the family of the victim would demand compensation... a sum of money in compensation...The second possibility is that the family of the murderer demand exaction, i.e., then the offender would be killed. And third is to forgive... And it’s quite interesting here, the Koran goes on to say, in the same verse in which it endorses the three part structure, it says, and those who forgive are higher in the sight of God.

Because God has decreed this area to be God’s own, the area of life and what happens when a life is taken away, if you, in fact, punish with the ultimate punishment, the death penalty, you must prove the case per the ways that God has decreed that you prove these cases. Otherwise, you cannot implement the death penalty. And what this amounts to was effectively saying that what is required in order to implement the death penalty is a level of certainty, of evidence, that is quite impossible to fulfill."

Jan. 25, 2002 - Khaled Abou El Fadl, PhD

General Reference (not clearly pro or con)

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regards the question of whether and in what circumstances the state should impose capital punishment as a matter to be decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law. We neither promote nor oppose capital punishment."

July 25, 2008 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 

"Opinion in the Assemblies of God on capital punishment is mixed. However, more people associated with the Assemblies of God probably favor capital punishment for certain types of crimes such as premeditated murder than those who would oppose capital punishment without reservation. This consensus grows out of a common interpretation that the Old Testament sanctions capital punishment, and nothing in the New Testament negates maximum punishment as society's means of dealing effectively with serious crimes...

There is room in the church for honest differences of opinion concerning the use of capital punishment. However, all believers should seek to apply biblical principles in reaching their conclusions..."

July 28, 2008 - Assemblies of God (USA) 

Does Christianity support the death penalty?

"God will not tolerate sin. He condemns it and demands payment for it. God could not remain a righteous God and compromise with sin. His holiness and His justice demand the death penalty."

Apr. 2007 - Billy Graham 

"Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention...support the fair and equitable use of capital punishment by civil magistrates as a legitimate form of punishment for those guilty of murder or treasonous acts that result in death."

June 13-14, 2000 - Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 

"The rejection of capital punishment is not to be dignified as a 'higher Christian way' that enthrones the ethics of Jesus. The argument that Jesus as the incarnation of divine love cancels the appropriateness of capital punishment in the New Testament era has little to commend it. Nowhere does the Bible repudiate capital punishment for premeditated murder; not only is the death penalty for deliberate killing of a fellow human being permitted, but it is approved and encouraged, and for any government that attaches at least as much value to the life of an innocent victim as to a deliberate murderer, it is ethically imperative."

1988 - Carl F. H. Henry, ThD, PhD 

"If no crime is considered serious enough to warrant capital punishment, then the gravity of the most atrocious crime is diminished accordingly...

We strongly reaffirm our resolution of 1972 concerning capital punishment, and we call upon congress and state legislatures to enact legislation which will direct the death penalty for such horrendous crimes as premeditated murder, the killing of a police officer or guard, murder in connection with any other crime, hijacking, skyjacking, or kidnapping where persons are physically harmed in the process.

We urge that legislation which re-establishes the death penalty also include safeguards to eliminate any inequities."

1973 - National Association of Evangelicals 

"Whereas, The Lutheran Confessions support capital punishment:

...God has delegated His authority of punishing evil-doers to civil magistrates in place of parents; in early times, as we read in Moses, parents had to bring their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore what is forbidden here applies to private individuals, not to governments.

Therefore be it Resolved, That The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod declare that capital punishment is in accord with the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions."

1967 - Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod 

"The Holy See has consistently sought the abolition of the death penalty...

Where the death penalty is a sign of desperation, civil society is invited to assert its belief in a justice that salvages hope from the ruin of the evils which stalk our world. The universal abolition of the death penalty would be a courageous reaffirmation of the belief that humankind can be successful in dealing with criminality and of our refusal to succumb to despair before such forces, and as such it would regenerate new hope in our very humanity."

June 21, 2001 - Catholic Church 

"Presbyterian General Assemblies have been concerned not only for the issue of capital punishment, but also for those imprisoned...

In 1959, the 171st General Assembly, 'believing that capital punishment cannot be condoned by an interpretation of the Bible based upon the revelation of God's love in Jesus Christ,' called on Christians to 'seek the redemption of evil doers and not their death,' and noted that 'the use of the death penalty tends to brutalize the society that condones it...'

The most recent statement was made in 1985 by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), reaffirming these positions and declaring 'its continuing opposition to capital punishment.'"

July 28, 2008 - Presbyterian Church (USA) 

"The United Methodist Church declares its opposition to the retention and use of capital punishment and urges its abolition. In spite of a common assumption to the contrary, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' does not give justification for the imposing of the penalty of death...

Studies conducted over more than sixty years have overwhelmingly failed to support the thesis that capital punishment deters homicide more effectively than does imprisonment...

The death penalty falls unfairly and unequally upon marginalized persons including the poor, the uneducated, ethnic and religious minorities, and persons with mental and emotional illnesses."

2000 - United Methodist Church 

"WHEREAS, Jesus challenged the death penalty of his culture, calling on those without sin to cast the first stone..."

July 1999 - United Church of Christ (UCC) 

"Executions harm society by mirroring and reinforcing existing injustice. The death penalty distracts us from our work toward a just society. It deforms our response to violence at the individual, familial, institutional, and systemic levels. It perpetuates cycles of violence...

Since human beings are fallible, the innocent have been executed in the past and will inevitably be executed in the future. Death is a different punishment from any other; the execution of an innocent person is a mistake we cannot correct.

It is because of this church's concern regarding the actual use of the death penalty that we oppose its imposition."

Aug. 28-Sep. 4, 1991 - Evangelical Lutheran Church 

General Reference (not clearly pro or con)

"Someone who reads the Old Testament list of 36 capital crimes might think that Judaism is in favour of capital punishment, but they'd be wrong. During the period when Jewish law operated as a secular as well as a religious jurisdiction, Jewish courts very rarely imposed the death penalty. The state of Israel has abolished the death penalty for any crime that is now likely to be tried there...

To really understand Jewish law one must not only read the Torah but consult the Talmud, an elaboration and interpretation by the rabbinical scholars of the laws and commandments of the Torah...

The rabbis who wrote the Talmud created such a forest of barriers to actually using the death penalty that in practical terms it was almost impossible to punish anyone by death...

The result of this is that there are very few examples of people being executed by Jewish law in rabbinic times...

In 1954, Israel abolished capital punishment except for those who committed Nazi war crimes.

In the 54 years that Israel has existed as an independent state, only one person has been executed. This person was Adolf Eichman, a Nazi war criminal with particular responsibility for the Holocaust."

July 20, 2006 - British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 

"According to the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 1:4) the death penalty could only be inflicted, after trial, by a Sanhedrin composed of twenty-three judges and there were four types of death penalty (Sanhedrin 7:1): stoning, burning, slaying (by the sword), and strangling. A bare reading of these and the other accounts in the tractate would seem to suggest a vast proliferation of the death penalty. Yet, throughout the Talmudic literature, this whole subject is viewed with unease, so much so that according to the rules stated in that literature the death penalty could hardly ever have been imposed."

1995 - Louis Jacobs, PhD 

Does Judaism support the death penalty?

"...[T]he preservation of human dignity requires capital punishment of convicted murderers. The position of Judaism is opposite of the position espoused by liberals. It is precisely because of man's creation in God's image that capital punishment is declared justified and necessary. Human dignity requires execution of murderers, not compassion for their souls.

Moreover, capital punishment is regarded in Judaism as a favor for the capital sinner, a form of atonement and redemption. Ordinary murderers are allowed to achieve atonement for their souls in their execution. Only especially vile murderers - such as false witness whose lies are discovered after the person who was framed has been executed, or a man who sacrifices both his son and his daughter to the pagan god Molokh - are denied execution because they are regarded as beyond redemption through capital punishment. Again, execution preserves human dignity, it does not defile it."

Apr. 23, 2004 - Steven Plaut , PhD 

"Judaism supports the death penalty, but only when there are at least two eyewitnesses who fully corroborate their testimony, and also that the criminal was warned beforehand that committing this crime could result in the death penalty."

July 25, 2008 - Shraga Simmons 

"...At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put the evil away from among you...

And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.

And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

- Tanakh (50KB) 

"...[I]f you look through the Bible,  there are scores of instances in which the death penalty is prescribed for a variety of transgressions, both ritual and criminal... In the ritual context, they include violating the Sabbath; they include cursing God. In the criminal context... you are liable for the death penalty if you engage in incest, if you hit one of your parents... And, of course murder...

[M]urder, is actually singled out in rabbinic teaching from all those other scores of transgressions and sins where the death penalty is proscribed...

[B]ecause murder is a grievous offense, both against God and against society. And when you punish a murderer through the death penalty, you are not only affording that person penance for his or her crime, in all of the contexts of death penalty transgressions or other penalties that are imposed upon criminals in traditional Jewish law, the punishment is viewed as a component of the transgressor's penance. But in the context of murder, because it's also a crime against society, it's critical for the welfare of society. This is a traditional Jewish understanding of why it is imposed...

[W]e're not about to take the position of abolition [of the death penalty], because the teaching that, again, the need for implementing justice, particularly with regard to crimes of murder, for society, is a critical component of Jewish teaching as well."

June 5, 2001 - Nathan Diament, JD 

"Biblical law mandates the death penalty for 36 offenses...

The Reform Movement, however, has followed rabbinic interpretations that effectively abolished the death penalty centuries ago. Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 stresses the importance of presenting completely accurate testimony in capital cases, for any mistakes or falsehoods could result in the shedding of innocent blood...

P]revailing Jewish thought in every movement has followed the previous opinions, which either oppose the death penalty outright, or allow for it only in the most extreme - once in seventy years -- circumstances. Following this line of thinking, the major Jewish movements in the United States all have specific policy supporting either abolition of the death penalty, or a moratorium on its use."

July 28, 2008 - Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism 

"Whereas, the Torah teaches that all human beings are created in God's image;

Whereas, Jewish tradition upholds the sanctity of life;

Whereas; both in concept and practice Rabbinic leaders in many different historical periods have found capital punishment repugnant;

Whereas, no evidence has been marshaled to indicate with any persuasiveness that capital punishment serves as a deterrent to crime;

Whereas, legal studies have shown that as many as 300 people in this century have been wrongfully convicted of capital crimes;

Therefore, be it resolved that The Rabbinical Assembly oppose the adoption of death penalty laws and urge their abolition in states that have already adopted them..."

May 1996 - Rabbinical Assembly of America 

"The Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) opposes the death penalty, and supports the call for a moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition. PJA believes that the death penalty is antithetical to progressive Jewish values.

The capital punishment apparatus of our criminal justice system is deeply flawed. Capital defendants are often provided with inadequate legal counsel, resulting in unfair and inequitable trials. The death penalty disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color. There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime. A significant danger exists that innocent people have been and will be executed because of errors in the criminal justice system"

July 25, 2008 - Progressive Jewish Alliance 

"Whereas both in concept and in practice, Jewish leaders throughout over the past 2000 plus years have refused, with rare exception, to punish criminals by depriving them of their lives;

And whereas current evidence and technological advances have shown that as many as three hundred people... have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes in America in the last century, which underscores the Jewish concern over capital punishment since all human systems of justice are inherently fallible and imperfect -

Therefore, we resolve that the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association go on record opposing the death penalty under all circumstances, opposing the adoption of death penalty laws, and urging their abolition in states that already have adopted them."

Apr. 2003 - Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association