The difficulty with many of the ideas relating to the debate on crime is often the absence of the concept of evil or injustice. The Abrahamic faiths Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe that the death penalty for murder and such crimes is a divine instruction.
Rooting out evil or injustice was never easy. Historically when the followers of Moses and Solomon rejected divine mandates, God instructed the Prophets to wage war against their own people. To compel Arabs to practice justice, Muhammed also waged war. To establish justice and to eradicate evil, every messiah needed to change their immediate environment.
In South African we are hemmed in by the evil and injustice of criminality, this includes massive political and business corruption. The Abrahamic faith suggests that humans have the capability to rise above the status of an angel but also the ability to fall beneath that of an animal. By undermining divine principles of justice, such as the death penalty, our system of justice has been compromised. The current system seeks to compromise with criminals while trying to create a safe environment. Since society has rejected centuries of divine wisdom, the chickens are now coming home to roost.
Protesting against the abuse of women and children with placards has limited value. South Africans assumed that the environment that we require would create itself. We obviously made a mistake as eradicating evil requires messianic determination. Those who reject society’s values with murderer’s violence must be permanently removed. While South Africans remain divided along lines of race, class and religion, injustice will flourish and feed on our collective fears. Those who stand firm against evil and injustice must insist on the return of the death penalty for crimes such as murder and so on.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress
Suite 19 1st Floor
Adderley Street
Paul Sauer
Cape Town
076 427 8017