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Crucifixion (صلبه salb) typically refers to the painful method of execution and/or torture by tying and/or nailing someone to a cross, stake or tree. It can also refer to the method of public display of a body after execution.
In the Modern World
Despite the fact that Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 AD, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion, Muhammad perpetuated this practice by declaring it a prescribed punishment in Islamic law.
Crucifixion is still a part of Iran's criminal code, and as a method of torture and execution is still being used, primarily against Christians and Christian converts, in Sudan and Iraq, both Islamic countries.
As Joseph (who was taken into slavery by Muslims at the age of seven) found out in November 2004, not even children are spared.
"Joseph was raised Christian. His desire to worship was mocked by his master, who told him every day for 10 years that he had no business worshipping since he was of no more value than a donkey."
One Sunday morning, Joseph heard the hymn singing of a Christian service. He joined into the worship, remembering church services from when he was a young boy.
While Joseph was at church, some of the camels he was in charge of escaped, and his master flew into a rage. Ibrahim, Phillips writes, "swore he would kill Joseph and do to him what had been done to Jesus ... he would crucify him."After brutally beating Joseph on the head and all over his body, the master laid him out on a wooden plank. He then nailed Joseph to the plank by driving nine-inch nails through his hands, knees and feet. He then poured acid on Joseph's legs to inflict even greater pain, and finally left him for dead."
Adding itself to the ranks of shariah-practicing leaderships, Hamas, the Islamic governing body of Gaza, reinstated the penalty of crucifixion in 2008, and in May 2009 and June 2010 two convicted killers were beheaded in Saudi Arabia and their bodies were crucified for public display.
In June 2011 two Christian brothers from the Ivory Coast were badly beaten, tortured, then nailed with steel spikes to cross-shaped planks by their hands and feet, on “the example of Christ” by forces loyal to Muslim President Alassane Ouattara. Raphael, the eldest brother, died from his injuries.
Rudolph Peters, a well respected historian and specialist in Islamic law, writes:
The First Crucifixion
The narrator said: Hence she was called martyr. She read the Qur'an. She sought permission from the Prophet (peace be upon him) to have a mu'adhdhin in her house. He, therefore, permitted her (to do so).
She announced that her slave and slave-girl would be free after her death. One night they went to her and strangled her with a sheet of cloth until she died, and they ran away.
Next day Umar announced among the people, "Anyone who has knowledge about them, or has seen them, should bring them (to him)."Umar (after their arrest) ordered (to crucify them) and they were crucified. This was the first crucifixion at Medina.
- Punishments - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Punishments
- The "Shame of the Cross" and its Glory - Answering Islam
- crucifixion - Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009
- Ehsan Zar Rokh - Case Study in Iranian Criminal System - University of Tehran, 2008
- Simon Caldwell - Christians are ‘crucified’ in guerrilla raids - The Catholic Herald, September 25, 2009
- Report: Christians crucified by terrorists in Iraq - WorldNetDaily, July 17, 2007
- Michael Ireland - Sudanese slave 'crucified' by his master not unusual in central African nation - ASSIST News, November 9, 2004
- Nicole Jansezian - Hamas Reinstates Crucifixions of Christians - Newsmax, January 9, 2009
- Convicted killer beheaded, put on display in Saudi Arabia - CNN, May 30, 2009
- Saudi beheads and nails murderer's body to cross - NewsCore, June 22, 2010
- Brothers crucified by Ouattara forces in Ivory Coast - Barnabas Aid, June 8, 2011
- Peters, Rudolph (2005) - Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law - (pp. 37-38). New York: Cambridge University Press