Subtitled: CIA Kisses The Camel For Contractor Boo-boo in Pakistan
Link for story: CIA Contractor in Pakistan Apparently Saved by Sharia
This is rather ironic. Where the people against Syariah laws are generally speaking from the Western stance school of thought. This is a situation where Qisas and Diyat; portions under Islamic law have actually benefited a party which in the majority has been at best a vested opponent. I say vested since it depends on the current interests involved - alliances change all the time. Machiavellian as it seems, that's the way and rule of the jungle. Wars after all have for the longest time been fought on proxy.
The Islamic law on murder or Diyat, which has been invoked in this situation bears semblance to ancient laws of Arabia where the warring tribes were always squabbling and wresting for power an influence in between the many clans and families. It was to resolve a potential much bigger war between tribes; which things can easily escalate towards and can span over centuries in terms of family or clan feuds.
Excuse me for my limited knowledge on the matter, it wasn't a very complete course back in law school (in comparison for double degree courses for Islamic law practice). But what I can remember is that it isn't actually easy for people to make such payments - even in practice today it's not so commonly heard. Which gives rise to some thoughts:
1. That this is only happening because the contractor is worthy enough for the CIA to take responsibility off; probably to avoid potentially bigger embarrassment or risks to security.
2. CIA has the budget. Well that's just too obvious I suppose.
3. CIA is a name that a lot of people would fear if they had to deal with it. Duress might be a factor here.
Why in the world has this grabbed the worlds attention? Probably because the CIA is involved but its also because Diyat has been rarely been invoked to relieve such situations. Why you ask? In most cases, in today's context, you don't see to many settlements done this one since people will lack the bucks to compensate for the murder act.
The equation after all, has to do with the value of say (if memory serves) 20 camels for a life; of course it has to be mutually agreed by both families or clans so they don't go out to full scale war over the death.
That's a LOT of camels and camels, trust me, don't come cheap even by today's standards they are actually more expensive! The compensationary system in Diyat has rates right down to the broken tooth. It's of course a tooth for a tooth - as the Qisas portion of Islamic law would perpetuate, the recourse however would be a suitable amount of gold Dinars. I mean who wants to get a broken tooth anyway? It doesn't keep well and it isn't worth much and you can't use it to replace the one you just lost.
So all things considered, the CIA contractor is one very, very, lucky guy to get off a murder rap thanks to a rather obscurely used piece of Islamic legislation in Pakistan. Good for you and whomever that gets the money though. In honesty however, since taking into consideration no one would want to risk a feud with the CIA, the families involved probably did not have much choice. It's actually pretty nice that the CIA actually stepped up to plate instead of denying knowledge or something else equalling to that shit.
No comments:
Post a Comment