I’m still on blogging vacation, but a recent event got me to pondering comparitive cultural approaches to crime and punishment. I will meditate on this during my time off. In the meantime:
Four young men broke into an apartment in South Minneapolis last week, only to be wounded and chased away by an intended victim wielding a samurai sword. Three of the attempted robbers have been arrested: Hossem Chalbi, Iman Ahmed Abdelhakim and Mohammed Khalil. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I’m guessing that these youths aren’t Amish.
Chalbi was slashed on the arm and Khalil was slashed on the abdomen and also lost a finger. Assuming Khalil isn’t a wayward Amish who has forsaken his religion of peace, but is perhaps a follower of the Islamic law of Sharia, then he got off relatively easy: the Sharia penalty for theft calls for amputation of the whole hand.
(Interesting but unrelated sidenote: the attempted robbery took place in the 3100 block of Lyndale Avenue S. I used to live just two blocks away, in the 3100 block of Harriet Avenue S. I didn’t have a samurai sword, but I did keep an old bayonet around the house.)
How soon before these four hooligans (love that word) initiate a lawsuit against the intended victim?
Keep the old bayonet close…
Oh, yes … the “disproportional response” lawsuit. After all, just because they threatened to kill you doesn’t mean they were actually going to do it.
When people ask me why I don’t write fiction, I tell them the real world is plenty weird enough!
Those guys were once my friends, I know the whole story about that night. Hossem actually just died yesterday 8.14.07 in the Ankoa County work house. I was searching his name on google and I can across this page.
excuse my errors.
They were good people just not doing very good stuff and Hossem did pass away may Allah rest his sole in peace
Errors are excused. I’d be interested in knowing more details about Hossem’s death in the workhouse. I couldn’t find anything about it in the news.