I don’t know but for some reason I have deep interest in political scene of our neighbouring country the country most of us perceive as enemy country, Pakistan. Following all the dramatic recent developments of Raymond Davis, I came across the strange Islamic Diyya Law, but before going on that for the benefit of those who don’t follow all this let me give the background-
1) Pakistan currently is a devastated country. Terrorist attacks are a common thing and many people die regularly in these attacks. Hardly a week passes without any major terrorist strike.
2) The reason for this is they are fighting a war , fighting a war against their own people, fighting a war as US ally and killing own people daily in border areas (bordering Afghanistan) at the behest of US. US in return give them some regular dollars to keep the country running. The political establishment of country from past 3 years is playing in US hands.
3) Due to this there is strong ‘Anti America’ feeling in entire country. The people of Pakistan now see US as bigger enemy than India (this is really something as the country has lived on anti India feeling from past 60 years).
In this anti American society, Raymond Davis came into limelight as he killed 2 Pakistanis in the heart of country , Lahore. When the police arrested him he was having highly sophisticated weapons, some secret maps and things generally carried by spies. Naturally the entire nation was stunned and demanded strict action against the ‘White’ man. Davis’s argument was that he is a diplomat and killed 2 men as they tried to rob him. Really not convincing at all.
As Pakistan media nowadays is as inquisitive and influential as media of any advanced country they were able to find out all the hidden facts that Raymond Davis was most probably an American spy. He was working for CIA and helping in drone attacks.
The Pakistani government was under intense pressure from US to give diplomatic immunity to Davis and release him. They would have done it first day (after all US are their masters and they can’t disobey the masters) but due to very high public pressure they arrested and started cases against him. The drama continued for 6 weeks and when everybody thought that this time Pakistan has taken a hard stance and they will not let Davis go, the court settled the case in 1 day and using religious Diyya Law freed Davis. The man was immediately flew out of Pakistan and till the time stunned nation (general public, media, opposition) reacted Davis was back in US. Really a shame for the country.
This brings me to the last part, the Diyya Law. I was amazed by this law , rather than existence of such law in 21st century. Mind you, this is not man made law, the law is as per holy book Quran and is a religious law. Hence there cannot be any discussions leave alone amendments to this thing. The law says that if you have killed anyone you can be freed of crime if you pay blood money to the victim of the family.
This law is applicable in Saudi Arabia , Iran and Pakistan. In a country like Pakistan I can imagine the magnitute of misuse of this law. This law is nothing but an official licence to kill. Raymond Davis case is the perfect example where some dollars were enough to buy the ‘Gairat’ of entire nation.
Saudis further have even prescribed the blood money rates which are as following-
- 100,000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man
- 50,000 riyals if a Muslim woman
- 50,000 riyals if a Christian or Jewish man
- 25,000 riyals if a Christian or Jewish woman
- 6,666 riyals if a man of any other religion
- 3,333 riyals if a woman of any other religion
Pathetic, shocking and shameless rates to value the human life based on religion and gender. With above chart the cost of Hindu woman is 32 times cheaper than Muslim Man. Saudis wake up; this is 21st century and modern civilized world, not the 10th century tribal world.
If you have reached here, I appreciate your patience to read the entire article. Maybe not relevant to us in any way but fascinating and shocking. Comments are welcome.
