Persecution Index 16: Somalia

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/11/persecution-ind.html

[Times Online] 4 Nov 2008--Under Sharia law, a female has been stoned to death for adultery in Somalia. She was aged 13. The BBC's account this morning of her stoning, of her struggles as she was buried up to her neck in a crowded open air auditorium by 50 armed Islamists, was terrible. Many had risked their lives to bring this report to the West, via Amnesty International. But arms continue to flood into Somalia, where men in charge know with absolute certainty that they will never be held to account for their actions. This girl was alleged to have been married once and then married again, a course of action that even if it had actually happened in this case, is permitted only to men under Islam. (A state of affairs sanctioned in Britain by the benefits system, incidentally.) According to this girl's father, however, she was too young and had never known a man or been married. She had been raped. She died, her face covered in blood, protesting her innocence. People in the crowds were heard shouting against the assassination. 'This is not good for Sharia,' they said. In their attempts at crowd control, the armed guards also shot and killed a young boy who was trying to see what was going on.