Updated Wed. Jun. 13 2007 1:37 PM ET

Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of a bill that could lead to death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

With a 148-5 vote in favour and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corruptors of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corruptors of the world.''

The term, "corruptor of the world'' is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offences. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

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Originally posted by jeff house:
It would be interesting to see what they define as pornography. Would kissing call for the death penalty, or display of the female breast?

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Most religions tend to condemn the death penalty - or at least have major factions that condemn the death penalty.

Does anyone know if there has ever been any interpretation of Islam that denounces the death penalty under any and all circumstances and pronounces it a sin to ever take anyone's life?

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
...can you give a few examples of religions which denounce the death penalty?

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Among Canadian religious organizations opposed to the death penalty are: the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of
Canada, the Canadian Catholic Conference, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Canadian
Unitarian Council, the Lutheran Church, the Quaker Society of Friends and the Mennonite Central Committee. Many denominations and religious leaders were actively involved in
opposing the 1987 reinstatement attempt.

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Think before generalizing!

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Originally posted by Michelle:
The Iranian government are a bunch of religious fundamentalist freaks....

...Think before generalizing!

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Most religions tend to condemn the death penalty - or at least have major factions that condemn the death penalty.

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Originally posted by Makwa:
Um, I think you are wrong. Certainly the majority of dominant religions such as Xianity, Islam and Judiasm appear to condone the death penalty in some part of their established text and practices, as do many of the Aboriginal religions I am aware of, Can you elaborate?

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There may be some very conservative Christian sects who will tolerate the death penalty - but rarely if ever do you see them actively advocating that anyone be put to death.

Anytime someone is executed in the US, if there is a protest - who do you think tends to lead it? Priests, nuns, protestant clergy, rabbis etc...

Buddhism and Hinduism also tend to be quite non-violent and anti-death in theory. The Jains are so non-violent that they sweep the sidewalk in front of them for fear of stepping on an insect.

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
I'm honestly curious if there is any faction within Islam that also totally condemns the death penalty under any and all circumstances.

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Jesus Christ said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." This was in a situation where a woman was about to be stoned to death for adultery.

Is this condemning the death penaly?

Its not "denouncing" or proscribing the death penalty. But since, according to Christianity, no one is without sin, no one can cast the first stone; therefore no death penalty.

[ 13 June 2007: Message edited by: -=+=- ]

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Originally posted by Slumberjack:
...God fearing America certainly doesn't... Barbarism is not confined to one religion or sect. Lets spread the condemnation around.

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Barbarism is not confined to one religion or sect. Lets spread the condemnation around.

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To wit: "Christian" Hutus were instrumental in carrying out the Rwandan genocide while Rwandans of Muslim faith did not and even provided sanctuary. Also, in the Bosnian War, Muslims were often the innocent victims of the ethnic cleansing campaigns of the "Christian" Serbs and Croats who dreamt of a greater Serbia and a greater Croatia respectively.

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Most religions tend to condemn the death penalty - or at least have major factions that condemn the death penalty.

Does anyone know if there has ever been any interpretation of Islam that denounces the death penalty under any and all circumstances and pronounces it a sin to ever take anyone's life?

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A cursory google search yields what common sense should dictate, that inferring that "barbarous" Muslims, as a whole, condone, even support the death penalty is patently false, harmful and willfully blind.

Islam and the Death Penalty

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As in all religions, there are progressive and reactionary currents of thought. Even so-called “Islamic” states differ widely on many aspects of religious doctrine. Thus, in the international debates it is troubling to hear blunt pronouncements affirming that “Islam favors capital punishment,” as if this view meets with unanimous and unqualified support throughout the Moslem world.
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Conservative Islamic states fighting to retain capital punishment use religious arguments in order to force the debate into one of cultural or religious norms, where it appears that one set of moral values is being imposed upon another in a form of philosophical or cultural imperialism. The argument is disarming for many who oppose capital punishment in the “North,” and seductively demagogic for those who oppose it in the “South.” Of course, the Bible also contemplates capital punishment for such crimes as magic, violation of the sabbath, blasphemy, adultery, homosexuality, relations with animals, incest and rape. Yet Judeo-Christian jurists will rarely argue that this ancient text must dictate contemporary legal practice.

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And so on.

It's nice, however, to see people gleefully channel the OP's malicious, hostile intent and muse whether Iranian government officials would execute someone who took a picture of two people kissing.

[ 13 June 2007: Message edited by: Catchfire ]

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Originally posted by remind:

Actually , that is not quite correct, some US States (37) have the death penalty, while others (13)do not. They do not have a single federal jurisdiction in this regard.

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Originally posted by John K:
Posted by slumberjack:
To wit: "Christian" Hutus were instrumental in carrying out the Rwandan genocide while Rwandans of Muslim faith did not and even provided sanctuary. Also, in the Bosnian War, Muslims were often the innocent victims of the ethnic cleansing campaigns of the "Christian" Serbs and Croats who dreamt of a greater Serbia and a greater Croatia respectively. This doesn't prove that Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity a religion of war, only that one needs to be careful before applying the broad brush.

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Is there any Muslim majority country in the world where the death penalty is banned?

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By doing a quick Google search, I came up with the following list: Albania, Bosnia, Azerbijan and Turkey. There may be others.

Can we move the goal posts any more? Are there any Christian countries under those criteria that ban the death penalty? I suppose the Vatican, but that's hardly a model I'd care to follow for state policy. China executes more people than any other state, and they have a strict church/state separation as well. What point, precisely are you making? It's muddy, but I could hazard a guess...

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Originally posted by Slumberjack:

At the federal level though, there is the death sanction for certain crimes.

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Is there any Muslim majority country in the world where the death penalty is banned?

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Originally posted by Slumberjack:

Yes there are certain redemptive acts here and there, however the broad examination would certainly find stunning examples of inhumanity conducted by adherents of the major religions.

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Yes, all of them at one point or another. Even Buddhists (see Sri Lanka), despite the fairly common western presumption of pacifism.

I suspect the death penalty, and in fact interpretation of religion in any given place, is more of a function of culture than religion. Any and all countries are capable of barbarism, and any and all cultures have been involved in it at some point. Including our own.

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Originally posted by arborman:
IIRC, Canada has a few as well. Piracy, Mutiny, Treason (?). Possibly just within the military, but we are not without it entirely (though obviously it hasn't been used). That may have changed in the last few years, but I don't really know.

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Yeah, its changed. Even the military got rid of the death penalty for wartime jurisdiction cases.

Queens Regulations and Orders Volume 2 - Disciplinary

[ 13 June 2007: Message edited by: Slumberjack ]

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Originally posted by arborman:
.....Any and all countries are capable of barbarism, and any and all cultures have been involved in it at some point. Including our own.
That said, the thread title is offensive.

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Not sure if its offensive, it would have to be looked at in context. Does the poster continually post anti-Iranian items, as part drum beating propaganda campaign, or is it because of that state including another death penalty 'offence.' which rightfully offends someone against all government approved death penalties everywhere.

[ 13 June 2007: Message edited by: Slumberjack ]

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Originally posted by John K:
By doing a quick Google search, I came up with the following list: Albania, Bosnia, Azerbijan and Turkey. There may be others.

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Originally posted by remind:

Did you overlook this post Slumberjack in your response to Stockholm's question?

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That said, the thread title is offensive.

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Why? I don't believe that the Iranian people are barbaric at all. I don't believe that Iran as a country is barbaric at all.

But I think that Iran is a captive nation that is suffering under a barbaric totalitarian government that has no respect for human life. No respect for pluralism. No respect for the equality of the sexes. No respect for free sexual expression. We already know that the government of Iran tortured a Canadian woman to death last year. We know about that because she was Canadian and therefore there are people here who could report on her being missing and there is a government here to lodge a protest.

If the Government of Iran could decide a torture an innocent Canadian woman to death - who knows how many people they have killed who we will never know about. People who are not citizens of other countries that will lodge a protest. When the Government of Iran tortures and executes its own people - it's like a tree falling in a forest and we will never know about it.

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Actually , that is not quite correct, some US States (37) have the death penalty, while others (13)do not. They do not have a single federal jurisdiction in this regard.

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Even 37 of 50 overstates the use of the death penalty in the USA. Of the 1,037 executions in the last 30+ years, 20 of the 37 states represent only about 10% of the executions. Almost 70% of all executions occurred in just five states (Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida).

There were roughly 600,000 murders in the USA over the last 30 years. Assuming that the average murderer killed 1.1 victims, that would be 550,000 murderers. So, 1,037 executions means about 0.18% of all murderers get executed.

Of course, that is 1,037 too many. But, the vast majority of murderers go to prison, even in the USA.

[ 13 June 2007: Message edited by: Sven ]