[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Crimes against humanity

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Crimes against humanity
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1185495994.shtml


   Via [1]Harry's Place:

     Five men, four of whom were students at Bradford where 7/7 bomber
     Shehzad Tanweer was from, have been sentenced to a total of more
     than 13 years in jail after being found guilty of possessing large
     amounts of extremist material to help them prepare for training
     camps overseas and to carry out terrorist acts.

     Martyrdom and suicide bombings were a recurring theme in the
     material, designed to encourage people to die in the process of
     destroying the chosen targets of the authors.

     Irfan Raja, aged 19, from Ilford; Aitzaz Zafar, 19, from Rochdale;
     Usman Malik, 20, from Wolverhampton; and Akber Butt, 20, from
     Southall, London, were convicted at the Old Bailey on 24/7/07 of
     possessing articles for terrorist purposes. The jury returned its
     guilty verdict on Awaab Iqbal, 20, from Rochdale, yesterday
     (25/7/07).

     David T adds

     I was thinking about the appropriate sentence in a case like this,
     on the way into work.

     The closest parallel I can think of is the possession of child
     pornography with the intent to distribute it. The tariff for that
     offence is about three years.

     There are reasonable differences of opinion on whether child
     pornography distributers should be punished harshly or at all. The
     consensus is that they should be.

     The reasons for punishing people who distribute child pornography
     are:

     - To signal society's disgust at paedophilia.

     - Because child pornography is likely to play a role in increasing
     the frequency of child abuse: both by creating the dangerous
     impression that sexually abusing children is both commonplace and
     acceptable, and by stimulating an interest in the rape of children.

     - Because children are raped and abused in order to create child
     pornography.

     All these arguments seem to me to apply equally well to the
     distribution of, for example, beheading videos promulgated for the
     purpose of encouraging men to join jihadist organisation.

     It is proper for these men to be punished as if they were aspiring
     paedophiles who were exchanging pictures of children being raped,
     while planning to take a trip overseas to rape children for
     themselves.

   To me, and to most of commenters on the thread, that seems to be an
   appropriate comparison.

References

   1. http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2007/07/26/jihad_on_campus.php