NCJ Number
137657
Date Published
1991
Length
107 pages
Annotation
This book, intended primarily for Western readers, presents an overview of the Islamic faith in general and Islamic concepts of crime and punishment in particular.
Abstract
Three background chapters provide a general overview of Islamic law, a discussion of religious minorities under Islamic law, and Islam and fundamentalism in the Middle East. Underlying the theories of crime and criminal justice in Islamic law is the concept that the individual is the most important unit of the cosmos because humans are the only creatures on earth that God endowed with a mind, thus making them the only creatures capable of choosing Islam as a way of life. Because the individual is the Lord's trustee and is vulnerable to the State's power, Islam has laid down a set of guarantees and principles that balance the interest of the State in enforcing its criminal law and the individual's interest in protecting himself/herself against all types of undue indictment, unlawful criminal charges, and intrusion of the State upon the individual's rights. These guarantees and principles are established in various fields. Some of them are related to the Islamic theory of incrimination and penology (discussed in Part I of this book); others are related to the Islamic theory of criminal responsibility and criminal procedure (discussed in Part 2). Chapter footnotes