Let he judge who hath not sinned...

From Republika

We often witness angry mobs beating a suspected thief to death, which is certainly a sad and horrible incident. People tend to take law into their hands. What really makes them behave that way? Surprisingly, they do not find anything sinful in this sort of behavior.

Very often, the criminals are only involved in petty thefts like stealing shoes left in front of the mosque during prayers, shop lifting and so on. Also the person performing interrogation is sometimes over acting and resorts to torture until the suspect is seriously injured or even killed.

We must remember that thieves or whatever criminals they are, are human beings just like ourselves. The only difference is that they happen to have soiled souls. Therefore, they are unable to distinguish good from evil, or virtue from vice. If we mete out the death penalty to them, are we not committing a greater sin than theirs?

What they have done are certainly nothing if compared to a corruption case like Bapindo credit scam and yet the culprits are accorded with special treatment.

We must stop the practice of taking the law into our own hands.

ISNI ALBAR

Jakarta